Newbie- New machine by the new guy!

[Nils]

1. Seven years collecting parts.
2. Two years building the dream machine.
3. Cutting anything I want, when I want.

Priceless!!!!

It took a long time but now that it is complete it was worth the effort. I have a CNC router that has a work area of 5 Ft. in Y, 8 Ft. in X and 6” in Z. The machine is a closed loop servo system and I am running Mach3 to control the machine. I purchased the electrical controls from www.lowcostcncretrofits.com.
Also I am running BobCad Cam for my programming software. I have cut wood, plastic and aluminum without any issues.
I guess one mans trash is another mans treasure! Except for a few custom parts this complete machine was built from recycled parts.

Let me know what you think.

I have also listed a new way to produce VCarve text in the new products forum. I spent all of my money on this machine so I had to figure out a way to make the fancy V-Carved letters without buying a new software. You can also see it on Ebay.

Thanks!

Nils

[eloid]

what are you using servo belt drive or R&P
nice machine.... lets see some closer picture of your drive system
and gear boxes....

nice setup.....any videos?

[Nils]

The linear drive components are Lintech for the Y-Axis and Star Linear for the longer X- Axis. The Z-Axis is an IDC linear ball screw running on THX rails. The belt drive units Lintech and Star have Kevlar and or Steel cables in the belt. I thought I would get some stretch but if I am it is very minimal. I can hold a 12" circle to within about .008" of being a true circle.
So far everything has been running very well and the only thing I would like to improve is the dust collection. Now I have a large skirt around the cutter and it does OK but if I made the exposed area a little smaller it would collect better. The skirt connects to the spindle area by magnets. It is easy to remove when I need to do a cutter change.
Also I would like to an auto tool changer but this is going to be a larger investment than I want to do right now until I get a job that will pay for it.

I will try to take some additional photos of the drive system. I am using some 20:1 planetery gear boxes for the belt drive units. This ratio gives me about .42" of travel for every rotation of the servo motors. I have (2) servo motors on the Y Axis, (1) on X and (1) on Z.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!

[Rob27]

Wow, nice machine.. I like the idea for the dovetales and tennon joint!

[stevespo]

Yes, great looking machine. I'm jealous. A lot of great ideas and hard work went into that machine. I really like your ability to cut off the front edge of the table - wish I had done that on my own build. Gives you a lot of flexibility.

With the wide gantry and dual motors what kinds of speeds are you getting? What are the sizes on the servo motors?

You can definitely improve the dust collection by focusing the air around the cutter. That router probably exhausts a lot of air past the cutter head, so some type of deflector might help as well.

Some ideas:

Alternative Skirt Design

Steve

[Lee Roberts]

Nice machine, i think this is the bigist machine i have seen some one build !

Nice !

[LaserImage]

Originally Posted by Rob27 Wow, nice machine.. I like the idea for the dovetales and tennon joint!

same here! I have to see how I can modify my machine to do that!

[FandZ]

+1 for video. Nice beast you made there.

Originally Posted by eloid nice setup.....any videos?

[Nils]

Originally Posted by Rob27 Wow, nice machine.. I like the idea for the dovetales and tennon joint!

I do a lot of different types of woodworking so I wanted to make sure I was not limited to just the top surface of the machine. I know where the back left hand corner is in regards to the X,Y zero of the machine so I just locate my data from this location. I also have a basement under my machine so I can cut on the end of a piece that is up to 10 feet long.
Thanks for asking!

Nils

[Nils]

If I used wood as a standard material for this discussion I generally run anywhere form 70 inches per minute up to 160. If I cut aluminum I will run much slower and have my can of WD40 at the ready.
The motors are 1200 OZIN servos and they are running through 20:1 gear reducers. I don't have any idea of the force the machine develops but I have not had any issues with stalling or loosing position during cutting. I have a machine design background so I was trying to build something as accurate as possible.

I am very happy with the final result.

Thanks for asking!

[Nils]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction for the dust collection information. I have got to get something better. This machine makes a bunch of dust very fast and I spend alot of my time cleaning up.

Cleaning up is my favorite job. Ha! Ha!

Thanks!

Nils

[eloid]

Originally Posted by Nils If I used wood as a standard material for this discussion I generally run anywhere form 70 inches per minute up to 160. If I cut aluminum I will run much slower and have my can of WD40 at the ready. The motors are 1200 OZIN servos and they are running through 20:1 gear reducers. I don't have any idea of the force the machine develops but I have not had any issues with stalling or loosing position during cutting. I have a machine design background so I was trying to build something as accurate as possible. I am very happy with the final result. Thanks for asking!

why 20:1 ratio.... what the advantage from 10:1
are u using a gear box planetary.. or diy...
can u do a close up of your gear box set up and
RP set up thanks