New Machine Build- 3 axis Router by Benonymous

[Benonymous]

Hi all.

I've been a member on the site for over four years and so far I have only posted about three times! This is mainly because I've had nothing much to contribute. So after much lurking, I have finally decided to build a 3 axis machine for cutting all materials up to aluminium.

My experience with CNC up to this point has been generating 2D models in Solidworks and Autocad for a few jobs. I've put these parts out to a local business but I really want to get some 3D shapes done and the chap I'm dealing with locally does not have the capability. I posted on the "Commercial Machines" board about this a few weeks ago, as I was trying to help the owner of the local shop to retrofit his machine with a controller that would do 3D. This effort has given way to the fact that his business is his only income and he can't risk having his machine out of order for the time it would take to fit and debug a new controller/software package.

I'm going to sort out the situation by building my own machine.

Below is my initial sketch for the gantry and table. The material I'm proposing to use is 150 x 50 x 2mm cold formed steel for the gantry and table and 50 x 50 x 2mm for the legs. As far as construction goes, want to bolt everything not weld it. I know that will be more time consuming but I don't want the distortion that goes with welding. The only welding will be to cap the tubes and add plates and reinforcement for mounting/joining.

In the middle of the table will be a 2mm mild steel pan that I can drop my mdf work surface into or put a metal grid in to do plasma cutting (later)

I want to use linear rails and actuators as much as possible so to that end I'm planning some 1000mm rails for the x axis with the gantry running on four trucks. The rails will be mounted on the underside of the longitudinals of the table to keep swarf out. I have read that trucks work fine in all 4 axes, so I hope that's OK. I'll use a central ballscrew to drive the X. I'll use either an actuator or rails/ballscrew for the Y axis and the same for the Z axis. I want to keep the fabrication to a minimum.

In the motion department, I want to use ground ballscrews throughout and I'm prepared to wait for appropriate ones to be offered on eBay. I'm planning on purchasing a servo motor kit from http://www.oceancontrols.com.au , specifically, the 015 servo motor kit. It's fairly pricey but I don't plan on building another machine and I want this one to do all the jobs I have planned for it.

Software wise, I have Solidworks and Solidcam already so I have to get Mach 3 to run the machine with. I'm an electronics guy by trade so I'm not anticipating any drama with the electrical side of things.

This isn't going to be a budget build, I'm estimating 4 to 5K $AU including a PC and software. I'd be grateful for any feedback on this initial outline, Thanks for reading

[arizonavideo]

My mill is about the exact same layout. Because of having the leadscrews under the table the distance and flex to the tool location is more than I want so I will be moving the leadscrews to the middle of the the gantry sides.

They will get more dirt on them but should have less flex.

Looks nice and strong and simple.