Enclosure design and materials

[yngndrw]

Hi,

I am having some problems coming up with an enclosure for my CNC machine. I have looked around these forums but a lot of the enclosures seem to be open-top designed for flood cooling and full milling machines.

The machine is a Marchant Dice MDL-2-TR-UN and can be seen here:
http://yngndrw.hostilezone.net/uploa...3112009153.jpg

I designed a 6-sided box which was a wooden frame and was skinned with 6mm MDF on both the inside and the outside. I also added two doors to it, one on the front and one on the left which I intended to put clear plastic windows in. The design ended up using 16.5 Meters of wood just to make the frame which is a bit excessive. For this reason I'm looking for any ideas for the design and materials.

Here are my limitations and considerations:

The overall size of my design was 800x700x700mm. I need the width to be about 700mm so it can still fit through the door. I have "average" woodwork skills and not a lot in terms of tooling and space. I can get wood and plastic pre-cut at my local DIY store so that is not a problem. They charge 50p per cut but that is worth it to me as it would take me too much time to do it myself. Smaller pieces of wood will be cut myself with hand tools.

I don't have much metal working equipment but I do have an Oxy-Acetylene torch. I have the standard tools mind - Jigsaw, drill, circular saw, router, etc. I'd rather not be cutting odd shapes if possible.

Price, size and weight are all concerns, otherwise I'd just make it out of extruded aluminium and plastic sheet. The goals of this enclosure are:
1) To make it look neater.
2) To reduce noise.
3) To manage dust ! (Very important.)

I don't need flood cooling, but may get mist cooling or cold air from a vortex tube at some point.

My vacuum is an old vacuum cleaner so it isn't very good. While I will have a dust-hood on the spindle connected to this, it won't be able to get everything hence the main purpose of this enclosure.

Any ideas ?

On a side note, I'd also welcome any suggestions regarding bellows and how to fit them.

Thanks !

Edit: Forgot to mention that my spindle is a 1.5KW air cooled HF spindle, so cooling is a consideration. I'm hoping that with the size of the enclosure and the lack of serious load on the spindle that it won't be a problem.

[ger21]

I'd be concerned that by enclosing the machine, the enclosure will get filled with airborne dust, which will get sucked into the spindle from the cooling fan. Be sure to check it often so it doesn't get clogged with dust.

[yngndrw]

That's a good point. I forgot to add that I would have a vacuum connected to the box. I intended that the vacuum would just go to the spindle's dust-hood when I get around to making one and I'm thinking that this would clean the air in the box. I'm not sure where the air would come from to replace the air that's pulled out, mind.

[ger21]

Mount an automotive air filter on the box to draw air in through. The square type are easy to mount with a simple frame around them. I use two small ones on my electronics box.

[yngndrw]

That's a really good idea thanks. I could put a fan behind it to ensure that the air only flows into the enclosure and that it must leave via the vacuum. (As the vacuum is not very powerful.)