Cnc wood router - Joe's Design

[DougO]

Looks like you're making good headway and doing a very good job. Machine looks very familiar. At the rate you're going it won't be long.

[bp092]

Originally Posted by DougO Looks like you're making good headway and doing a very good job. Machine looks very familiar. At the rate you're going it won't be long.

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully will have a lot done by the weekend. Skinning the large torsion box today finally with my mdf I Just had delivered yesterday. Got the computer multifunction card and xylotex kit on it's way here. Bought to order some more components but those will keep me busy for awhile. Now just really looking for a deal on an lcd if I can find one.

[bp092]

Well, it's saturday. Was hoping my xylotex kit would be here today but it's not. I've been sick this weekend so I really wanted to get the controller going since I can do it right by the couch! None the less, I ended up going out and getting some lumber and built a pretty solid and nice sized poplar bench for the router. I plan to make a few cutouts, (3) in the center of it so I can lube and maintain the machine as it was previously suggested. I will post pics of it tomorrow after I do that. Tomorrow should have everything atleast together and waiting the motors. Here's a video (cell phone sorry bad quality) from last week of me playing with my z axis carriage on top of my table saw.

http://www.vi01.com/cnc/vid.wmv

[ccsparky]

Originally Posted by bp092 Well, it's saturday. Was hoping my xylotex kit would be here today but it's not. I've been sick this weekend so I really wanted to get the controller going since I can do it right by the couch! None the less, I ended up going out and getting some lumber and built a pretty solid and nice sized poplar bench for the router. I plan to make a few cutouts, (3) in the center of it so I can lube and maintain the machine as it was previously suggested. I will post pics of it tomorrow after I do that. Tomorrow should have everything atleast together and waiting the motors. Here's a video (cell phone sorry bad quality) from last week of me playing with my z axis carriage on top of my table saw. http://www.vi01.com/cnc/vid.wmv

Sorry to hear you're under the weather!
I brought my controller home with me and played with it today. Will take it in tomorrow and hook it up.
The video looks good, sounds like it is moving smoothly!

[joecnc2006]

Originally Posted by bp092 Also big thanks to Joe. He has really gone over the top on helping me, answers all questions promptly even when he doesn't have to. If there wasn't that dedication for the machine and support for it I might have given up already lol. He's made my dream for a cnc router come to life without breaking the bank too badly. Thanks man! However with sugar coating comes another question. Don't you guys like how this works? One thing I've been kind of hazey about is the hardware to fasten the acme nut blocks to each other. I believe you use 1" 1/2 bolts and washers but that makes them facing each other tight. Everyone elses looked as though they were away from each other just a tad. Are they supposed to be longer or what? Sounds like a silly question but it poses a road block down the road (pun intended) for the rest of my build . Thanks. Question 2, just reminded myself I have an electrician coming to do some wiring for me to the main. I might as well have him do some other stuff for my shop while I'm at it. How much power do you think this machine will use at a given time? I figure, PC/Monitor - Dust Collector - Router is enough alone to trip the breaker since I have GFCI's almost all over my house. Is it enough to have him put a separate breaker/circuit in? Thanks!

Sorry i did not see this post earlier.

try using 2" bolts, on the anti backlash, ans yes they face each other and ate just barely snug just to take up the ever so slight slack of the nut on the lead screw.

my system is all on one circuit.

Joe

[bp092]

Thanks joe, tried 2 and works nice. I left a little room to play. I see they kind of move (if you want them to) without the leadscrew in, back and forth with whatever distance I left and when I insert the leadscrew as a test and hold it back the distance to the head of the bolt it does not move at all and keeps it solid. I'm assuming that is all correct right? Do you have any problems with your GFCI tripping on you? I've had mine hit the breaker at times if I'm doing too much machinery at once. I usually work alone in my own shop but my brother came down and I wanted to make him some furniture so we knocked a whole living room set out in a weekend. I was at the table saw with the dust collector and he was running the jointer or the miter saw and it kicked it off. I will just have to see I suppose . Pics to come. It's wayyyy too cold to paint right now so I can't paint my skins or touch up some stuff. I'm going to say screw it for now and just assemble it. I can always take it off later and paint the skins. I went to go cut the 3/4 pipe today and it was so cold in my garage that I couldn't feel any heat coming from the pipe. Free coolant I suppose. Taking advice from jay's video I sanded the ends and also sanded them all with 400 and then cleaned them up with steel wool, wow they are really good now. Anyhow, pics to come. Maybe I will get the xylotex stuff tomorrow and start debugging and helping David.

[David Da Costa]

All help gratefully received

[bp092]

you bet david, just assembled the gantry, man could I have used an extra hand or two... it was fun though.. the z carriage assembly was crooked and scared me for a second but I propped it up correctly so it was perfect and then just tightened each of the adjustment screws enough so it rode along the rails perfect.. lovin' joes design, you can almost eye ball some of the things and adjust them later, kind of like blum hardware these days, install them in the cabinet almost as close as you can and then you can adjust them in every which way to make them perfect.. pics in next post

[bp092]

well as promised...

this weekend I built a bench out of poplar and 1/2" mdf top. Will do the cutouts later once I get the long pipes in and bolted together with the gantry on. Bench is very solid and leveled out. I put in some ribs so there was no flex at the center of the mdf. Anyhow, the pics.



The dust collector in which I have to still port out a direct line for the cnc (later on). A similar separator to Joe's and although not as great as the cyclone style it does the job.. bagging the light stuff and putting the heavy stuff in the plastic container. Recommendation though to anyone that starts running things, go metal it will save many headaches. If you get enough static going from the pvc, you can start a fire if it's not grounded (I have a copper grounding throughout it all. That's what I've been told, how much static you need for that, beats me. Also, the flexible hoses are nice but you lose suction with them, the more straight pipes you have the better in my experience. Switching to metal hvac soon.




And lastly the pages that started it all. Putting the gantry together tonight and even despite being far from cutting I wanted to again say thanks Joe. If it wasn't for you and your well thought out design it would still be a dream to have my own cnc router. Thanks man.

[bp092]

And if anyones wondering what happened to the lower half of my drywall well I had a flood last year due to the idiots that hit my drain lines from my gutters (about a foot underground) and did NOT tell me and just filled it in. My foundation walls couldn't handle it and my entire crawl space filled up and poured over into my shop and the other side where my cnc router will be. Took out about 2 feet of drywall all down the wall to avoid mildew of any kind. It was a total mess, thank god it happened before I had this stuff in there!

[ccsparky]

Looks good! Your bench looks pretty stout!

What brand and size dust vac are you using?

Keep up the good work!

[bp092]

I have a (Delta 50-760) 1.5 HP 1,200 CFM dust collector, it works well for my setup with only use of one or two machines at once. It works extremely well on my router table so I'm assuming dedicated to my cnc with blast gates it will do a fine job .