2010 KG-2525 Write-up

[MA$TER_E]

Well its official, after placing an order, or two, or three; I'm broke

2010 K2 KG-2525
-->Frame only
-->Nema23 mounts
-->Pulleys for .250 shafts
-->PC892 Router Mount

Probotix 3Axis Monster stepper Kit
-->3 HT23-400-8 400ozin Stepper Motors
-->3 ProboStep VX Uni-polar Stepper Motor Drivers
-->PBX-RF Breakout Board
-->40VDC Linear RTR Power Supply

-->RBX-1 3-Channel Opto-Isolated Relay Board
-->IDC Cable (for relay board)
-->3 Limit Switches
-->E-Stop Switch
-->6 single fuse blocks

Porter Cable 892 Router
-->Amazon Router Kit

80/20 T-Slot Bar for Table
-->Once I get the frame and can take some measurements I'll ebay enough 80/20 T-slot bars to make a table.

I know there will be a ton of things I still need to get. Software, a computer, wires, misc. electrical, screws, T-slot table, a work bench and a place in the garage to put it all... But this gives me a good start and I don't need everything right away anyhow...

I was looking at mills originally. I wanted something that had a big envelope and could cut pretty much anything even though I'd be cutting aluminum once in a while. Who knows maybe I'd get into cutting bigger heavier parts. I wanted something like my buddies production mill minus the 6000 pounds and 220 3 phase... The bigger it got the bigger the price tag got though. Pretty soon I was looking at $10k and was finding myself setteling on smaller mills like the Syil X4 or Novakon NM-135... So I turned to routers and discovered K2.

The KT series was very appealing. I could get a frame for cheap and have a full blown CNC Router for under $3k! But the more I researched I was finding that the feedback I was getting from a few people was consistent with what I was finding. If you can somehow afford it go with the KG series. Its a better machine.

I'm confident I made the right choice. Even though I'm going a bit over budget. Budgets like rules are made to be broken, right? <insert your support here> I thought I'd save some money and go with the KG-1414 at first then realized that would be a waste. For around $700 bucks I get 68% more cutting area if I go to the KG-2525. I'll still be able to mill some aluminum and I'll have a much bigger machine.


I plan on doing a ridiculous amount of documentation on this machine. Everything from when I ordered it to how well its been working out for me. I can take video or pictures of whatever you're interested in. If there is anything anyone would like to take a look at let me know.

Cheers everybody!



Eric

[motorpig]

Congrats on a decision. And yes… budgets are meant to be broken. Every time I spend money and it’s gone… I don’t miss it.

I am very interested in feedback and documentation on this build. I’d essentially like to have an identical machine (with 4th axis). If you have success building it I may follow in your footsteps.

[MA$TER_E]

Well I took my first step in this little journey of mine. I needed to build a nice work bench to set the router on and have a nice clean place to work. So over the weekend I got most of it done and yesterday I took the half day off of work to finish it up and worked on cleaning some of the random trash out of the guyrage. So far building the bench was fun and I enjoyed it. Cleaning up the trash in the guyrage; not so much...

I modeled the whole thing up in SolidWorks and optimized the design for 4x4x8's. I have six blocks about 3 inches long and thats it for scrap. Worked out great but wow is this thing heavy! Whenever my eBay hockey pucks show up I'm going to drill holes in them and thread them onto some rods I'll stick in the legs to help level the table and give it some nice rubber feet.









There it is now I need to make room for it somewhere



Aside from the workbench though UPS brought me my first component; the router. I'd imagine if you bought just the motor you could save some coin but if I ever need a router I'll have one at my disposal. I really like the heavy duty case it came in.









And thats pretty much it for now. I cant wait to get the goodies from Probotix

Cheers everybody!



Eric

[MA$TER_E]

This isn't to exciting but I was able to acquire a PC and monitor from a buddy so I've got that dialed in for the most part. I went to go buy a PCI parallel card and to my surprise they were sold out... WTF? I figured it would be hard to just find one as they're really not a popular item but to my dismay Fry's Electronics the warehouse of everything electronic didn't have anymore...

I'll be making some adjustments to the workbench I made. I'm going to use the 892 router and round off the corners, put a small lip in the back to keep things from rolling off and down to the floor and add a sheet of laminate to protect the MDF. But before I do all that I'm going to flip it over and use some T-Nuts and 3/8" bolts in the legs to put some feet on.





Hockey pucks are awesome

Probotix electronics are scheduled for delivery today and K2 called me and the machine should be delivered this Thursday says UPS...

This week is going to be so cool!

[stevespo]

Good luck with the project. It's going to turn out great. Those motors look like they have a fairly flat, linear torque curve and seem like a good match for the machine.

I like the look of that bench. Did you run lags into the end grain of the 4x4s or use a threaded insert?

Steve

[MA$TER_E]

Good luck with the project. It's going to turn out great. Those motors look like they have a fairly flat, linear torque curve and seem like a good match for the machine.

I like the look of that bench. Did you run lags into the end grain of the 4x4s or use a threaded insert?

Steve

Thanks for the comments

The bench lag bolts violate a pretty basic rule and do bolt directly into the end grain. I do hope to fix this oversight in the design later on with some fancy threaded inserts like you said. I cut everything, drilled everything, then started assembly before I realized what was happening... Was kinda hoping nobody would notice

[stevespo]

I honestly don't see a problem with the lag bolts. You should have pretty good gripping strength and it's a quick way to make a sturdy bench.

Threaded inserts in soft wood end grain suffer from the same issues as the lags. Over time they compress and loosen, or get pulled out from overtightening. I've had to reinforce them with superglue and that gave them much better holding power.

I guess cross dowels are the way to go, but personally I'll probably lag my next bench. I'm sure it will work just fine.

Steve

[ger21]

I really like the heavy duty case it came in.

My nice case has been on the floor under the machine for a few years now.

[MA$TER_E]

I honestly don't see a problem with the lag bolts. You should have pretty good gripping strength and it's a quick way to make a sturdy bench.

Threaded inserts in soft wood end grain suffer from the same issues as the lags. Over time they compress and loosen, or get pulled out from overtightening. I've had to reinforce them with superglue and that gave them much better holding power.

I guess cross dowels are the way to go, but personally I'll probably lag my next bench. I'm sure it will work just fine.

Steve

Yea its pretty stable and I'm sure it will work good. Its just one of those things that bugs me

My nice case has been on the floor under the machine for a few years now.

LOL! Yea... I'm sure once I get the machine (Thursday) that my nice case will find a nice spot in storage...

[MA$TER_E]

So as expected my goods from Probotix showed up

Everything looks great and I cant wait to start plugging things in making things move







There is one thing that really sucks. I don't know why but I thought there would be cables for the motors and not just wires coming out of the ends... There's no way I'm going to be able to get this to work as is and am going to have to find some 8 or 6 wire cables somewhere... Not a huge deal just an oversight that kind of snuck up on me. Guess that's why I budgeted in some miscellaneous funds




So far I am very pleased with the probotix kit. I still need to see how well it all works sure but it all looks good and I like how heavy duty the motors feel. They are much smaller than I had expected though. (where have I heard that before ) I figured the GREEN MONSTER kit was going to be this killer big super awesome motor Nope... They're tiny, but surprisingly heavy. I can only imagine what the other kits are like if these are the big guns...




I'll try finding some cables locally and get things wired up good enough to get the machine moving and eventually make my super cool control box I've been scheming.



Cheers everybody!

Eric

[low_48]

A quick way to add strength to the lags is to run them into a wood dowel. You can get some closet rod that will be around 1 3/8" diameter. The dowel should be a minimum of 1 1/2" from the end of the 4x4. Back out the lags, cross drill through the 4x4, drive in the dowel, pilot drill the dowel, and drive the lags back in. You can keep one of the lags partially threaded into the 4x4, and then pilot drill the other hole. This way the bench will not have to be disassembled.

[MA$TER_E]

A quick way to add strength to the lags is to run them into a wood dowel. You can get some closet rod that will be around 1 3/8" diameter. The dowel should be a minimum of 1 1/2" from the end of the 4x4. Back out the lags, cross drill through the 4x4, drive in the dowel, pilot drill the dowel, and drive the lags back in. You can keep one of the lags partially threaded into the 4x4, and then pilot drill the other hole. This way the bench will not have to be disassembled.

Thats an awesome idea! I like that, a lot; and thanks for the info. Not having to disassemble the whole table is great!