hello, i bougth a 24x24 router kit of ebay the sellers name is gr3ed, and will share some info on it, as i could not find some myself. i want to first point out that this is not a paid review, just my personal thougths, photos and experiences. i am 20 years old, work as an industrial mechanics, with superficial turning, milling and welding skills, so i am not by any means an expert, this is just me, documenting. my finds.
looking through the diferent kits on ebay, this one looked as the best machine for the money by far, as it had 16x5 ballscrews on all axis, 25mm rail and cariage, and 1/2 plates of aluminium in construction. i paid a total of 2845$, shipped to norway. this included machine parts, extrusions, ballscrews, rails, steppermotors, controller and powersupply. the seller alo sendt some wire, so the only thing you will need to buy if you get the kit, is s a spindle, mainslead, and a spoilboard. i paid 200$ extra for the g540 and 48v psu. the psu can be set for either 230, or 110v, so europe buyers will have no problems. the shipping was fast, but the seller splitted the package in two, without noting so in the reciept from paypal. this lead to some problems with the norwegian customs, but was solved quicly.


the router was packaged nicely, genourus amounts of foam pellets and bubblewrap. it was not damged rom the long journey from usa to norway. every part is marked. gr3ed has a video on the ebay side, explaining assebly.
the router comes partly assembled. the screws are inserted into the extrusions, so you know where they will go. removing them, revealed rust. not good:

IMG_20141117_174326_zps8fa0804d.jpg Photo by TURBOFUNGUS | Photobucket

the linear rails appear to be of good quality. they come mounted to the frame parts. they where dirty, some kind of saw dust. wiping them clean, revealed some marks, probably from shipping, these were minor blemishes, i removed them with a tool at work. this is prior to removing.





the balscrews looks nice, can not notice any play, and the spin freely. no blemishes where found. the tolerances for the bearings at the ends where nice, and the surface good. the was however not made a cut at the end of thread, so the nut clamping the bearing will not thread as par as it should, and there where a large bur.




i fixed this with a file. not a big issue. here is a photo of one screw assembled in the support, and attached the grease fitting:



i have never handled aluminium extrusions before. after assebling the frame, i was suprised by the good rigidity:




the bearing support could with ease had been made more rigid. this part of the machine looks flimsy.





the surface quality on the aluminium parts are awful, this is the bearing support from the previous photo:




the same quality is found on all parts:




this is where a bearing is supposed to go. it dropped rigth in. measuring the hole, it showed 0,15mm larger than bearing. not good at all. the bearing was glued in, as they are very cheap. i will later machine a new block, with correct fit and a new bearing, as the purpose of this review is to test the machine as it comes.


something went wrong in the process of making this part:



the bearing support shown in the upper axis here:



had to be milled a millimeter before mounting, you can see the exesitivity of material here:




here is the finished frame, test fitted a large spindle:





i have mounted some engine suports as base,to reduce noise and vibrations. separate thread for this subject: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bencht...ml#post1596548





i will be putting the electronics in this box:




i have bougth some parts for making a cpmbined pendant/keyboard.



more terrible surface quality, altough the ebay ad notes a file and sandpaper is necesary, this is not what i expect. i have never seen so heavy chattering on a part before. this is suposed to be circular as it is a spindle mount. lukcily i will not need this part as my spindle do not fit it. photo:




another terrible surface, it is full of clads, looks like the swarf has melted, and attached again to the material. also, i had to countersink plate, to ensure flat mounting of spindle mount:





so ther you have it. everything fits together well after some filing, milling and turning. the think is, not one surface is good enough to use my indicator at. so lots of work is needed to fix the errors. this is my first kit, i know not if this is normal. i need to mount a spoilboard, will use 20x80mm t slot profiles stacked to the side. also, will be fabricating a plate to back up the y rails.

when everything is wired up, i will use the router to produce parts for my hexapod robot, bob:



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