Another First Router

[toolsalot]

Forget the kitchen! Get out in that garage and start building.

[High Seas]

ger21 -
At least the weather kept you outta the yard!
I jackhammered and redid the driveway and walkway - cobblestone pavers - looks great but ohhhh my aching back!
cheers - Jim

[mikeschn]

Hopefully you didn't do what I did. I built all the kitchen cabinettes from scratch, and I didn't even have a cnc machine to help!

I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of your machine, especially since I have to design a new one for myself!!!

Mike...

P.S. Otherwise I'll just have to drive over to your house and check it out in person!

Originally posted by ger21
Hopefully I'll be back to work on it by June, maybe sooner. Just have to finish the kitchen.

[ger21]

Hopefully you didn't do what I did. I built all the kitchen cabinettes from scratch, and I didn't even have a cnc machine to help

That's exactly what I did. The boxes have been done and installed for a while now. Except for 3, + an island. Mainly, I just have to cut and seam a bunch of veneer, press it in onto some mdf doors, dye and spray them. Oh, and build some pull out drawers, and numerous other small but terribly time consuming items.

Mike, what happened to your router? Did all that flex make you decide to stop, or did you finish it?

[mikeschn]

Ger,

I finished the router, and will use it for light cutting until I get a second one built. Do you have any pics of your kitchen. I'd love to see em. Since this is off topic, how about sending em here.
mykes@comcast.net

Mike....

Originally posted by ger21

Mike, what happened to your router? Did all that flex make you decide to stop, or did you finish it?

[wjbzone]

I would like to see them also. The General Wood Working forum might be a good place for pictures like that.
Bill.

[Patrick2by4]

Hey Gerry, what happened to the thread, did you stop building your machine?

[ger21]

I'm very slowly building a base right now, while I try to finish a bunch of other stuff I have going on. Should be able to get going again in about 2 months. I'll start a new thread when I get going again.

[ger21]

After a long wait, construction has resumed! Everything in the previous pics was broken down and packed away for about a year. About a month ago I started reassembly. Here are a few pics of the gantry beam being assembled.

[ger21]

Here is the main table framing. All the baltic birch parts I cut 2 years ago were still perfectly straight (they were wrapped with stretch wrap). I drilled a ton of holes to lighten up the framing. After a few I figured out that it was faster to leave about 1/16" from going all the way through, so I wouldn't have to keep cleaning the circles from the forstner bit. After sliding everything together, I layed it on my table saw and it was perfectly flat. This was important as the table holds the rails that the gantry rides along. Each side was then skinned with 1/2" mdf, stapled and polyurethane glued. (for more working time). Once the glue dried, I set the table on two sawhorses, and checked for flatness with a 4 ft level. Perfectly flat in every direction. And I have to put well over 100lbs of pressure on it to see any deflection.Table size is 59" x 32". Y axis travle will be the full 32", but that will be right up to the gantry uprights. X axis travel will be around 48".

[Mr.Chips]

Welcome back Gerry.

Good looking torsion box. It will be super strong too, as well as light.

It does my old wood working heart good to see lots of wood in CNC machines. Not everything nas to be alum.

Can't wait to see more pictures.

Hager

[ger21]

I wanted to build a sturdy base, without spending a lot of money. I bought a few 2x4's, and resawed them into ~3/8" x 3 1/2" strips. I then glued these up, jointed and planed them into roughly 2" x 4" legs. I drilled a hole in the bottom of each, and inserted a threaded coupler. I then made feet using this tip from Industrial Hobbies. http://www.industrialhobbies.com/how...hockeypuck.htm

For about $6 for all 4, they work great. 1/2" mdf panels were mortised in to the legs to tie them together and stiffen everything up. ( the table does most of the stiffening, though). And on each end, a 3/4" baltic birch panel is mortised into the legs, and supports the table and tubing. The X axis steppers and leadscrews will also be mounted to these plates.

I clamped everything toghether and took a few pics, with the gantry beam sitting on the table. This thing is pretty big. This weekend I'll get a coat of paint on it, and start on the gantry uprights. Hopefully everything will be rolling in a few weeks.

[ger21]

Welcome back Gerry.

Good looking torsion box. It will be super strong too, as well as light.

Can't wait to see more pictures.

Hager

It's not that light due to the mdf. Next time, I'll use 3/8 or 1/2" baltic birch for the framing, and probably 3/8 baltic birch for the skins. It would probably cut the weight in half.

I put all my weight on it (200+) with a level laying on the table, and it only sagged about 1/64". The entire gantry should be under 50lb, so It should stay perfectly flat. I was a little concerned with the 59"span, but it looks like it'll be OK.

[Mr.Chips]

That's right, I missed the MDF skins.. They are heavyweights. Did you do some of the cutting on a CNC?
Hager

[ger21]

Did you do some of the cutting on a CNC?
Hager

All the Baltic Birch pieces were CNC cut. I'm going to CNC a template for the gantry sides and use a pattern cutting bit to make them, hopefully this weekend.

[Mr.Chips]

Why are you pattern cutting? Is that because it is faster than to CNC them?

[ger21]

Wer'e really busy at work right now, and I'll barely have time to CNC the template.

[Mr.Chips]

That's understandable. Being busy at work is a good thing.

Thanks
Hager

[pyrojon]

Any updates on this? I'm particularly interested in how you are driving the X and Y axes.

Thanks
Jon

[ger21]

No updates yet, although I've got the gantry uprights mostly assembled. X axis will have dual 1/2-8 2 start acme, same screw on Y axis. 253 oz-in PacSci steppers, 3 axis + single axis Xylotex (2-X, 1-Y, 1-Z)

I doubt it will be as fast as I'd like, but that's all the budget allowed. I may upgrade to Geckos and a higher voltage power supply down the road.