My New MIDI-Router Design - Production has started!

[widgitmaster]

Last week, I made up a prototype of the Midi-Router. This helped me prove my ideas, and get a better detailed list of materials to order!


X-Axis travel: 8.250" (209.5500 mm)
Y-Axis travel: 9.700" (246.380 mm)
Z-Axis travel: 2.029" (51.5366 mm)
Height: 11.45" (290.83 mm)
Width: 13.20" (335.280mm)
Length:12.50" (317.5 mm)


For starters, I made a new set of soft-jaws out of aluminum, the stock was 12x3x1.

The new jaws are nice and high, so I placed 5-of the plates on edge, and used a 3" face mill to bring them to size.

Next, I milled a small step in the soft-jaws, so that I could mill the two 1/8" deep, 1/4" wide slots the full length on all ten plates. The slot will be used to align the rail supports, which will be made next! A handy gage pin holder was used to hold the GO/NOGO pins for in process inspection of the slots.

After all the slots were milled and deburred, I setup the stop on the vise and milled the plates to length.

Then I drilled six #31 holes in the bottom of the slots, These holes get counterbored for #4-40 SHCS from the far side. These will allow for a long screw to go through the plate and the rail suppots, and screw into the hardened rails.

Lastly, I placed my big angle plate on the mill, so I could drill & tap the three end holes for #10-24 threads.

All ten plates took about 7-hours of shop time.

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[widgitmaster]

The nice thing about the new Midi-Router, is that it uses the exact same leadscrew for both the X & Y-Axis!

So I used my new lathe which has been converted to an 8-station turrel lathe to run off 20 pieces of 1/2-10 Acme threaded rod!

The Acme rod is made of 1010 steel, which is really cheesy, and has a tendency to load on the tool bit and smear a rough finish. So I found a nice 7" dia x 1/2 diamond wheel on eBay, this wheel fits nicey on my surface grinder, and allows me to get my brazed carbide tool bits nice and sharp. This keen edge and a flood coolant helps me turn my diameters with a better finish, which I polish a little with a Cratex (rubber abrasive) stick.

Then I ran off a set of 10 pieces of the little Delrin Z-Axis nuts.

VIDEO

[widgitmaster]

While working with the lathe, I decided to run off the 20 parts that act as spacers between the linear ball bushings on the x-Axis slide blocks! These aluminum doughnuts fit between the Linear busgings and the snap rings in the precision bores of the x-axis slides.

VIDEO

[mind_nl]

Looking awesome!

[rrrevels]

Widgitmaster,

I think you have got this thing down pat. No doubt about it. Looking good on the midi router.

[wcarrothers1]

Cool idea starting a new thread..

I'm real curious now that I'm upgrading to a larger mill (Bridgeport Series 1 2R3E with Boss 10 controller) if things I end up doing will turn out at least a little nicer Widgit is a master.

b.

[dwacker]

Have you set the pricing for these yet?

Thanks
Don

[BobWarfield]

New thread? Good fun!

BW

[widgitmaster]

Today I made 20 Y-axis rail supports! The first step was to mill the stock to the calculated dimension supplied by my CAD software! The reason its calculated is that one edge of the 1/4" thick rail has a .1875 radius, and I needed to rough mill the stock to the theoretical points, leaving the radius operation for later.

The bars were 1.125 x .25 x 11.5, they finish at .6102 x .25 x 11.25
So I setup the mill to remove 80% of the excess in one pass, and remove .005" on the return pass. This took me a while, so I ran a few operations on the turret lathe!

After removing the 3-jaw chuck and installing the 5C collet chuck, I needed to bore a soft 5C collet to hold the little aluminum spacers that were done yesterday. This allows me to hold an odball size of .870, which fits too sloppy in a standard 7/8" collet. I like to use the soft collets, as I have made several just to hold the parts I make for the Mini & Midi-Routers! Also, there is no need for a collet stop, as the bore has a flat bottom for the parts to stop against!

The facing of the aluminum spacers was a short run, so back to the rail supports!

Once I had the width milled on all 20 rails, I milled them all to length!
Now its time to mill the .1875 radius down the edge center of the rails, so I loaded up a .375 ball end mill, and took a light pass. Then I placed a steel rail in the radius, and used a micrometer to measure the distance from the bottom of the rail support to the top of the steel rail. After adjusting the mill depth, I reset the knee to zero, and backed it off .002. Took one rough pass, and moved .002" for a cleanup pass.

The dimension from the top of the rail is critical, so I used my electronic micrometer to measure each piece to keep them all within .0005" parallel!

The last operation is to drill the mounting holes through the rail supports, this operation was quick as I could flip the rail and drill a hole the same distance from each end, followed by one in the middle!

Another set of parts finished!
The Y-Axis slide blocks and bronze bushings are next!

Widgit

[widgitmaster]

Another good day in the shop!

The blocks for the y-axis slide have been squared up on the mill, along with the z-axis top & bottom plates. The z-axis slide block neeed more than just squaring up, so I spent the remainder of the day milling them to print!

The z-axis slide has three little t-slots, so after milling the center slot I milled the t-slots.

VIDEO1 (over 55MB)
VIDEO2 (over 55MB)

The jaws in the vise are hardened, and I have milled a step in them to eliminate having to use parallel which always cause problems! The jaws were easy to mill with a 1/2" solid carbide 4-flute end mill, after the vise was carefully dialed in!

The next operations will be to drill, tap, & bore all the holes in the Y&Z axis components.

[toneV8]

widgitmaster: you should next to VIDEO to write how much MB have video before someone start download. Some video have to much MB.

[gmfoster]

widgitmaster: you should next to VIDEO to write how much MB have video before someone start download. Some video have to much MB.

Why can't you check size for yourself? I do.....

I just thank Eric for providing access to them!

Garry

[widgitmaster]

Another productive day in the shop!
Today I bored the hole in Y-axis slide blocks for the Delrin nuts, then I drilled & bored the intersecting holes for the acme lead screw. Next I rough drilled all the holes for the bronze bushings.

While the mill was boring holes, I ran off 28+ bronze bushings on the turret lathe! The OD of the bushings is .4995 +- .00025" The new turret made easy work of it too!

I have included pictures of the Hardinge Turret setup gage, it has a 1" outer diameter, with one end ground to .500". The other end is .625" diameter. To use this, I simply put it in a collet or chuck, place the .625" diameter in a round tool holder. then feed the carriage clockwise to a zero, and tighten the screw on the tool holder. Then I set zero on the DRO. this ensures the round tool holder is on center of the spindle, and the bore is parallel to the spindle!

When all the bores in the slide blocks are finished, I will place the bronze bushings on ice and place the slide blocks in an electric oven at 270°F. This will shrink the bushings, and expand the holes so they slip together with slight pressure. Then when cooled, they will be ready for the final bore for the linear rails.

Now it's time to eat

[widgitmaster]

Today I started squaring up the larger plates, they were 3/8" oversize!
The big plates were easy, as i simply placed them on the mill table and clamped them down! Then I milled the two edges parallel to the table axis.

The smaller plates required a couple of blocks to raise them off the table, so the end mill would not damage the mill. THen i placed some pins in the t-slots, and pushed the edges of the plates against the pins. Then I clamped the stack of five plates to the table, and used the same long end mill to bring two surfaces parallel, and to the dimensions on the print!.

VIDEO (10.78 MB)

[widgitmaster]

Today I worked on the X-axis base support rails, after milling them square and drilling three #12 holes in each I used an 82° countersink for a #10 flat head screw.

Next I mounted my little vise on it's side, so it would overhang the edge of the mill table. After dialing it square, I loaded up one of the rails so that I could drill & tap two #10-24 UNC threads in each end.

Another 22 pieces finished!

[widgitmaster]

Today I drilled & counter bored all the holes in the top plates for #10 SHCS.
Then I milled all the little end bearing plates to size.

VIDEO1 (10.77MB)
VIDEO2 (7.14MB)
VIDEO3 (4.26MB)

[widgitmaster]

More Chips!
Today I milled down a dozen 6061 aluminum bars from 12 3/8" x 3 3/8" x 1 1/4" to 12x3x1 Using my 3" index face mill! These will be the X-Axis slide blocks!

As you can see in the movies, the chips were flying everywhere
VIDEO1 (12.50MB)
VIDEO2 (12.70MB)

[widgitmaster]

Finally!
All the plates have been squared up, and now I can start drilling, tapping and boring holes!
Oh yea, and mill T-Slots too!

VIDEO (32.5 MB)

[widgitmaster]

More progress!

Today I drilled, tapped, bored & counterbored all the holes in ten plates that are now the x-axis front bearing plate.

Also, I took som time and assembled the z-axis top & bottom plates with their rails!

[widgitmaster]

Today I worked a few hours in the shop, finishing up the tapped holes on the x-axis rear bearing support plates. That's ten more pieces finished

The latest addition to the shop arrived Saturday, its a large cast iron slotted angle plate! This thing is really accurate an I only paid $45.99 with FREE shipping at Enco! it was part #418-4550

Its 12"x9"x8" ground flat and square within .0003 according to my magnetic master square and my surface plate!

All that was required of me was to debur the sharp edges around all the slots!

I needed this large angle plate so that I could easily stand the top plates on edge and machine a notch on the back edge! Now I don't have to stack all my smaller angle plates on top of 2x4x6 blocks just to do large plates!