Unconventional wood construction CNC router build continued.

[Jay-D9]

Greetings, been gone for a while; tragedy struck, now I am back to hopefully finish the build, my account happened to get linked with several others and I lost some of the content, so starting over, tech is still trying to figure it out; have a temporary screen name of Jay-D9.

Everyone has a bad day now and then, so when you do just stop by here and see it there is an update and watch this wood butcher try to build a CNC router for some funny laughs.

Not going to pretend I'm a carpenter but going to give it a go just the same. Have a few basic tools; nothing fancy.

Hopefully I will get a 2'x4' cutting area, would like to build it eclosed for dust containment.

Started out scoring some 9 ply 3/4 inch birch plywood from our local home center and cut into pieces to build the bed.



Building the box.



Using 2×6’s laminated 3 thick for the main supports, staggered the joints and glued and screwed them together.



Putting the base frame together with wheels for now just for convenience.



Slid the base into place and fastened it.



This is going to take a while…. wow

Cheers – Jeff

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[Jay-D9]

Update:

After squaring the frame up I locked the table box into place with an additional 8 inch band of 3/4 inch plywood on top of the birch plywood, gluing and screwing it way more than necessary. You will find that everything on this build will be overkill but movement is not an option.



Choose to 45 the plywood for the rails and epoxy the aluminum channel instead of just laying it horizontal with one edge up and one down. felt there was more surface area.

Once the epoxy set the excess aluminum was planed off with a thickness planer.





Created a channel in the bottom of the box for dust collection. will drill a 4 inch hole in the bottom and mount and flanged gate valve.



Rough framing on the table almost done, just the top to complete with dust collection holes all the way around.



Top of the table getting the holes cut. sure would be nice to have a cnc router to do this.



Finished the duct holes, glued and screwed down plus added 1×2’s the the main supports to flush em up with the oak plywood banding and leaving a channel to run wires for stepper motors limit switches and lights in the top.



Thank you for stopping by!!

Cheers – Jeff

[peteeng]

Hi Jeff- do you have a cad model that you can show us of the final design? Looking very good so far. I like timber machines... Peter

[Jay-D9]

Hi Jeff- do you have a cad model that you can show us of the final design? Looking very good so far. I like timber machines... Peter

Hey Peter, I do not have a cad model, its a mind design lol, not even a hand drawing, I really have no idea what I'm doing but have a good sense of direction.

Wish I could afford just to buy one!

I did turn this drawing of a electric powered fishing cart into -



This





Hopefully I can do the same. Cheers!

[Jay-D9]

I decided just for cosmetics to paint the dust collection holes before the formica went down, had the paint wouldn't of made a special trip to town for it. lol



Testing the rails and roller bearing for clearance and mounting option.
Thought about splitting the rails like have seen on many machines so the top and bottom can be adjusted separately but the goal is to have them perfectly parallel with each other so I took steps to do that and they are.





Came up with a box idea to fit between the main posts, gives me the option to move the rails up and down, in and out and tilt, once everything is set.... 4 – 4 inch heavy torx washer head screws on both ends of the box should hold everything in place quite nicely and can easily be readjusted if necessary.





Added a couple oak pieces just above and below the roller bearings. just didn’t like the way it looked with the open bearing, lol form and function.



Extremely happy right now, built the two bearing support boards for the gantry and clamped a board across the top to see how it would roll and I think I need to give myself a pat on the back. lol that thing rolls so smooth its unbelievable with no slop that I can tell whatsoever. Can you tell I'm smiling.



Here is a close up of the bottom gantry support with the bearings, Drilled holes in the bottom and tapped for a standard 3/8th inch thread. the hole goes all the way in the bearing bolt hole which is slotted up and down an extra 5/16 inch.
A 5/16×1-1/2 inch spring was loaded into the hole before the bolt threaded in, this is not to hold constant pressure on the bearing but to give all the bearing equal pressure before tightening, plus if the track ever wears a quick loosen and retighten of the nuts and all slop will be removed.



Thanks for stopping by! Cheers.

[jckstrthmghty]

Love the fishing cart. Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I do wish you had budget for linear rail. Even cheap sbr will far outperform the aluminum angle and you'll likely find the steel v wheels wear away at the aluminum quickly.

[Jay-D9]

Love the fishing cart. Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I do wish you had budget for linear rail. Even cheap sbr will far outperform the aluminum angle and you'll likely find the steel v wheels wear away at the aluminum quickly.

You are absolutely right about the aluminum, they will be replaced with some sort of steel in the future hopefully with out to much modification. Every thing seems to by so expensive these days, it's hard to build a budget CNC isn't it? My goodness!

Thanks for the post!! Cheers.

[Jay-D9]

And just a couple of quick shots of both ends. Can’t wait to start constructing the gantry for real.





When the track starts to wear a quick loosen of the bearing nut and the spring will push the bearing tight up against the track again and then just re-tighten the bearing bolt again.

Hope that makes sense. lol



Getting some of the ruff components spruced up a little while waiting for some fat washer and longer bolts.



Trying to keep the tolerances to minimum, only about a 1/16” between the gantry carrier and the guild rail.



Just some pics of gantry together; hopefully the pics will make sense.

[Jay-D9]

Gantry pics.

[Jay-D9]

[Jay-D9]

Do have all the drive components as well, did hook them up temporarily for test with mach3, all worked well but was afraid of the twin screws on the gantry so melted some HDPE and made some breakaway blocks with earth magnets and so far so good, 1200 inch pound motors all the way around, if one motor on the gantry stopped or failed I think it would rip the thing apart. :shout:

Went with a heavy duty rack and pinion gear for the Y axis instead of the screw because of whip and liked it but had to put a belted 3:1 reduction pulley in, without it; one rev on the rack and pinion was over 3 inches.

The hole 4" hole where the motors are at will have a thermostatically controlled powerful fan to keep everything cool.















Thanks for stopping by! Cheers.

[Jay-D9]

Now its time for some control component work, I'm scared!!

[peteeng]

Hi JD9 - I think your Z will need beefing up to match the rest of the machine stiffness. Otherwise build is good. Keep at it., sawdust will be very soon Peter

[Jay-D9]

The component backer is 33"x48"x1/2 white acrylic and will have a glass door when completed. Just an interesting tidbit, the printer on the left actually prints on shrink tubing, so will be labeling both ends the wires, how kool is that?

[Jay-D9]

[Jay-D9]

Well that was easy!

Now for the box to hold it all, along with the pc and control panel for all the peripherals.




Scored some 1-3/4" plywood, using that for the base with casters.

[Jay-D9]

Things will move allot slower now. :-)

[peteeng]

Hey Jay - How's the build going? sawdust yet? Peter