5 axis build full steam ahead!


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  1. #1
    Registered Master of nun's Avatar
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    Default 5 axis build full steam ahead!

    G'day all,

    I'll started using a 3 axis CNC router about 8 years ago, although i've only amassed maybe a few hundred hours over that time so i'm definately no expert!
    I'm 29, a qualified Shipwright/boatbuilder but have spent the last half of my working life as a Technician in a ship hydrodynamics facility within a University. My machining skills are limited, yet I have a lot of very knowlegeable people around me and some decent workshops to boot( I'm also not afraid to jump in and have a go! although this could be my down fall........we'll see.

    Access to the 3 axis router was a little....lets say not like having one at home, so decided to look into buying a chinese machine for myself. Looking at all the options weather to build or buy, I figured i could build a 5 axis router for the price of a 3 axis chinese one.


    The Specs of the CNC are roughly as follows:

    3.5m x 1.8m x 0.8m
    4.5kw HSD ER32 collet spindle
    Materials to machine is Machineable wax.....some 1000kgs
    feed rates of upto 200mmm/sec.
    1700 oz/in. stepper motors....maybe upgrade later
    rack and pinion on X
    Ballscrews on Y and Z
    Harmonic drives and THK cross roller bearings on B and C
    Hiwin 20mm linear rail
    Sand Filled frame
    Vacuum Pump for holding of materials


    This will give you an idea of the Configuration, although there has been a few changes.

    [IMG][/IMG]

    I'm doing a lot of the finer design work as i go, but the initial design idea was roughed in around the limited size of milling machine etc. that I have at my disposal, so if you see something and wonder "why on earth did he do it like that?...often it has come back to what seemed easier to build at the time or of coarse....Cost! And as you all know there is more than one way to skin a cat!

    I hope you'll all enjoy this build, I myself can't wait to hit the big green button!
    so here goes!


    It might sound wierd but I started this build with the 5 axis head, Thinking I'd tackle the hardest first to see if I was up to the project to start with.
    The head consists of two near identicle stepper driven, 50:1 Harmonic drive geared housings...I'm still yet to Machine and attach these two together at 90 degrees. The THK cross roller bearings cost me around AU$500 ea. but they are well up to the task and have some serious specs to go along with the price tag.

    I'm not sure how to post pics so they show up with the black background, maybe someone could point me in the right direction
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]



    Liam.

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  2. #2
    Registered Master of nun's Avatar
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    I built a quick Jig with a sheet of particle board and some offcuts of framing pine then proceeded to turn about AU$2800 of 100x100 x 3mm, 100 x 50 x3mm and a couple of lengths of flat bar into These frames
    [IMG][/IMG]
    Then spaced them out to about 1m centres
    [IMG][/IMG]
    and then started on the gantry, here it shows missing some bracing.
    [IMG][/IMG]

    Atop of the posts of the base frame sits two 4m lengths of 80x80 tslot extrusion, which i intend to mount my rack and rail something like this
    [IMG][/IMG]
    I will be making up some form of guarding to cover,although i do intend to build a room around the router once complete and the machining of the wax will produce no dust.
    [IMG][/IMG]
    After some extra bracing it was time for some 2k urethane, I wanted to finish as much as i could as i went to minimize the times the gantry had to be lifted on and off.
    The posts have now been filled with sand to minimize vibrations, it has made a huge difference.
    [IMG][/IMG]



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    Z Carriage


    The Z carriage was the next on the list and being such a large part that needed some precision (for me!) machining to be done, I had to come up with a way of breaking it down and having some form of adjustment within it.This is how I ended up going about it, although not ideal it should serve my purpose.

    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]
    I welded into the ends of the vertical uprights two 100x100x10mm pads to mount linear bearings and bolting surfaces for the top and bottom bearing assemblies. Then used a largish mill to facemill the two end reletive to each other.
    I'm now at the stage of mounting this to the gantry for ballscrew mounting
    [IMG][/IMG]



    Liam.



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    Z axis

    The Z axis is made up of a single piece of 150x150x6mm RHS
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]
    It will be counterbalanced with a pneumatic ram housed within along with the stepper and a solanoid to engauge when power is off.
    although the travel of the ram isn't long enough, i'll devise a pulley system to overcome this.

    Liam.



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    I'm not sure how to post pics so they show up with the black background, maybe someone could point me in the right direction
    You have to upload them here. Use the go advanced button, then manage attachments.

    Gerry

    UCCNC 2017 Screenset
    [URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html[/URL]

    Mach3 2010 Screenset
    [URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html[/URL]

    JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
    [URL]http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html[/URL]

    (Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)


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    Fantastic work Liam.
    I'll keep watching this with great interest.

    cheers,
    Rod

    Perth, Western Australia


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    Cool Heavy Metal- Music to my ears!

    Master of nun,
    Looks like quite the BUILD! I'm sure many people will be looking over your shoulder to get a good view of your work.
    The only suggestion that I can make is: When you post some video, please be sure the sound track includes some AC/DC (or some other suitable heavy metal music of your choice)!!!
    Keep up the good work (and posts) and don't throw out your back lifting that heavy metal!

    Randy,

    I may not be good....
    But I am S L O W!!


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    Thanks Gerry, Rod and Randy.

    Back in Black would be be my ACDC favourite...gotta luv that riff.

    I've spent today making hundreds of T nuts to secure the rail to the T slot, I could only buy M8 T nuts so DIY it was.

    Over the next couple of days i'll be aligning rails, I'll take some photos to show how i'll go about this so stay tuned.


    Liam



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    I'll give you a heads up on the method i'll use for rail alignment.

    I've borrowed the equipment from work, we used this to align the rails of our 100m long towing tank. over this distance we have taken in to account the curvature of the earth, so we are measuring relative to the water surface not a straight line.

    this equipment was used for staightening not leveling I might add, but i will be using it for both as the fine braid with 20+ kgs of tension won't sag enough to worry me.
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

    in the middle picture you can see two brackets top and bottom of picture, these will be mounted a given distance parrallel to the rail at each end of the router. A fine fishing braid is then placed over two grooved adusting bolts that protrude from the side of the brackets and tensioned up by hanging about 20kg from it.
    The contraption will be mounted on a linear bearing and slid back and forth along the rail taking a sight through the viewfinder on the right of shot.
    it has has a 0.001mm dial indicator attached to measure the distance moved from side to side and a view finder with a cross hair with 0.05mm increments that can be aligned with the very edge of the braid...can't be seen in photo on the right but you can see the braid.

    hopefuly this will work a treat.


    Liam.



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    Beats my straight edge and winding sticks method.

    cheers,
    Rod

    Perth, Western Australia


  11. #11
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    Lol, I gues it does. mind you that would probably be good enough!
    It's very easy to go over the top and worry unessesarily when building these things



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    It's not cheating, if you have got the gear use it.

    My final alignment is to run a series of grub srews and cap screws over the table top and adjust the table to the Z axis with a dial gauge using push up or pull down with these screws. I mainly use sheet material so if I end up with a twist across the table top the sheet material can twist with the table. I am probably talking fairly small figures here anyway.

    I hear what you are saying about unnecessary worrying about these things but if you start out near enough is good enough the end product won't be any better.

    If you have any drawings for the 4th/5th axis i would be interested. I have a harmonic drive I have been sitting on for two years that I haven't been able to figure out how to make it into a rotary joint yet. PM me with the sketch if you like.

    cheers,
    Rod

    Perth, Western Australia


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    Holy crap, I love these 5-axis builds Keep up the good work!



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    Cheers Jesse

    No worries Rod, I haven't any drawing as such but I can put pencil to paper to give you a better idea of how it goes together. You'll have to design it around your harmonic drive and stepper of your choice so my measurements wouldn't be right for you anyhow. I hope your not in any rush.



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    Here's what I achieved today.

    After finding that the leveling of the base frame i did with my long builders level was out by a country mile, I started again with the dumpy level.
    [IMG][/IMG]

    This got my four corners within about 0.2mm over the 4.0m.

    Then I went throu the labourous task of the T nuts....hundreds of the little buggers
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]
    Inserted the rail into the extrusion and set up for the leveling process
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]
    After that was all in check I rotated the equipment through 90 Degrees for the staightening of the rail.
    [IMG][/IMG]

    I repeated this for the leveling of the second rail.

    I'm happy that one rail is now with in 0.05mm over the entire 4.0m in two planes...whoo hoooo



    So does anyone have any suggestions about the second rail....should i Just attach the gantry an use it to straighten off the first?


    I'm attaching the gantry to the bearings via these plate to give me some side to side adjustment, which turns out was required.
    [IMG][/IMG]


    I couldn't help myself but get the gantry up there
    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]



    Liam



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    Really cool build thread.

    I am curious why you are using a tensioned line for alignment in this day and age instead of a $10 laser pointer??



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    Using the gantry to set off the second rail is logical as this will be the component that will be running across the two rails. Care will need to be taken that the gantry is at right angles to the fixed rail at each point checked.

    This will only set the distance between them and you will still have to fiddle with height in relation to the other rail.

    Looking good by the way

    cheers,
    Rod

    Perth, Western Australia


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    Quote Originally Posted by RomanLini View Post
    Really cool build thread.

    I am curious why you are using a tensioned line for alignment in this day and age instead of a $10 laser pointer??

    Well i guess it came down to having already used this equipment and found how well it worked,If it's good enough for a multi million dollar towing Tank..... The sight also has 0.05mm increments so I can quantify what I'm actualy measuring, Also a $10 laser probably has quite a bit of spread at 4m....more than0.05 mm anyhow....and I don't have a $10 laser pointer.

    Can you take us through the use of a laser, I can't picture how this would be done
    First thought would be to mount the laser on the bearing and aim at a target at the end of the rail....but it would first have to be mounted VERY acurately or you would end up with a curved rail very easily.



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    You would use it the same as a string, mount it at one end of the rail with a fixed target at the other end of the rail, align it at both rail ends. Then a moving target anywhere on the rail to check that point against the ends.

    Anyway the technique you used obviously works, I was as much poking fun at a build with university resources that was using a "piece of string" instead of some expensive high-tech solution. Hence the icon.



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    Sweet, Thanks for the insight.



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5 axis build full steam ahead!

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