The frame I prefered to be welded.
I'm a registered member of this site for some time but I didn't post anything till now because my first project was a Mechmate (which is a good one).
Now it's time to move forward to the second project, a 4 axis machine. The design was made by me but most of the ideas came from this site and I think that I should share with peoples from here most of my work in exchange...
The dimensions of the machine are 2000 x 1300 and for the frame I use square tube 80 x 80.
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The frame I prefered to be welded.
Frumos inceput , pare solida masa .
Astept sa vad cum avansezi .
Good luck !
Here are some pics with just a side of the y axis. It seems that it works...
Some progress:
what thickness sheet metal did you use for the gantry laser cut parts?
Looks really good!
Thank you. 5mm but if I start building another one I will use 8mm. main reason is that it is easier to weld thicker material.
New pics...
Nice build love the all steel construction
How do you like the Mechmate? are you building this one for a specific reason?
I have been looking over the mechmate for a while now and am on the fence as to which way I want to go
Now cncrouterparts is coming out with a 4x8 kit so the decision is getting harder, I have a few projects in mind for myself and family but I want something that I could use in a commercial situation if it turns out that way
JTCUSTOMS
"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are."
Clive James
If you want something industrial in my opinion you should use linear slides or at least something like "DualVee". For my new machine I prefer to use square tube and I'm sorry I didn't use the same for MM. It's flat, easy to weld and so on.
Z axis should have a ball screw. There is no question about it. You can keep the dust away with a good vacuum and some brushes.
The new machine will have the 4th axis. Most of the narrow pieces will be done on the new machine. Keep in mind this: you save a lot of money building by yourself a machine so don't go cheap at important parts like linear slides or ball screws. If you read each producer info you'll see that they sell seals and scrapers for the dust. It's a fact: you should lube the ball screw and the sliders. THK recommend the first lube operation at 100km! I presume that you can waste a few hours for that...
One more thing: Gerald its right with aluminum. Look at every industrial machine you can imagine and there are no aluminum parts.
If I can help please don't hesitate.
Here are some pictures of the almost finished Y axis. Some holes on the front plate are in the wrong position...This will be fixed very soon.
Here are some movement: .
Really enjoying this build. I like your approach, keep up the good work!
Impressive! Following the progress of your build. Good luck.
My 2¢
Thank you all for the kind words. Now I’m preparing the 4th axis that is still on drawing board but in two weeks perhaps this will be ready. Even I’m in the rush to see the 4th axis spinning I try to go carefully with the design because I did some minor mistakes in the router design (forget to leave holes for greasing the carriages – this was fixed after).
This is not final but this is the idea:
Since the parts for the 4th axis are not ready I spent some time looking at DeskProto 4.2 and I think it will do the job quite well. But surprise: rotation axis cannot be activated if I chose to use Mach2/3 based machine.
Does anybody know if there is a similar postprocessor with Mach as long as DP use an A axis ?
Finally the 4th axis it's on the way to be finished...