Are those the overall dimensions or travel dimensions?
I am looking for suggestions on the proper ball screw and motor size? I plan on using it mostly for hard woods but would like to also cut aluminum. All the aluminum excursion is 4"x 4" I picked up from work which was scrap and the green parts will be steel to give it some rigidly. The gantry is 70" long and will roughly be 175 to 200 Lbs, due to the long gantry I was thinking of using rack and pinion and ball screws on the Y axis @ 1100mm I was looking at using 3210 or 2510 for the ball screw size? The Z axis is 6". Any tips are welcome!
I am unable to upload my pictures from my computer when I try to from manage attachments I can't open it!! Anyone have this issue?
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Last edited by Zman2015; 05-18-2018 at 12:02 AM.
Are those the overall dimensions or travel dimensions?
Is there a specific reason for the very long gantry compared to table travel. Such ling spans work against you when it comes to rigidity. Im not sure from the descriotion if those measurements are work space areas or overal dimensions. However a 6 foot work area imples a very long overal gantry well beyond the norm discussed in this forum For a DIY build anyways. Im not sure one 4x4 extrusion will cut it.
While i tend to avoid suggesting this i would consider doubling up the extrusions. Doing so brings its own issues but it is very hard to beat free. Yes this can make for a heavy beam but will be desirable for machining Aluminum. Desirable in the sense that you can increase rigidity some.
As for steppers id actually suggest waiting until the gantry design is closer to finalized. Im assuming a drive at each end of the gantry so you may very well get by with a size 23 stepper at each end. The weights you are talking about now are not a huge issue.
I will second Wizard here. Go look at some commercial routers. They rarely go beyond 5 foot in width for two reasons. 1. Most sheet material is 4 foot wide and 2. the rigidity to maintain accuracy. Also, manufacturers leave the long axis perpendicular to the gantry.
As a for-instance, I will quote you some weights from a Haas GR-512 since I changed the long axis linear guides once. We had to use hydraulic jacks and blocks to support the gantry while we did the work. My rough guess is the gantry weighed somewhere in the 2500-3000 lb range. And it was only 5 feet wide.
These are the things you will have to consider...
The more I think about this the more I'd suggest making the gantry the 1.1 meter axis. It would make the best use of the free materials which is a big deal in my mind. That does imply buying two long leadscrews or rack and pinion solutions but overall it isn't a big delta in the expense of building a machine.
Yeah commercial machines can be pretty massive. In any event I generally consider the gantry to be the weak link in a DIY build. Making it a very long gantry just magnifies the issue in my mind.As a for-instance, I will quote you some weights from a Haas GR-512 since I changed the long axis linear guides once. We had to use hydraulic jacks and blocks to support the gantry while we did the work. My rough guess is the gantry weighed somewhere in the 2500-3000 lb range. And it was only 5 feet wide.
These are the things you will have to consider...
It would be nice to know what the original poster intends to machine. There might be other things to consider that is driving him to along gantry.
Sorry for the not responding sooner everyone!
My pursues for the long gantry is I wanted to gain the total 70" length of my aluminum excursion my cutting area will be roughly 55" and the linear rails are 63" long. UPDATE: I am looking to make the Y axis 59" long so rack and pinion would be better on the X and Y axis?
The parts in green will be steel plates to make it more rigged.
I have accuses to the machine shop at work so we have a lot of fabrication tools. The gantry will we welded and most of the plates I will make on our MultiCam router.
Hopefully this link works to see the pictures.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...ign%20pic1.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...ign%20pic2.jpg
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...ign%20pic3.jpg