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Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 01:31 PM
After reading many posts on larger DIY steel frame machines, one of the subjects that keeps being mentioned as a potential weakness is leveling the machine. I wondered if there was a way of creating a system to level say 4 supports from the machine. Maybe the 4 buckets full of water and connected by pipes sort of thing. Any thoughts???

i2i
28-05-2012, 01:32 PM
one of those rotating lasers

Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 01:37 PM
one of those rotating lasers

Ive got a self leveling laser but i was more interested in some concept that could be incorperated into a gantry type 8x4 that would make leveling automatic and then be locked into that position untill the machine is moved and then used again to do it again..

i2i
28-05-2012, 02:13 PM
do you live in an earthquake zone?:peaceful:

Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 02:32 PM
do you live in an earthquake zone?:peaceful: No but im always looking for a bigger cheaper and longer term workshop and with people (i2i)teasing me with these large mills it becomes even more certain i will move....

Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 02:34 PM
Four of these connected with pipes and some sort of locking mech filled with water under the piston of course..


6084

ptjw7uk
28-05-2012, 03:00 PM
You could always consider hydraulics but then you would have to consider the weight changing as the head moved!
Seen on the box where they lifted a building using hydraulics from that they just made sure the pressure in each piston was the same.

peter

JAZZCNC
28-05-2012, 03:28 PM
The machine it's self doesn't need to be level it could be at 45deg and workfine, it needs to be sat on flat surface with no twist.
It's getting the parallel rails level on the same plane thats the more important thing.!! . . . . Very hard to do and time consuming best done with precision straight edges and machine levels.
Even then it's not fun.!!! . . . Must have took me 6 weeks to tweak my machine into a position where I was happy with it.

Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 04:39 PM
The machine it's self doesn't need to be level it could be at 45deg and workfine, it needs to be sat on flat surface with no twist.
It's getting the parallel rails level on the same plane thats the more important thing.!! . . . . Very hard to do and time consuming best done with precision straight edges and machine levels.
Even then it's not fun.!!! . . . Must have took me 6 weeks to tweak my machine into a position where I was happy with it.

I am confident that My rails will be parallel however the surface the machine will be standing on is rough tamped concrete and although it will sit evenly on all four feet it does matter to me that it is as level as i can get it, because i will be using the bed for other things when the cnc machine is not in use..

Jonathan
28-05-2012, 05:22 PM
The machine it's self doesn't need to be level it could be at 45deg and workfine, it needs to be sat on flat surface with no twist.

The spinny laser thing would project a flat plane, but not necessarily a level one.


I am confident that My rails will be parallel however the surface the machine will be standing on is rough tamped concrete and although it will sit evenly on all four feet it does matter to me that it is as level as i can get it, because i will be using the bed for other things when the cnc machine is not in use..

Next thing you'll be saying it's 12x6' with a pocket in each corner...

i2i
28-05-2012, 05:24 PM
Next thing you'll be saying it's 12x6' with a pocket in each corner...I've got one of them

JAZZCNC
28-05-2012, 05:31 PM
Next thing you'll be saying it's 12x6' with a pocket in each corner...

Shame if he was cos I've just flogged the slate for a fullsize table.!!

Ricardoco
28-05-2012, 06:40 PM
The spinny laser thing would project a flat plane, but not necessarily a level one....
My one is on a gimble and points the laser verticaly down to a rotating mirror and so im lucky enough to have it be level..




Next thing you'll be saying it's 12x6' with a pocket in each corner...
Darn ive been rumbled!!!!

ecat
29-05-2012, 12:08 AM
Maybe the 4 buckets full of water and connected by pipes sort of thing. Any thoughts???

A customer in the US used pretty much this set up to level the jigs and platforms they built their aeroplanes on.

We used ultrasonics to measure the level of 'water' in the connected 'buckets' to within a couple of mm, hydraulics did the actual movement. Why go to all this trouble? If nothing else, gravity can assist in measuring precise angles.

Ricardoco
29-05-2012, 01:01 AM
A customer in the US used pretty much this set up to level the jigs and platforms they built their aeroplanes on. .
Its not just in America they use Jigs :whistle:


We used ultrasonics to measure the level of 'water' in the connected 'buckets' to within a couple of mm, hydraulics did the actual movement. Why go to all this trouble? If nothing else, gravity can assist in measuring precise angles.

Its no trouble for me to do really, i was playing in the garden today and ive arrived at the design WITHOUT using a hose pipe of course :whistle:
with the ban and all...lol it must have been all the usefull information i gathered from the post...lmao

JAZZCNC
29-05-2012, 01:12 AM
Its no trouble for me to do really, i was playing in the garden today and ive arrived at the design WITHOUT using a hose pipe of course :whistle:
with the ban and all...lol

No such thing up here mate we have more wet stuff than we know what to do with. . :toot:. . . Well we do have to have something to compensate for all the times you get the sun while it's pissing it down up here. . Lol

Ricardoco
29-05-2012, 02:27 AM
No such thing up here mate we have more wet stuff than we know what to do with. . :toot:. . . Well we do have to have something to compensate for all the times you get the sun while it's pissing it down up here. . Lol

I do sympathise with you i really do (except for the fact your beer is cheaper that is).., and i wouldnt mind the hose ban if we hadnt had the highest rain fall since records began, i do admit it all fell in the last 8 weeks but still they say they arnt going to lift it.........

JAZZCNC
29-05-2012, 02:56 AM
I do sympathise with you i really do (except for the fact your beer is cheaper that is).

And it don't taste like waterd darn dishwater..!!

boldford
17-07-2012, 09:41 PM
Couldn't the bed be made with three legs supporting a torsion box type table? It may not be level but any twisting moment would be eliminated.

mocha
17-07-2012, 11:12 PM
... because i will be using the bed for other things when the cnc machine is not in use..

aha! a recent batch of 542H been purchased?? :-)

You could always make your own ferrofluid or Electrorheological fluid and have active suspension? but in practical terms, horse mats!