Re: One ring to rule them all?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Robin Hewitt
I have always thought that the best way to make one of these beasties would be to start with a sheet of 3 mm steel and rent some time on a 2kW laser. I'd go for 3 mm because it has a bit more flex in it so you can key in a few good bends to make it super rigid :beer:
Mmm 3mm is going to be real floppy on the straight bits though. Curves give strength yes but you can't make the whole thing a curved surface.
I'm wondering if aluminium would be better as I could use 30mm thick plates to make it up which should be fine to be tapped for 10mm bolts, so tapping into the 30mm width. Would make it a bit simpler and I think just through sheer width would resist bending at the joint.
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Re: One ring to rule them all?
Hello again, refining my ideas. Trying to get the thing in around 300kg total. It means using 50mm thin wall tube in some places. Trying to get the base about 100kg, the uprights about 100kg and the gantry about 100kg. I had some exact weights calculated but drawing it out again I realized I could make it 100mm narrower overall so that will be a decent weight reduction in the base atleast.
I'm thinking the base might look something like this. 50mmx3 square tube apart from where the rails connect would be 50x5. Anything thats all one colour is a welded 'frame', anything thats a different colour would be bolted together.
Attachment 17386Attachment 17385Attachment 17387Attachment 17388
And the rest would look something like this.
Attachment 17389Attachment 17390
or more like this
Attachment 17391
The footprint would be 1m x 1m and the working area would be 500mm x 500mm, which is fine.
What do you think?