Thread: Aluminium Extrusion Router Build
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12-12-2017 #1
I've designed a router based on aluminium extrusion and would like to see if the experts on the forums have any advice or can point any silly errors that I've made.
The cutting area is roughly 600*1000 and it will mainly be used for hardwood cutting although it would be useful if I could do some aluminium as well. I've gone for a Z travel of 180mm as I would like to add a 4th rotary axis at a later date, but I'm not sure if that would adversely affect how it cuts aluminium.
I'm going to use Hiwin 20mm rails and carriages, with a 1605 ballscrew on the Z and 1610 on the Y and X axes. I was going to get the ballscrews from BST Automation and was wondering if anybody had used the 400W 60ST-M01330 servo motors that he sells, and if that is powerful enough to drive the X Axis.
I've designed it so there is about 40mm of spindle travel beyond the front of the bed, so I can cut the ends of larger items.
As for electronics, at this point I would love to use one of the CSMIO controllers.
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12-12-2017 #2
Not used those servos but the design is looking good and will run great with steppers
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30-12-2017 #3
I've had a bit of spare over Christmas so I've made a start in making some parts for the router. I used my router table to precisely size a couple of parts using a standard tungsten carbide straight cutter. I managed to get about 0.1mm accuracy across the piece and from end to end. With a bit of cutting oil added the finish was really good as well. I also marked out a couple of pieces, drilled some holes and did some tapping on my pillar drill using a spring loaded tap guide.
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04-01-2018 #4
If you need any custom made ballscrews I can really recommend Fred at BST Automation on AliExpress. I have just ordered 4 ballscrews from him with no problems and very quick delivery to the UK. He has great customer service, responded to my emails very quickly, better than some companies here. I won't be building the router as quickly now as I'm back at work, but I've got a bit of the Z axis completed now.
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05-01-2018 #5
Nice start!
The table router helps a lot to trim aluminium parts, I trim an aluminium angle I cut with the cutting disk and the result is very good!
I 'll be watching! ;-)
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05-01-2018 #6
It was the first time I had tried to do this type of metalwork, up to now I have mostly done woodworking. With the addition of the cutting oil I was very happy with the surface finish and how accurate I could get the overall size of the pieces. Using an Irwin aluminium cutting blade on the table saw also gives a very reasonable finish to the cut pieces and using a crosscut sled gives pretty good accuracy.
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03-02-2018 #7
I managed to get some more done on the Z axis today and had a go at milling out the motor mount. I made a template out of 5mm HDPE to use with a template following bush in my router. With a 8mm end mill I made 0.5mm passed to slowly mill out the mount to the desired depth. For the large slot I used the same end mill, but for the small slots I had to drill a series of holes and file the sides flat.
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03-02-2018 #8
Nice!
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18-02-2018 #9
I've got a bit more work done and have made the Z axis end plates. These were quite complex and I started with a large rectangle of 12mm aluminium. I used the table saw to cut the bottom leg and then drilled 16mm holes in the corners of the middle part to be removed. I roughly cut the shape out using a bandsaw and neatened the edges using an end mill in my router. The curved parts were roughly cut on the bandsaw and neatened up using an oscillating bobbin sander. Finally I drilled the bolt holes and the hole for the inductive proximity sensor. I've left the top motor mount a bit longer as I'm going to mount the Y axis drag chains to it and have yet to finalise the exact position of it. On a side note I've had a really good run selling a load of old car audio gear on eBay and have made over £1500 pounds so I'm seriously tempted to go with a complete CS Labs system, using their motion controller, simDrive servo controllers, servo drives and power supply.
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkLast edited by NFryer; 18-02-2018 at 11:46 PM.
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20-02-2018 #10
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