4' x 4' x 8" Router Build

[JAZZCNC]

Jazz - do you have a feel for how much things have increased overall? Has everything doubled? Just trying to estimate how much extra I need to find.

Oh Yes, I certainly have a feel for it, every month I feel like I've been Butt F^@£ by one supplier or another. Steel has indeed doubled at least and Aluminium tripled for some grades.

This isn't just in the UK either, Even China and Asia are struggling with the rising material cost's. I have never had a Chinese or Taiwanese suppliers apologise because they are increasing prices and in the last 3 weeks I've had 4 suppliers all say the same thing.

On top of this, the cost of shipping has gone crazy, container prices used to be around £2000, now they are anywhere between £10,000 to £12,000 and taking longer to arrive IF you can get them on a ship.!

Airfreight you need to sell a kidney if it weighs more than a mouse. I've just paid £560 to fly 2 ATC Spindles over that would have cost £120 before Covid started, Why when planes are sat on the ground with no passengers.?

I used to fly most of my stuff over a few machines worth at a time, Now I'm shipping by sea freight 20 or 30 machines worth at a time and motors etc by the 100's just so I can keep continuity and be sure prices are kept sensible. The downside being I'm weeks and months behind waiting for stuff to arrive and I'm paying more for the privilege.!

It's the same with Steel and aluminium, I used to buy steel box section 5 or 6 lengths at a time, enough for a couple of machines. Now the only way I can get sensible prices is to buy 30 lengths. Sheet steel is even worse, I'm paying the same now for 3mm as I paid for 10mm 6 months ago.

I would allow at least 40% extra to what you probably think was going to cost.
If you are serious about building then I wouldn't wait for prices to come down either because I don't think it's going to happen any time soon and it's still going up with no sign of coming down.

[reefy86]

Careful Dean we will be adding to your delivery soon �� I am hoping mine doesn't come to more then £6k if I'm honest but if it does I'll sweet talk the Mrs a little more

[JonnyFive]

If you are serious about building then I wouldn't wait for prices to come down either because I don't think it's going to happen any time soon and it's still going up with no sign of coming down.

I was thinking the same, I could be waiting for years for prices to come down, best to just crack on and suck it up.

[JonnyFive]

Oh, and don’t tell the missus

[JAZZCNC]

That’s all I needed to hear, how am I going to explain it to my missus?!?

Usually telling them after it is built works best... Esp, If you want a divorce..

[JonnyFive]

I'm trying to finalise the ball screw design and noticed that the standard dimensions from BST don't seem to be compatible with the FK15A bearings - looks like the spacers eaither side of the bearing are too long and there's not enough length to get the locknut on the end:



Am I missing something? Do I have to turn down the spacers? I'm planning on tweaking the end to have 2 locknuts rather than using the grubscrew, just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Cheers,

[Clive S]

I'm trying to finalise the ball screw design and noticed that the standard dimensions from BST don't seem to be compatible with the FK15A bearings - looks like the spacers eaither side of the bearing are too long and there's not enough length to get the locknut on the end:



Am I missing something? Do I have to turn down the spacers? I'm planning on tweaking the end to have 2 locknuts rather than using the grubscrew, just want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Cheers,

Have you purchased the ball screw and bearing FK15A from Fred if so he should have machined it to match the bearing.

Also did you tell him the "F" length you wanted it is normally 15mm as standard but I usually tell him to make it 30mm so as to get more space for a pully.

I am not familiar with that bearing.

[JonnyFive]

It's been slow progress over the last few months. I've spent the last month or so trying to work out how much this thing is going to cost me, looks like it's going to be around £5.5k.

Here's what I got so far:

Steel box section for the frame:

I have scavenged some 80x80x3 box section from work; I have redesigned the top of the frame and the main leg uprights to use this, the rest will be 60x60x5 & 60x120x5 as previously planned. The price of steel is insane at the moment, it's going to cost £750 for the rest of the steel I need - my original cost was £500 when I priced up the entire frame a couple of years ago!! I've been trying to figure out if I've over engineered it, compared to most other designs I've looked at I seem to have an awful lot of steel in there.

Parts from BST:

Original HIWIN Brand Linear guide
2pcs HGR20-L1900mm Linear rail
2pcs HGR20-L1450mm Linear rail
2pcs HGR20-L400mm Linear rail
8pcs HGW20CC-ZA-C Carriage
4pcs HGH20CA-ZA-C Carriage
=USD629.00

Our own Ballscrew Assemble Set
2set RM2010-L1770mm ball screw with SFU2010 Ballnut
1set RM2010-L1480mm ball screw with SFU2010 Ballnut
1set RM1605-L322mm ball screw with SFU1605 Ballnut
All with end machining according your need,1770/1770/1480/322mm is the TOTAL length for each

3pcs 2010 Ballnut Housing
1pcs 2010 Ballnut Housing

1pcs OD25-8x10mm Jaw Coupling
1pcs MBA12 Motor Bracket
USD182.00

2set FK15/FF15 End support-Superior type,FK with P5 grade Angular contact bearing and FF with better deep groove ball bearing
1set BK15/BF15 End support-Superior type,BK with P5 grade Angular contact bearing and BF with better deep groove ball bearing
1set FK12/BF12 End support-Superior type,FK with P5 grade Angular contact bearing and BF with better deep groove ball bearing
6pcs M15x1 Locknut
2pcs M12X1 Locknut
USD145.00

1set 2.2kw spindle motor set=1pcs 2.2KW 220V 4 bearing motor+VFD+80mm Clamp+Water pump+Pipe
USD265.00

6pcs HTD-5M-20Teeth-15mm Wdith Pulley
4pcs HTD-5M-15mm Width-250mm Belt
USD22.00

1pcs 1000mm 25x38mm Cable chain with end connector
2pcs 1300mm 35x75mm Cable chain with end connector
USD26.00

Weight is about 57kg,discounted freight is USD650.00,so totally is USD1919.00.

= £1417

Aluminium extrusion for gantry:

2 off 160 x 80 x 1620mm (with drilling / tapping) = £1064

Aluminium tooling plate:

I've calculated approx £500. I was hoping to get these made for me but there is a maker space recently opened up near me that has a CNC mill so I am thinking it will save me some cash and be a good introduction to CNC to sign up and make them myself.

Closed loop steppers & drivers = £500

Electronics:

I've estimated £500 to cover the PSU, enclosure, cables etc - is this about right?

Miscellaneous:

Estimated around £500 (not including PC and software)


Is there anything obvious I have missed? Are my estimates about right?

I have reworked my frame to include the 80 x 80 x 3 that I have, I used it on the machine bed and the main uprights - I figured the bigger second moment of area compared to 60 x 60 x 5 would make these parts stronger. The frame now looks like this:






I am also pondering whether to have just a single aluminium extrusion for the gantry to save a bit of money. I can see that it adds a lot to the stiffness to the gantry but £500 each piece is a big investment. I have seen people get pretty good results on lesser machines with far smaller gantry sections. For example a single 160x80 section has a second moment of area 22x greater than a gantry made from C-beam. I'm not 100% convinced the extra cost will result in a significantly better machine - interested to hear what people think of this?

This is how the machine looks now:

[JonnyFive]

Things just got very real, just ordered all the steel for my build!!!

[JonnyFive]

Finally the first step to making this thing a reality, excuse the terrible welding!!!