Smiler's Build

[Lee Roberts]

I must say the PVC dose look very nice here mate, how much is it and whats your source?

[Gary]

It sure does.
I hope you dont mind, but i have pointed a few customers here to look at your post so they can get some ideas.

Spot on.

Gary, it must give you a buzz seeing the bits you supply fitted to actual working machines. Thanks for bringing down the cost to the level that Joe public can get in on such a fascinating hobby!

[Lee Roberts]

I must say the PVC dose look very nice here mate, how much is it and whats your source?

Smiler ?????????

[Smiler]

Hi everyone,

Irving, Old RSJ's were that flat, back when it was British Steel and they took a pride in their product and maintained the rollers. A granite surface would do perfectly but don't let the arc stray too near or you'll crack it for sure:). Circular saw would eat PVC, just run it against a guide and the planer was only so I could guarantee 90 degree edges and to get rid of saw marks :)

Gary, yes please point anybody you like to the thread. If I can help them by answering any questions they have, I'd be more than pleased to.

Lee, I got the PVC from work as offcuts. We use it for fixtures for a candle molding production line at a factory here. It was much cheaper than Aluminium both to buy and machine plus it is impervious to moisture and the acids they use.

We buy it from the Pipeline Centre in Glasgow (plastics dept) but we have bought it from Direct Plastics . I think I worked it out at around £80 ish for the amount I used. Luckily i got mine for nothing as they were offcuts as I said but I would regard the price as more than worth it considering I was going to the trouble of building a steel framed router. I wouldn't like anyone to think PVC is a replacement for Aluminium but it allows you to have much of the rigidity of metal with the ease of working wood. If you go to the direct plastics site and read the data on PVC, you will see why I chose to make the parts I did from it.

Once I have the wiring sorted out (going to try Irving's suggestion this weekend), I'm onto the base frame. Again this will be steel and extremely rigid. At the moment I have the Router top frame just sat on my worktop bench which mimics how the real working surface would be. This way I can try the router and make any mods before I have it permanently mounted on its real base. One good thing has emerged from doing it this way. My workbench is very solidly built (I know 'cause I built it :)) and you cannot move it by pushing it. The router gantry weighs a good 100 pounds and you would not believe how much inertia is passed from the gantry down into the bench, I could literally shake it to bits by moving the Y axis back and forth with too much acceleration so I have adjusted the acceleration to such a rate that the bench almost doesnt react to the movement of any axis, not a very scientific approach but it should ensure a long life for the machine.

I'll post more photos as I continue.

I don't know if this would be of any advantage to anyone but once I've finished building my machine I will have a full CAD drawing done in Solidworks which I would be willing to upload. I could upload it as an E-Drawing (Solidworks own viewer) which would allow other forum members to view it as a model to get ideas or even generate a drawing for making their own.

Take care all,

[Lee Roberts]

Thanks Jeff ill add that link to the links database now.

Yea i may just give the pvc a go for the little mini mill i wanted to build, ali costing more money ! maybe once i get my rockcliff up and running maybe then ill use ali and get the rockcliff to machine it.

Nice machine Jeff congrats !

[irving2008]

Additional info... looking at the data on the Direct Plastics site, if its rigidity you are looking for then Tufnol 1p13 is about 3 times more rigid than PVC or MDF but 25% more expensive than PVC (£155/m2 again £124/m2) but about the same weight (twice that of MDF). There may be other reasons not to use it tho...

[Lee Roberts]

Supa! all round Jeff, really nice to see your machine go from start to finish and also the products its been making. Keep us updated with the pics when you make somthing new using the cnc machine its always nice to see, one question...

Why did you go with the supported rail for the Y Axis but guideway rail on the X ?

[Smiler]

Supa! all round Jeff, really nice to see your machine go from start to finish and also the products its been making. Keep us updated with the pics when you make somthing new using the cnc machine its always nice to see, one question...

Why did you go with the supported rail for the Y Axis but guideway rail on the X ?

I will certainly keep posting pics, I have a sign to do for a shop in Cumbria and that will be approx 2ft x 3ft sandwich board and it will have to be very special. It will also be the one I thnk I'll vdeo, I'm only sorr I didn't vdeo the"Tara" sign as it was a really nice job to work on.

I went with the guided rail for two reasons, first, the rails came up on the bay at the exact same time I decided to change from unsupported rail plus it was 25mm and new. The price (103 quid for two rails plus four trucks)was too good to miss. The second reason was I figured that the supported round rail is designed to take a load vertically and my Z axis weighs in at 60+ pounds with router and guided rail would be much more rigid. It also has the advantage of bringing the Z axis closer to the centre of rotation of the X axis taking a little load off the tool.

Red Mega machine!!. . . Vnice:clap:

Nar then are you up for Q&A. .? Cos that is very much the same machine I have in mind to build, just different....Ere.!!. .that dunt sound reet does it!! just trust me I know what a mean.:confused:

Size wise it will be about the same, supports for X rails and the gantry will be made from a very stiff but light Ali beam that I knicked from mi grannys stanner stair lift:naughty:. . kinder like a H beam but looks like this |=| and the rest will be a mix of 50mm box and Ali plate to stiffen everything up.
Jurys still out on wether to run all axis on ball screws or mix belt n screws?
Either way I will drive X from both sides.

So my Q,s (not meny)
Q1: What size steppers u using? and do u like them?
Q2: how do find the belt/rack system?
Q3: Now you've fettel'd it with Y rails how would you feel bout cutting Ali? IE: Precision wise how good do feel it is?
Q4: Errrrrr cant think of 1:confused:

Any help would be appreciated.
cheers
Dean.:beer_smile:
Argh. . just thought another!!. . Q4.1: IF you started from scratch what would you change or do different?

Answer 1, 3Nm wired in Parallel. I took the easy way out and bought the Driver Kit 1 from Zapp and I've been delighted with it.

Answer 2, Rack drive was the one recommended by the Solsylva plans and when you look at his plan book, the guy really has done his homework. He gives options for several types of drive, double ball / ACME screws, belt, chain and lists their pros and cons. The rack drive has the best accuracy/resolution/speed/cost envelope for my machine. A rack system is also easily extendable.

Answer 3, I can only report that the little bit of ally machining I did went very well in that it was very smooth and the finish was very nice. The guided rails have added so much rigidity. I didn't bother with measurements, it was just a manual cut and experimental. I'll do a proper job at the weekend and report back once I've designed and cut an ally webcam mount to replace the PVC one.

Answer 4, What would I do different.....
1 Do loads more research
2 Do loads more research
3 Do even more research.
4 ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE THE MISTAKES
5 Know from day 1 what I wanted to make and how big the machine would need to be. I wasted loads of money buying bits and finding the machine had outgrown them before they got delivered.
6 No unsupported anything

As far as the machine stands now, I would not change anything. It far exceeds the hopes I had at the start.

Oh and any chance of some more pics mainly of the belt/rack and back side of gantry motor mount bits. . . Oh and whats the white box thingys on top n sides? . . . Oh and any chance of closeer pic of router mount cos i got same router kicking around? . . . Oh and I wont ask for owt else promise

Will do Dean, You'll like the router mounts. The slides on the 3612C plunge base are 20mm so all I used were two 20mm round rail mounting blocks and two 125mm long offcuts of 20mm round rail. Space them the same distance apart on your Z as they are on the plunge base, unscrew the fine adjuster on the router, pop the router off the plunge base and slip it onto the Z axis then tighten the locking lever, job done. I will also be adding a bracket to give a little more support to the router at the t

And to everyone else, thank you for the kind comments. This build is not over by a long way and then of course comes the plasma and the lathe and the......

Regards to all, Jeff.

[Smiler]

Jeff

Great looking machine and signs, I have two CNC4PC BOB's and both have been very easy to set up and operated flawlessly so far, as you know I am still in the early stages of getting my machine up and running so they have not been used in anger yet, also Arturo is very helpful and very quick to answer any questions.

Andy

Thanks Andy, I'd looked at the CNC4PC stuff and it looks like I'll be going that way too.

[Lee Roberts]

I will certainly keep posting pics.

Thanks look forward to seeing the new sign, "Tara" I thout it said "Cara".

It also has the advantage of bringing the Z axis closer to the centre of rotation of the X axis taking a little load off the tool.

Thanks for the tip, in the design stages for my X & Z at the momment so was a good point made at the right time for me thanks mate.