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  1. #21
    Graham, liking the new design! When you want some 10mm and 20mm Ali plate for your Z & Y axis give me a shout as I've got loads stashed away (a 2200 x 950mm piece of 10mm 6082 (albeit cut up into smaller pieces now...) and a 1065 x 850 piece of 20mm) and won't be using anywhere near all of it. I'm sure we can come to some arrangement...
    Neil...

    Build log...here

  2. #22
    Thanks Neil, this CNC building lark is expensive but every little saving helps. I saw a massive piece of 25mm aluminium plate go on eBay over the weekend. I was wondering if you'd grabbed it. I took a punt but I wasn't trying too hard as it's thicker than I need.

  3. #23
    Well when you have settled on the sizes you want give me a shout...free Ali in exchange for machining services could be good?
    Neil...

    Build log...here

  4. #24
    Sounds like a plan but I think you might be over estimating how quickly I can get this machine built

    I'm going hell for leather at it presently but I'd guess it's still going to be a two or three months at least before it's built.

  5. #25
    Quicker than mine at the rate I'm going!! I'll probably look at it again when I get back off holiday and blinking re-design it again!!
    Neil...

    Build log...here

  6. #26
    Well I've broken rule number one and bought the first pieces of the machine before the design is properly finished. I decided to take the plunge and get some second hand THK profiled rails. They are a bit longer than the supported rails shown in the design above so I'm beefing up the gantry. The X and Y rails are SHS15R@1040mm and the Z is SSR15XW@410mm. I've since read that SSR are better suited to horizontal alignment because of the bearing arrangement but to be honest they are working so far below their rated maximum load I'm not worried.

    I have a quick question about mountings the rails on extrusion though.

    For the Y-axis I was thinking of doing this:

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    Does this look like a good idea? There's 4mm of aluminium and the bolt is an M5 so that would mean 5 threads. I'm concerned that if there's the slightest bit of warp in the extrusion it'll throw the rail out because it's fairly snug in that central channel.

    For the X-axis I've got a couple of options:

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    Neither seems to be a great option but the one with the rail over the T-slot looks precarious to me.

    I'm seriously considering ditching extrusion and going with rectangular section. Any one know where I can get some with decent wall thickness?

    EDIT: Scratch that last question, I must be going blind, Aluminium Warehouse do 2500mm 100x50x6 box section for £52. That makes it significantly cheaper than the 60x90 extrusion I was going to use.
    Last edited by Wobblycogs; 21-08-2013 at 10:33 PM.

  7. #27
    I couldn't get off to sleep last night for thinking about the CNC so I decided to get up an do a bit to the design. I wanted to address a couple of issues:

    1) the rails didn't mount very cleanly onto the aluminium extrusion
    2) it felt like too many parts were becoming sufficiently complicated that I would need access to a milling machine. I know I could get some / all of parts made for me but part of the fun of this project is coming up with a design I can make myself.

    With those issues in mind I switched over to using aluminium rectangular section 100x50x6. The other major change was to mount the rails on the front of the gantry rather than top and bottom. I'm not sure if this is the greatest of ideas but I think it'll make the build quite a bit easier.

    The shots below show the Y and Z axis together. There's a bit of tidying up to do moving bolt holes but the basic structure is in place.

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    If vibration is an issue with the box section on the gantry I'll pack one or both beams with fine gravel / sand. Anything shown in red will be tooling plate.

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Wobblycogs View Post
    I couldn't get off to sleep last night for thinking about the CNC so I decided to get up an do a bit to the design. I wanted to address a couple of issues:
    Ah ah your officially Addicted . . . .At your first meeting the words to use are " Hello my names Wobbly and I'm an addict" . . .Welcome to the club.!!

    Now regards the changes then your making it worse not better.?? . . . Distance from Ballnut to Z axis rear plate is too much and that long bracket will flex and resonate.
    I'd just flip the plate to front and cut a slot in it and mount ball-screw on back side so the distance is less, your also protecting the screw and motor. Stick another thin plate on rear and it's fully protected and helps stiffen gantry.

    Don't go with your current design you'll regret it in this form.!!

  9. #29
    Yep, I'm completely addicted now. Work is suffering, I'm getting no sleep, the bank manager thinks there's been a robbery...

    Lol, when I was drawing that long connection bracket I could hear you in my head saying "that's too long" :-D

    As an alternative to mounting the 10mm plate on the front of the gantry could I instead mount the ball screw on the gantry supports like this and put a thin (5mm?) plate with a slot on the front? That gets the screw closer to the z-axis back plate and the gantry gets the full support of a 10mm plate on the back.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I've had to significantly increase the size of the base to accommodate the new rails. I can't really afford a full sheet across the whole base but I've added corner supports all around the bottom and the top has 200mm wide plate running the full length. All plate is 10mm thick and will be thoroughly bolted to the 45x90 heavy extrusion.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I actually feel like I didn't do to badly with the redesign if I only needed to move the screw, perhaps there's hope for this machine yet

  10. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Wobblycogs View Post
    As an alternative to mounting the 10mm plate on the front of the gantry could I instead mount the ball screw on the gantry supports like this and put a thin (5mm?) plate with a slot on the front? That gets the screw closer to the z-axis back plate and the gantry gets the full support of a 10mm plate on the back.
    Yes you could no problem but you'll get more support for gantry from that plate if it was on front has the rails will be fastened to it and can't flex in the middle. Has it is now the Box in the middle could flex has the only support is on the back side and the rails applying all the pressure are on the front side.!
    You'd be better with it on front and either another thinner plate across back adding bit of support or 2-3 10mm plate braces across back.

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