Beastie

[Boyan Silyavski]

Hi,

now that i have build one and meanwhile building my big beast , couldn't help but start to design my next project.


Warning:
This one is quite ambitious. It is meant to be my first more serious commercial product in the CNC world, including the plans, so let be known from the beginning. While maybe i will not sell the plans themselves, i will sell them together with detailed manual step by step how to DIY. The end result will be sold as a kit or finished, may be even some Kickstarter campaign to see if there is any interest. So be warned. Of course for fellow forum members the plans will be for free.

If you don't agree, don't post in the thread. I will use and abuse your ideas . Though help, critique and ideas will be greatly appreciated.



Background:
First let me tell you i am tired of [noh-mad]s, 3040, 4060, funny Kickstarter campains, chinese electronic and mechanical jokes, ugly plans at ebay and similar overpriced crap . I hope you agree with me here.



Now the purpose of Beastie:
I believe is time to do something about all the bad stuff floating around. So i decided to sit down and design something that will kill any thoughts of buying the crap. Like an antivirus of a kind .


The Idea
-to be not so much more expensive than the crap
-in kit to be equal price to the crap
-to be so rigid to accept from 0.8kw to 3kw spindle / why not even a small mill spindle/

The way to do it:
The design. This is the key..I believe it could be done. So let me explain some points here.

-Working area wide X300mm and Z150mm. The length Y will be 300mm. The machine will be designed so that it could be easily scaled up to 400mm wide and 600mm long.
The key here is not be working are hungry but to make all things properly. Other very interesting objective of mine is to design in CAM like fully parametric solid model. Which means sb says, hey i need 300x400x160 and i for a minute generate him the detailed drawing.

-all alu plates will be 2D cut, faces for rails milled for easy alignment. No holes or bolts on the thin sides, 2 plates will be mounted together via square bar inside. This is one of the 2 most important parts. No flipping aluminum sheets, drill, profile, pocket where necessary and that's all. The second most important idea is that this will lead to fast assembly. Thats the purpose-machine to be fully assembled from scratch for a day. So no steel, no paint and so there.

The Gantry
Now isn't this important. The gantry will be fixed. I gave a lot of thought and that's the proper way i believe to do it. Not only this but is made from 20mm ali plate that forms a box with another plates, for now 6mm, ribs will be fixed where necessary. When i do the final calcs will see what is the price difference for making all from 20mm stuff and will decide then. For now thats how would be.

The electronics
Not many doubts here almost 100% the Leadshine MX660 - Three Axis Digital Microstepping Driver all in one
and as an upgrade CSMIO/IP-M 4-axis Ethernet Motion Controller with Leadshine AM822 or similar. Motors 3nm, from Zapp.
Now here i have a question. If more axis are needed couldn't we just fit one more Leadshine MX660?

Mechanics
Hiwin 20, the long HA blocks, 1605, 1610 screws and may be even geared for better resolution for ultra fine jobs, cause i don't see how this small size will develop speeds


So thats all for now. I am starting from sketch drawings to develop them little by little in detail.

The price
I still have no exact idea, but i hope that in kit form it will result in build for less or around 1500euro. Or at least that's the idea. Now tell me what you think. This is not cheap cheap but hey, we are talking a bout quality machine here.


Dimensions:
The idea is foot print of no more than 600x600mm and 600mm high for 300x300x150mm working area. Thats a challenge also but i am almost there.

The Z plate
250x250 for now and i believe its a minimum but minimum where still is maximum strong. the bearing spread and footprint i mean, having in mind that we are talking here HA bearings, the long ones 95mm each

Other
Now,here is the deal. the electronics will be below the machine or in the gantry or at both places. And one main idea is also the gantry and sides and base to be epoxy fill ready, sand fill ready. So i will spend a lot of thought here. One thing is clear. The electronics will be inside somehow. My machine is like this and there is no problem. Air filter and ventilator will be essential. i know Dean will be the first to say that this is not right. But it must be.


Some pictures where i am now, as i said still in sketch form:
On picture 5 you can see in yellow all the plates that are 20mm thick. All rest is 6mm. For now.



The working area for now 300x300x150, the gantry is 200mm deep x 600mm wide, the gantry legs form 140x200mm each




Now without the working area shown




The motor moving the table will be down inside






the 20mm plates in yellow. All rest 6mm for now untill i do the last calcs when the design is finished. Anyway, structurally there will be no problem.