El Beast - Initial design phase, comments and critique welcomed!

Good to have you back !

I hear what you are saying about family, finance and furlough. Some things just take priority- what you must do over what you would like to do.

By the way your 3D printed rail guides on my Z axis are still holding up despite being right next to the cutter and being covered in WD40 and chips!

Would welcome updates on your progress when ready . . .

Sounds like something a bot would say but if not please start a new thread and elaborate.

Looking at the link I would guess it should be in the Manufacturer's News section???

Sorry about that guys I must have hit the wrong button when moderating on mobile :-/, now removed.

Really enjoying reading through your build and getting inspiration for my next design. Any chance you have sourcing suggestions for the MBA12-C motor mounts and the flange style bearing supports? I'm having trouble sifting through the endless number of aliexpress suppliers for one that looks reasonable.

I have no association with them so can only speak from my limited personal experience, but have used TOPPER(HZ) for all these parts, plus some further parts for another project and have no complaints around quality. From a customer service standpoint they also sorted a problem with the original order with no argument (they specced couplings that didn’t fit within the MBA-12C). Rather than trying to find all the various parts you can just email them with your needs and they’ll quote you and create a custom single order.

One advantage is they are actually seemingly making parts like the screws on demand so custom machining requirements are easily accommodated.

I have actually just put in another order with them for some ball screws for a motion sim I’m building, so fingers crossed they are still up to snuff!

TOPPER(HZ) LINEAR MOTION COMPANY Store
https://a.aliexpress.com/_vkkx8z

Zeeflyboy, it is an art work! Where do you download the ballscrew and slide 3d model？I would like to design my own one.

I’m sure you get asked this all the time but do you have a detailed parts list and build sheet so someone can duplicate your machine or make one similar, to fit their table?

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Originally Posted by MorallyBankrupt

I’m sure you get asked this all the time but do you have a detailed parts list and build sheet so someone can duplicate your machine or make one similar, to fit their table?

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I don't think he dose, Zeefly hasn't been active here for a few months now....shame as there isn't even a pic of his finished machine with the bed on etc...

According to his YouTube channel non of these videos are listed publicly and he's moved onto building a motion rig simulation thingy you sit in with movement and fedback etc, shame really as he's made the parts himself and hasn't lost the ability for creating parts that look great so would fit in on here to...

Can find the build log for that on the PC Forums...

Zeeflyboy...come in flyboy...

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Originally Posted by Lee Roberts

Zeeflyboy...come in flyboy...

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Hello 🥸

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Originally Posted by zeeflyboy

hello ��

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woop woop he's alive !!!!

Still ticking, for now at least!

The reason why there are no pics of the completed build are because the whole thing got shelved - not real reason other than lack of time with the young'uns, and to be honest mercurial interests taking me temporarily elsewhere!

I haven't been completely idle, as mentioned by Lee I built a full motion rig for VR during the last year or so (along with my own design of pedals, wheel etc), and also built a new mahoosive 3D printer (a 400x400x400mm V-core 3) which is frankly an awesome bit of kit which can print about 4x faster than my old printer and with better quality while it does it. I have some plans to mod that printer further too, but that can wait somewhat for now.

Anyhoo, reason for posting is that I have finally dragged the beast back out of hiding in the depths of the man cave and been quietly doing some work on it as time permits (something that has been in sadly short supply recently as work has been busy!).

So I had reached a small impasse where due to changes I needed to stretch the old design width wise, but didn't want to completely waste all the work I had already done, plus the increased width just added new challenges with the size limitations of my current machine. I had a think about what I needed to do to repurpose the existing parts and came up with a plan to get things built up and working to a point that I can use the new machine to make the final replacement parts.

So... here's the first bit of progress in a long time:

First things first, I needed to extend the front and back faceplates. To do this I chucked them back in the CNC, turned them into separate pieces, and 3d printed a spacer block... again this entire piece will eventually be replaced with a single solid part once the beast is up and running.

https://i.imgur.com/UFY738j.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qK6WoOq.jpg


Next up I need to extend the internal cross extrusions, and I again turned to the 3D printer using one of my favourite new materials which is CF reinforced ASA - incredibly stiff and strong, high temperature and UV resistant and machines quite well! I printed the blocks slightly over sized and then finished them off in the CNC to keep tolerances as tight as possible. This will also be a candidate part for being re-made in aluminium once the full machine is up and running.

https://i.imgur.com/s5eybqX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6KDSAHl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Jcx2QEl.jpg

And then I created some threaded rod inserts on the lathe, press fit and further secured with sleeve lock.


And with that, the bottom section is almost completed:

https://i.imgur.com/Ad3b2S1.jpg


The only thing left to do before moving on is remake the side mount plates in 20mm plate (previously 16mm) and make a cross brace for the ballscrew mounts. I have Just finished one of the new side plates today and hopefully get the second one done this week.

https://i.imgur.com/eUGPe8k.jpg



Bonus videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InN85zrd-G0

As an aside, I've been using thread mills to tap the parts during the milling operation and it's been a bit of a revelation! So much better than using a tap like some sort of troglodyte!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YHz_rgMx4Q


In other news, it's also all being slightly tweaked to accommodate 60mm 400w AC servos (fairly easy just by changing to MBA-12D mounts and tweaking some clearances).

Happy return, looking forward to the final :yahoo:

This build is so clean!
It's looking really good!
Definitely following this one...