3 Axis 900x500mm

A little more progress today - I might have got a bit more done, but there was a bit of a fire in my neighbours house while they were out walking their dog - I smelt burning plastic, saw a few wisps of smoke coming from an open window and called the Fire Brigade. A laundry basket left on the stove, apparently...

Firemen did a great job. Loads of smoke but no severe damage - I imagine that there'll be a fair bit of scrubbing to do over the next few days...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PQrRWSsuc0

Anyway. I made a couple more of the L brackets, these needed slotting for a bit of built in adjustment - nice to have those extra long 5mm end-mills to hand...

Attachment 22842

Then it was on to the spacers. First I machined a channel for the L-bracket to sit in - the channel would also locate onto a fixture so that the reverse could be machined in order for the spacer to locate into the extrusion:

https://youtu.be/d3SXDZDjzyI

Attachment 22840

It's looking like it should work okay:

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One thing I have noticed is that I won't have as much cutting area as what I say in the title of this build - despite the Y gantry being 670mm across, it's going to be more like 460mm rather than 500. I can see myself having to go lock to lock with the Y axis - and as a consequence I think it's a bit hopeful trying to squeeze in the limit sensor on a bracket of some sort. I'll take out the existing support and cut a section out to accommodate the sensor. Ideally the hole would be a bit lower, but bugger it - I'll make the targets a bit bigger.

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That's about it for now - the other E-chain should be a bit more straightforward, so I won't bore you with progress on that one.

Wal.

Support bracket modified to take a sensor:

Attachment 22846 Attachment 22848 Attachment 22847

It's not a pretty effort. In retrospect I didn't need to put the hole right at the edge, worrying about the sensor being able to pick up a target - I could have placed it further in-land (dodging the existing horizontal screw holes) and made the targets tall thin bars secured into the extrusion with countersunk machine screws to keep it low-profile. That would have been the more elegant solution, for sure. Ah well, it works and I can always make a new one later on, though I probably won't..!

Nice video Wal (post#9). Like the speeding up bits !

The rest of it is progressing nicely. There is almost as much time spent on kitting it out as making the basic frame work, so hang in there.

Nice looking build! Do you have a log of your previous mini-mill build by any chance?

Cheers guys.

Thomas, I don't, I'm afraid - I have various bits and pieces which I've wanted to compile, but they're spread over various drives etc. The mini-mill, despite its shortcomings continues to serve me well - if it helps I'll attach a .pdf of the main frame structure. After that it was just a case of buying 4x20mm ecocast plates and getting them drilled at a local shop (not sized, just drilled) - to accept rails and bearing housings etc. The idea was then to use shims to square up the plates as best as I could relative to each other - kinda worked - well, it's a bit out, but at the sizes I work at it's not that big a deal - where I do need better squareness I skew my drawings by a small amount (what I've been able to measure) before making the toolpaths - yep, it's an imperfect workaround but gets me close enough..!

The idea behind the mill build was to make it as easy as possible to put together, while at the same time being able to have a closer look at the hardware (and learn a bit more about how these things are put together..) I wouldn't copy what I've done - it certainly works and gets me some excellent results, but having learnt from it I'd do a few things a lot differently..!

Wal.

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Hi Wal, thanks for the reply. Shame there's no log, I could spend hours reading about other people builds!

Considering it was made in a relatively simple way, it looks a very capable machine. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result of your current project!

Got a couple of jobs done in the last couple of days. Finished the e-chain that runs beneath the bed and is attached to the X-axis - a brief and rather lacklustre vid here:

https://youtu.be/a0B4Cv9uWHI

The fixed end that travels uses a similar spacer as the one I made earlier in the thread - that way the chain stays horizontally level. There's an additional support bracket halfway up the bed, I had to nibble a bit of it away as it fouled the ball-nut housing:

Attachment 22875

Another thing I thought I'd have a look at is creating a mechanical union between the router and the bench that it's sat on - I was going to screw some strategically placed blocks down to prevent it from walking but thought that I might as well add some mass to the unit as a whole and leverage the weight of the bench (and all the stuff that'll eventually get stored down below) to help hold the router down.

I took the feet off and drilled/tapped a couple of M8 holes in the middle 'foot' - too late to use the corner 'feet' - lack of space notwithstanding, I'm not strong enough to lift the router off by myself - I could have attempted a bit of a balancing act, but laying out on the steel L-section would have been, at best, a very awkward affair...

Attachment 22872

Next I drilled a couple of 8.1mm clearance holes for the bolts:

Attachment 22873

And then bolted the router bed down to the bench sub-frame.

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There will eventually be a third plank running up the middle of the bench - I'm leaving it out for now so as to be able to get access to the underside when needed.

Waiting for CY cable and switches to arrive now...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wal

There will eventually be a third plank running up the middle of the bench - I'm leaving it out for now so as to be able to get access to the underside when needed.

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One problem i found with my mini-mill build - the base was almost identical to yours - was that when mounted, you could not get to the screws underneath for service/lube etc. If i was ever to build another i might fit some nylon pipe to the ball nut and run it through the chain to the outside world so it could get a few pumps of grease/oil at service time.

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Nice build Wal. Dean's a great guy when it comes to inspiration and great design advice. My machine is up and running very nicely! (see here) It will be good to see some footage of it running when completed.

BTW how are you wiring your proximity switches? are they NPN, Are they connected to a 5v break-out board? I've been trying for ages to get mine to work and I'm stumped!

Quote:

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BTW how are you wiring your proximity switches? are they NPN, Are they connected to a 5v break-out board? I've been trying for ages to get mine to work and I'm stumped!

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Mike best to start and ask again in your thread http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/10262...oes-nt-it-work.

And give us the relevant up to date info.