Operation Clueless, CNCRP 4848 Build Log Eventually.

Hi All,
In the beginning There was a Plan, It might not be the best plan in the world, but it never made any such claim in the first place, Its name is Plan A.

The Object of Plan A is to allow me to make cool new man toys and convert my Garage into a proper Man Cave workshop. thrown into this somewhere, I'll end up with a CNCRP 4848CNC router, running NEMA34 steppers, Mach3, a Hitachi x200 series VFD and a 2.2kw chinese watercooled spindle.
Housed in a nice warm garage with a nice Roof, new floor, and new door, new windows, and totally re wired and God forbid.... Organised.

Those are the objectives, and they are subject to change you have been warned.

I'll be doing this in my spare time, between Work and family, So it may become a long drawn out affair.
So far, Stage 1 of operation clueless has already begun.

>The leaky flat roof has gone, and been replaced with a nice new slopey one, which doesn't let the outside in.

> The Old metal up and over Garage door that had definatley seen better days, along with the two inch gap at the sides has also given way to a brand new 42mm insulated sectional steel one this weekend.

> And the windows have been measured, and ordered.

I have also measured the garage dimensions in order to build a 3d mock up in sketchup. which will help with costings and layout, and hopefully save on the back pain.

Iv'e just Ordered my VFD, and Electrical enclosure, and I'm just about to pull the trigger on some NEMA 34's and other Electrickery from Ahren at CNCRP's.
Plan A calls for the building of my electronics first while I wait for the New metric based mechanical side of the machine, I'll be getting on with the Garage and building the control box etc, One of which of these things I can do, lets face it, Its not hard using a Hammer, tell me again , where do the nails go in the control box?


Updates Soon, ish...
Rik.

I take it you are building this from a supplied Kit or a supplied set of drawings Rik, most people don't buy electronics until all the design has been done & generally quite a bit of the build as things seem to have a habit of changing, Plan A becomes Plan B etc etc as improvements are suggested or the overal size of the machine changes.
If your building from a kit then it won't matter but if your designing yourself might be best to hold off on buying things like motors just yet.

Hi Martin , Yes, I'm building a kit, well I will be when the new version is released, Its a kit from CNC routerparts, working tabkle size of 48"x48". Iv'e spoken with the Owner Ahren about getting one imported and the best way of doing it avoiding HUGE shipping and her majesties thieving B.. (Ahem Customs) costs.
and he suggested sourcing Extrusion and such over here he even gave me a link to a supplier over in the UK and thats when he mentioned that he intended to release a Euro version of the existing kit using Series 8 extrusion.
thats the kit I'm holding off pulling the trigger on.

I'll be using the DIY electronics kit for CNC routerparts,which uses Gecko 203v's (which I believe are quite good?).
and Hopefully avoiding releasing the magic blue smoke that makes Electrickery not work anymore.

The main reason I'm going for a kit approach is the simple fact I'm pretty much clueless as to what I'd require to build a machine from scratch, granted I'm not that clueless as to what a machine is composed of, IE linear motion system etc.
But I fall down on the details, like, what the hell is an "insert random electronics term here!" and what does it do, which wire goes to that, come to mention it , what size wire should I be using for that?
You know, trivial details like those.

So I chose a kit build for peace of mind, and I'd rather build a machine where I know I've got whats required, I mean, its just like a Meccano kit, albeit a bloody big expensive one.
and I certainly have the confidence to built Kits and attack stuff with powertools.

It's the Dark arts of Electrickery that I'm hoping to Data Mine from you wonderful people on the interwebz.
and Hopefully in return, It may provide some enertainment for all involved.

On another note , ten minutes ago , my latest Ebay purchase just turned up, a HP XW6400 pc base unit, which is destined to be the brain of my machine.
5130 chipset, 2.33ghz dual core x 2 processors 4gb ram, no HD no O/S, £100 inc shipping.
Currently being tested with a spare 250gb drive and Windows 7 64bit OS.

I intend to either dig out my old XP 32bit OS or fork out for a cheap copy of Windows 7 32bit to run MACH on it.
Hopefully the touch screen I've ordered will be OK £30 untested, but worth a punt.
fingers crossed.


I'm building this project as a reward to me for packing in smoking, So far month and a bit of being smoke free, and my wallets not feeling the benefit, I'm just spending the money on shiney machine stuff instead of smoking it.

Ahwell :thumsup:

Rik.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BedlamRik

I'm building this project as a reward to me for packing in smoking, So far month and a bit of being smoke free, and my wallets not feeling the benefit, I'm just spending the money on shiney machine stuff instead of smoking it.

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I'm in a similar boat... After doing at least a pack a day for the last 38 years, I became a non-smoker a fortnight ago!

Well, not quite a fortnight ago... more like 13 days, 19 hours, and 22 minutes ago.....

Makes sense to go down the kit build road if it means you will be able to sleep at night Rik, don't think there really is a right or wrong way to go about it, you either purchase a ready made machine, buy a kit & assemble it yourself or build it yourself from scratch, everyone's different & what suits one person doesn't suit the next.
Best of luck with the stopping smoking, I stopped for nearly 3 months about 20 years ago. Then I was able to get out the hospital bed & go down to the day room for a fag lol Thought many times since then over the years that I should have just packed in there & then, would have saved a fortune & to be honest I didn't really want a fag when I did go for one, only really did it to spite all the people who had been saying I hadn't had a fag for weeks & should give up lol

Looking forward to seeing what you do Rik, i too have stoped smoking, dont know why i ever started, so good luck with that as well!

Hi All,
Just a quick Update, It's been a busy week with real life getting in the way.
But all is not lost, I've pursuaded my secret weapon to come out of the dark ages and join the cool kidz on teh interwebz(tm).
and I've no doubt He'll be along shortly to introduce himself, His Username is Woodentop and I'll let him introduce himself.

He's been beavering away on a Bench design for the router, which will be portable and have space for storing stock.( well thats the plan)
I must say, considering all I did, was say, "Chris make this, its gotta be this big, and moves" as I scribbled some Highly detailed schematics down on paper.
Well , when I say highly detailed, they would be to a caveman.:smug:.

I have also Taken delivery of my Electrical enclosure, and Hitachi Omron X200 vfd. man its pretty, Don't know how to plug it in!, but It's pretty.
I'll post pics as soon as I can.
Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some new windows to put in the gagrage to.

The big new of the week is that the rest of my electronics have been ordered from CNCrouterparts so that the VFD and Box, Arn't Lonely.

Lastly
CNCBrain PC is Alive, but for some reason the bloody touch screen isn't working anymore, all I did was replace a hard drive, and install a 32bit windows 7 O/S on it.
Its still working on the other HD which has 64bit Win7 on it ( shame it won't do for Mach3) It would have saved me all afternoon, well until about ten minutes before I started this post and all afternoon) trying my best not to make the monitor do an impression of superman out of the window......

Did I tell you I like Hammers?

On a plus , I'm still not smoking! Amazing considering!

Anyway, ramble over, I'm going to bed, Pics and stuff soon.

Rik.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BedlamRik

On a plus , I'm still not smoking! Amazing considering!

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Keep it up Rik.

I'm now a confirmed non-smoker of 3-weeks standing.

The only thing that comes anywhere close to getting me puffing again is reading/listening to the bleedin anti-smoking-lobby nanny-state do-gooders control-freaks.... Who are a major part of why it took me so long to stop in the first place!!!

Talking about giving up smoking(45 years now) I never did see any of the money I supposedly saved!
I think the 2 kids spent it all!!

Peter

Hi All, Rik's secret weapon here, I have deciphered the hieroglyphic drawings Rik did, and we have just figured out how to export pictograms from solidworks.


I present you CNC bench MK3, ( dont ask about the other 2) :nevreness:.
Attachment 7531

This bench has a footprint roughly 5'x5', to enable the router sit within the footprint without the motor overhang on the x axis. a side effect (by design) means that a 4'x4' sheet fits quite snugly underneath.
the bench is mounted on castors so its mobile .

We have also sussed out how to play with videos in solidworks ( we think!)

http://youtu.be/XDnM6C6xYtY


hope you like it.
cheers Chris.

Hi All and a very merry christmas to you.
Well I'm glad to say, progress has been made.
My pet joiner Chris came round the other day to assist starting the mamoth task of blitzing the shite out of the Garage, I wanted to use grenades, but he talked me out of it, lest it upset the neighbours:culpability:. This is what we started with.
Attachment 7768

One day, This chaotic shambles will be a useable workspace and the pinacle of order.....one day.
Anyway having looked on in horror we got our priorities sorted.

Attachment 7769

We had several priorites throught out the day:chuncky:.

so we started and went and made a clean spot, well sort of clean, so we could extract the old windows which have seen better days.
Attachment 7770
Next , Window Gone! , did I tell you its bloody cold outside.
Attachment 7771

Now that the windows where out , it came to fitting the new ones, I measured these up, and I ordered them off a nice bloke who knew a bloke... so fingers crossed I did it right.
Attachment 7772
By the way thats Chris , Aka woodentop, checking the sills and my measuring where right?
Attachment 7773
The new frames ready to go in.
Attachment 7774
I'd have taken more photo's but I kept loosing the camera in amongst all the shite. that and the light went, so I've not had time to take any more pics of the installed windows yet, but we did learn a few things , like, you never can have too many priority breaks.

More pics soon.
VBW's Rik.

Do you have windows in your boundary wall overlooking your neighbour's drive?

Would have thought it was more than a tad tricky to get planning permission for that, but pleased that it's possible.

Not that I have any problem with the idea mind you.... I'm fond of the fewer rules the better!

@Andy They have been there since the house was built( 1960's) as far as I know. Both have/had frosted obscured glass. and I'll be adding additional window film.