Design Study: Rail Inline With Ball Screw

[Bravin Neff]

I would consider moving the ballscrews just outboard of the ends of the gantry. This allows a more rigid fixing of gantry to carriage feet. If the ballscrew mounts are on outrigger brackets welded to the outside of the frame tubes, mounting pads for the ballscrew bearings could be machined at the same setting as the frame tubes.

Great point and idea. I'll try to mock something up. I am definitely motivated by making the machining of the machine as straightforward as possible and only requiring a vertical mill. When I see machines, similar to what I just mocked up except the ballscrews are outside of the frame, mounted to the outside frame vertical wall, this is either (1) asking for a large boring mill or horizontal machining center, with (2) multiple setups, just to machine the ballscrew mounting pads. That starts to add up fast. Or the pads are painstakingly fitted by hand with shims and numerous iterations of racking the gantry back and forth to get alignment, and then I question how flat and parallel the mounting surfaces can be.

The idea of being able to machine the top of the long rails is so far from reality for most of us that I doubt if many have designed for that! I'm in the "if I can't machine it, build in adjustment" camp...

I am surprised to read this. Granted, my machine is a little on the small side compared to many I see here, but it will fit on an 80" x 40" machine. The going shop rate is $60/hour near me, so I am counting on all the machining work coming in just a few hundred $. Given how much money people invest into designing and building their own CNC routers, I would thinking have the rail surfaces and mounting pads machined would be easy to justify.

[routercnc]

My current machine uses something similar. I was trying to get the gantry sides as stiff as possible, and make a good connection to the rails. Fitting the ballscrew in there as well was just convenient.

[Bravin Neff]

My current machine uses something similar. I was trying to get the gantry sides as stiff as possible, and make a good connection to the rails. Fitting the ballscrew in there as well was just convenient.

Haven't seen that before. Great job!

[Ger21]

I am surprised to read this. Granted, my machine is a little on the small side compared to many I see here, but it will fit on an 80" x 40" machine. The going shop rate is $60/hour near me, so I am counting on all the machining work coming in just a few hundred $. Given how much money people invest into designing and building their own CNC routers, I would thinking have the rail surfaces and mounting pads machined would be easy to justify.

In nearly 15 years of reading a majority of the DIY forums daily, I can count on one hand the number of people who have had their welded frames machined.
The reasons, as stated above, are probably that most people don't know where they could have it done, at a reasonable cost.

[Bravin Neff]

In nearly 15 years of reading a majority of the DIY forums daily, I can count on one hand the number of people who have had their welded frames machined. The reasons, as stated above, are probably that most people don't know where they could have it done, at a reasonable cost.

I am sure you are right. I have also noticed there seems to be very little overlap between the DIY CNC world and the commercial CNC world. I have worked and operated CNC machines my entire working life, but only have discovered the DIY world a few months ago. And now that I'm excited by it, I talk about it all the time with colleagues and customers, and I have yet to come across a single one of them that knows anything about it or who dabbles in it. I find that remarkable.

[Neale]

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I am surprised to read this. Granted, my machine is a little on the small side compared to many I see here, but it will fit on an 80" x 40" machine. The going shop rate is $60/hour near me, so I am counting on all the machining work coming in just a few hundred $. Given how much money people invest into designing and building their own CNC routers, I would thinking have the rail surfaces and mounting pads machined would be easy to justify.

It's an interesting point, and I wonder if there is a difference between UK and US here. I have no idea where I would go to find a jobbing engineering shop anywhere near me, let alone one with that kind of capacity. My own machine top rails are roughly 1.8m long, 1m separation, on a floor-mounted machine. It would be great to have had that machined but like most (UK) folks on this forum, I ended up with an epoxy bed instead. My background is IT so I have very few contacts in the engineering world - I wonder if anyone else knows how likely/easy it would be to find machining capacity like that, available at an acceptable cost, in the UK?

[Bravin Neff]

It's an interesting point, and I wonder if there is a difference between UK and US here. I have no idea where I would go to find a jobbing engineering shop anywhere near me, let alone one with that kind of capacity. My own machine top rails are roughly 1.8m long, 1m separation, on a floor-mounted machine. It would be great to have had that machined but like most (UK) folks on this forum, I ended up with an epoxy bed instead. My background is IT so I have very few contacts in the engineering world - I wonder if anyone else knows how likely/easy it would be to find machining capacity like that, available at an acceptable cost, in the UK?

I am sure regional differences apply, and not just between countries. Where I live and work, there are over 800 CNC machine shops within a 50 mile radius of where I live. I also have colleagues elsewhere in the country that have to travel 500 miles in order to reach fewer shops. I am sure there are hot spots in the UK for manufacturing.

[cropwell]

I am sure regional differences apply, and not just between countries. Where I live and work, there are over 800 CNC machine shops within a 50 mile radius of where I live. I also have colleagues elsewhere in the country that have to travel 500 miles in order to reach fewer shops. I am sure there are hot spots in the UK for manufacturing.

Every little job that I have deemed would benefit from machining (generally milling or surface grinding) I have received exorbitant quotes for (I believe they are known as 'F**K OFF' quotes). The main reason given that setting up is the bulk of the work (£200 ish min) and so a one-off job is not economically viable.

If I wanted 1000+ machining, then I would guess the set-up would be amortized quite magically.

Basically, finding a small machine shop in UK that is struggling for work and prepared to talk sensible pricing for small jobs, seems to be difficult.