My Build - I blame you lot for this....!

[bjamc13]

Dear Steve,

Absolutely amazing. Very nice and clean design. I would like to build a similar construction like your. You used 80 x 40 alu extrusion for bed. I have 50x50 extrusion for cheap price. What do you think: bolting together two of them would give the same rigidity like one 80x40? Or it is not the way to go?

[HiltonSteve]

Dear Steve,

Absolutely amazing. Very nice and clean design. I would like to build a similar construction like your. You used 80 x 40 alu extrusion for bed. I have 50x50 extrusion for cheap price. What do you think: bolting together two of them would give the same rigidity like one 80x40? Or it is not the way to go?

Thanks for the comments...

The reason for using 80 x 40 extrusion was so that I had a nice large surface area on the ends to help pull everything square when I bolted it together, and also in the 80 x 40 there are 2 mounting holes in each end which I tapped out M12, this meant I could put some decent size bolts in and really tighten them up to keep everything solid.

I can not see why 50 x 50 will not work on its own but putting 2 together to make 100 x 50 will certainly be better. Whether you need to do it depends on what you are thinking of using the machine for and how solid you want to make it.

Quick tip, obvious maybe, but when you drill the two endplate's that the extrusions are bolted to then clamp them together and drill all the mounting holes at the same time through both plates, it will make life a lot easier when trying to square the bed/machine up.

[bjamc13]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the advices. Of course I will make the drilling as you suggested. I got the 15 m of this 50x50 extrusion for 80 EUR, so I don't have bad feeling using them all to build a solid machine.
I intend to mill wood, plastic and alu, but not the harder metals.
It seems that ZAPP has quite good prices for ballscrews&nuts, it's very likely that I will order from there. I have used ball screws, but they are heavy weight really: 40x12 in three sizes 400mm/10000mm/1080mm. I don't know if I will use them ever, because I don't want to waste so much power to move the gantry with these brutal screws. But if someone has good ideas how to utilize them .....

[irving2008]

40mm dia ballscrews are going to really kill your acceleration, were these the ones advertised recently on ebay, ex VMC1010 machining centre?

[routercnc]

Would gearing them down 3:1 (giving 4mm per turn instead of 12mm, and helping to turn all that inertia) make them more useable?

[HiltonSteve]

The pitch on the screw may not be the only problem, think about the size of the ballnuts. Finding space to fit them in and also making mounts for them could end up more expensive than downgrading to a more usable size like 16mm x 5mm pitch.

[HiltonSteve]

Eventually got time to finish off my coolant upgrade this afternoon.

Got the tank and pump from Axminster, bargain at £130!

Made up some side plates out of 2mm stainless steel and screwed them in position with some neoprene 3mm rubber sandwiched inbetween to stop any leaks. Worked well and no leaks so far!

Did a few test cuts, 30mm dia pockets at 5mm deep, cutting 1mm at a time with a 6mm HSS 2 flute slot drill. Spindle running at 4000rpm with a feedrate of 800mm/min. Noticeable difference now it is flooded with coolant.

Need to tidy pipe work up but will do that once I have got hold of some energy chain and then will do cabling at same time.

Will sort your plates out tomorrow Lee.

[blackburn mark]

POSH!! its doing my head in watching some of you buggers cutting... im still stuck with cutting my finger nails :)

[Lee Roberts]

I know just how you feel Mark, only i'v not got any nails left to cut .

Cheers Steve looks good mate, dose the waste get filtered and sent back to the res or ?

Did you get my package ?

Also what noticeable differences have you noticed :question:

Lee

[HiltonSteve]

Cheers Steve looks good mate, does the waste get filtered and sent back to the res or ?

Yes Lee, the coolant returns to the tank were there is a filter to catch any swarf, also the tank has baffles inside so that any swarf that gets through the filter ends up at the opposite end of the tank to the pump pick up pipe.

Did you get my package ?

Yes I did, had to go and collect it this morning, thanks for that! Will get your couplers sorted this week and will try and have everything back to you for the weekend. Did not get round to finishing your plates yesterday as beer and other stuff got in the way, will have them done tonight though.

Also what noticeable differences have you noticed :question:

Difference cutting aluminium now is that I am cutting with a 6mm standard HSS 2 flute slot drill with no problems at all, not tried any of the alimaster cutters yet but at the moment I can't see any need to. Also it means once I set the machine running I can switch the lights off shut the door and go and have a cup of tea and a hobnob then come back when its finished!