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

[Lee Roberts]

Here is an idea for your lathe to-do list's:



A pen type die grinder or dremel like tool may be less involved for smaller stuff, chuck/collet size being the issue.

[Zeeflyboy]

Oh that's pretty neat! I can add it to the long list of projects lol...

Enough of this manual lathe nonsense, today I fired up the CNC at last and made the top plate for the new Z-axis.

First fixture:




Roughing pass (6mm 3 flute roughing bit, 8mm depth of cut with 1mm axial engagement, 12,000rpm and 1,500mm/min




Finished top side (3 flute, full depth pass 16mm skimming 0.1mm off each pass with a repeat finish pass, 12,000rpm 1000mm/min and a chamfer pass):




Then I drilled two holes for 6mm dowels to align with machine axis, and probed for zero:




Backside ops done:




Finished part with seals and bearing:

[Zeeflyboy]

Guys, has anyone got any experience or knowledge of these spindles I stumbled across?

They are 80mm body and 220v/2.2kw/400hz so should be a straight drop in/drop out replacement (ideal as it makes it relatively easy to switch to 24,000rpm spindle if needed for composites etc). The difference is that they are 1,500-12,000rpm which would be a lot more suitable RPM range for milling plastics, foams, metals etc and opens up the potential to look at thread mills, reamers and makes drilling more viable.

Only downside is they are significantly more expensive than the 24,000rpm garden variety... which makes it less appealing to take a punt!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Low-...460.0.0.rut9B3

[Desertboy]

Guys, has anyone got any experience or knowledge of these spindles I stumbled across?

They are 80mm body and 220v/2.2kw/400hz so should be a straight drop in/drop out replacement (ideal as it makes it relatively easy to switch to 24,000rpm spindle if needed for composites etc). The difference is that they are 1,500-12,000rpm which would be a lot more suitable RPM range for milling plastics, foams, metals etc and opens up the potential to look at thread mills, reamers and makes drilling more viable.

Only downside is they are significantly more expensive than the 24,000rpm garden variety... which makes it less appealing to take a punt!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Low-...460.0.0.rut9B3

Good find

[Zeeflyboy]

Managed to sneak in a little play time after work today... made the bottom plate for the Z-axis




Top side done:




Rear side - just used 3 dowel pins to locate it this time




Finished part:






Next up will be the back plate, hopefully have time to do that tomorrow after work.

I also re-designed the top bearing support plate as per the advice of routercnc to allow one of the bearings to float into place. For now I've just 3D printed the bearing float plate... Thought it was interesting as I'm using my favourite material for actual functional parts - a PETG Carbon fibre infused filament which is brilliant to work with. Very stiff and strong (as the actress said to the bishop!) and very dimensionally stable too. Finishes nicely with a little light sanding too.

[TadasM]

Guys, has anyone got any experience or knowledge of these spindles I stumbled across?

They are 80mm body and 220v/2.2kw/400hz so should be a straight drop in/drop out replacement (ideal as it makes it relatively easy to switch to 24,000rpm spindle if needed for composites etc). The difference is that they are 1,500-12,000rpm which would be a lot more suitable RPM range for milling plastics, foams, metals etc and opens up the potential to look at thread mills, reamers and makes drilling more viable.

Only downside is they are significantly more expensive than the 24,000rpm garden variety... which makes it less appealing to take a punt!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Low-...460.0.0.rut9B3

Zeeflyboy, I'm also in search for new spindle and maybe this, permanent torque spindle, will look interesting for you too :)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/High...999.262.d7v80G

p.s. great build !

[Ollie78]

Wow. Just Wow.

This is next level stuff. I have just joined this forum and hope to build a machine myself. Your work is very inspiring.
I love the way it is coming together just like the renderings and the 3d printed gaskets are the icing on the cake.

Cant wait to see it in action.

Ollie

[Muzzer]

How did you create the belt in your assembly? Fusion doesn't (yet) have the rather neat belt / chain create / mate function that you can find in the likes of Solidworks, so the only way I could see to have done it would be to model the locus of the belt and extrude it. Then use bitmap to create the text for that finishing touch! Finessing the belt length so that it ended up as a standard length must have been a bit of a fiddle and is one area where the SW belt / chain function is a real bonus.

Nice work!

[Zeeflyboy]

Wow. Just Wow.

This is next level stuff. I have just joined this forum and hope to build a machine myself. Your work is very inspiring.
I love the way it is coming together just like the renderings and the 3d printed gaskets are the icing on the cake.

Cant wait to see it in action.

Ollie

Thanks, good luck with your build!

How did you create the belt in your assembly? Fusion doesn't (yet) have the rather neat belt / chain create / mate function that you can find in the likes of Solidworks, so the only way I could see to have done it would be to model the locus of the belt and extrude it. Then use bitmap to create the text for that finishing touch! Finessing the belt length so that it ended up as a standard length must have been a bit of a fiddle and is one area where the SW belt / chain function is a real bonus.

Nice work!

I used a belt calculator to work out the distance between locus for a standard length belt and then did it as you suggest. A belt/chain wizard would be a welcome addition to fusion for sure - might be worth putting in feature request (if it hasn't already been submitted)... my experience has been that they are very active on implementing requests that get sufficient interest.