Building My First CNC Router, Looking for Advice & Other Info

[Desertboy]

Yep might just have to run them to the shop up the road and let them deal with it haha.

Thanks again for the info mate!

Alex

I've tried to be a real tight ass (Unsuccessfully) I originally wanted to build this for less than £300 lol so far it's costs just over £1500. What I was going to build would have been very rough lol, belt driven, single rail for the gantry nasty <£100 spindle and arduino driven. Glad I upgraded to Hiwin's all round, ballscrews, real electronics and PSU and 2.2kw spindle. I got real lucky this time unless I can find more machines to buy to scrap I won't be so lucky (Cheap) next time.

Next build I will try and be a bit more realistic with the budget from the start. I still have 2 * 1.3m SBR25 and 1*70cm rail and new bearings for a future project as well ;)

[AlexDoran]

Well i threaded one of the extrusions, i started using the tap then drove the M12 bolt in after, not so great. Length is probably scrap now. Will run up the road tomorrow see if they can do it quickly.


Alex

[AlexDoran]

Ok so bit of an update, i spoke to KJN and he gave me some tips on how to do it by hand and said that is best to use a Fluted Spiral Tap, managed to do the threads EASY and used the cordless drill to do it in no time at all, just goes to show with the right technique things are made easy!

However i am really pissed off with the M12 bolts i go from ACCU Group, they are A2 Stainless (55mm Long & 75mm Long), but they only thread 30mm of the bolt, this wouldn't be a problem if the un-threaded part of the bolt was smaller than the threaded part, i honestly don't see how you are supposed to use that bolt in any kind of normal application, i didn't order a bloody shoulder bolt, but that is pretty much what they supply, if you attempted to screw the bolts in, it simply squashed the thread in the extrusions. So i have had to thread the rest of the bolts myself - never again, they are just too tough!

On top of this, i ordered some M5 x 20mm "Precision Spacers" from ebay, well i will let the pictures explain:







I dont have a lathe so what i decided to do was clamp each one in a pillar drill and drive it into sandpaper until the faces were square / true and they were the correct size.



I began to mock up the router using the 3D Printed parts today, found a few things that need sorting already so im glad i went this route of the dry build first.







One of the problems that really made rage was that i need longer spacers (yes the ones i painfully re-worked are no good LOL), the couplers are 5mm longer than the suppliers drawing of them, so i will need to source some longer ones and also longer M5 bolts to match.

Still waiting to hear back from a lot of useless engineering companies regarding prices and lead time for the aluminium plates, i noticed whilst scanning through a build the other day that a guy on here had supplied the aluminium plates for the build and they looked great - however i now cannot find the thread, can anyone point me in the right direction of someone on here who would be able to manufacture them?

Thanks

Alex

[Desertboy]

I ordered these, they were threaded to the end I ordered 50mm length (says 45mm is threaded but the whole 50mm was threaded)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M12-12mm%C...72.m2749.l2649

My gantry mounting plate thickness is 20mm but I recess into the aluminium 5mm so the bolts go 35mm into the extrusion it seems rock solid far far more so than when I assembled it with corners. I have enough corners to do it all without bolts and drilling but it just seemed to make sense to me that a big M12 35mm into the end is going to be stronger than a T nut and £35 drilling cost seemed ok given the hassle it would have been for me to line them up correctly. Having at least 1 (2 is better) corners with T nuts is very useful when you want to assemble it.

[Desertboy]

She's looking real good there! What are you going to use as a bed? I'm going to use MDF for now but limits my ability to use oil misting if I cut aluminium. It's a cheap solution of course but I mostly want to process woods, mdf & ply down the line once I've bought some decent compression bits from USA. I see where you corner mounts are (Where the nema's mount on the Y axis) you left a little overlap which means whatever material you use for a bed if you cut it to the correct size will fit snugly in on gravity alone. I'm going to make mine a vac bed so I'm not going to bother to bolt my bed in T nuts in the extrusion but you could do for extra strength.

Are you going to mount her on the table in the picture?

[AlexDoran]

She's looking real good there! What are you going to use as a bed? I'm going to use MDF for now but limits my ability to use oil misting if I cut aluminium. It's a cheap solution of course but I mostly want to process woods, mdf & ply down the line once I've bought some decent compression bits from USA. I see where you corner mounts are (Where the nema's mount on the Y axis) you left a little overlap which means whatever material you use for a bed if you cut it to the correct size will fit snugly in on gravity alone. I'm going to make mine a vac bed so I'm not going to bother to bolt my bed in T nuts in the extrusion but you could do for extra strength.

Are you going to mount her on the table in the picture?

Hi Desertboy, recessing the gantry extrusions into the side plates sounds like a solid idea, maybe i could incorporate it without changing too much as i have already ordered most parts (except the ally plates).

In terms of the bed, i was expecting to use two types (or maybe even 3), like you say - using MDF as a spoilboard for wood cutouts will likely be one of the methods. I had planned to use a similar method for cutting with misting / coolant, our vacuum pods on our bigger machines here use a Phenlolic Plywood and Bakelight / Tufnol ( Link ), its an expensive material and awful to work with but is very resilient and will be immune to blowing out like normal MDF / Plywood when exposed to moisture. I was planning to use 18mm thick, and machine for those hammer-in threaded nuts to give flexibility in terms of mounting clamps / vices etc.

My 3rd method might be to make a basic vacuum table for machining the 1mm thick interdens / intumescent, however i think a few strips of double sided tape will more than suffice.

Yes you are correct i left those angles to help align any bed i fit easily, i will probably fix it to horizontal extrusions but nothing overkill just 2 or 3 bolts per length.

You say you are ordering quality cutters from the states?! Are there no suppliers here? We use cutters from a host of manufacturers, Calibre, Titman, Trend, FUL to name a few. Our main supplier for most of our tooling is a company called Littlehampton Cutting Tools, their MD is a nice guy called David Viney, excellent service and usually get the standard 20% trade discount when buying Trend cutters etc.

Right now im kind of at a standstill while i try and figure out some more fine details and source some more parts, im looking to get new spacers to mount the Nema23's, however struggling to find M5 x 25mm Threaded Hexagon Standoffs, RS Components sell them but only in bags of 50 (I only need 12).

I also had a price back for the ally plates from a company called Berry & Escott Engineering - The final price was £2624 Inc VAT!!! Does this sound about right? I was only expecting them to be around £1000, and i had left off a few small items that i thought 3D Printed parts would suffice for, and that i would run them myself once the machine was going, i am still looking for the chap on the forum here who had made some plates for another build, still cant find it, if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great.

PSU's & DDCSV1.1 Controller turned up today, i thought the controller was advertised with a PSU but it hasn't arrived with one so i will need to find a cheap 18 - 32v one to power it.

Thanks

Alex

[NB70]

I also had a price back for the ally plates from a company called Berry & Escott Engineering - The final price was £2624 Inc VAT!!!

You could try posting a request for a quote here - RFQ. I know there are a few people here who have helped out others by making the aluminium plates for gantry sides & z-axis.

[Clive S]

i am still looking for the chap on the forum here who had made some plates for another build, still cant find it, if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Is this what you are looking for:- post 119


http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/10880...4311#post94311

[AlexDoran]

You could try posting a request for a quote here - RFQ. I know there are a few people here who have helped out others by making the aluminium plates for gantry sides & z-axis.

I will make a post, thank you.

Is this what you are looking for:- post 119


http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/10880...4311#post94311

That must be the one! Those plates look fantastic, i guess i will approach Chaz and see if he would be willing to give me a quote. Thanks for the link Clive.

Out of interest, i wondered if some of you more experienced members might have 5 minutes to spare, to take a quick look at my drawings and the the quote that was provided and see if you think it is reasonable?

Drawings & Quote

Thanks Again

Alex

[Desertboy]

What electronics have you decided on?

Also did you consider mounting the Hiwin's sideways on? I might be wrong but I went with sideways on because it simplified the build, the less complex your parts (And less part numbers) will reduce your cost but also less complex is easier to troubleshoot and fix potential problems.

My original design had a crazy amount of plates in it before I stopped to think about how to actually make it rather than what looked good in cad lol.