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

[AlexDoran]

Ahh man what a nightmare not sure im going to be able to get this to work then, spoke to someone at KJN who said that they tap M12 on the ends all the time? Must be doing it on a mill surely?

Alex

[Desertboy]

Ahh man what a nightmare not sure im going to be able to get this to work then, spoke to someone at KJN who said that they tap M12 on the ends all the time? Must be doing it on a mill surely?

Alex

They have a machine for tapping the ends with clamps it's done horizontally (They can tap 6m lengths), you could ring round some engineering places local to you shouldn't cost you much to have them tapped it's not a hard job with the right setup.

Or put a request up in the jobs section on here someone on here will have the right kit.

I think tapping machines spin very slow but with very high torque so you can't do it with a stand drill press or dewalt. Impact gun might work BUT you'll probably just break even the biggest and strongest taps. I've seen decent impact guns by Snap on break seized wheel nuts in 1/2 lol.

My dad's company repairs lorries so I have access to some beefy and expensive kit.

How I did though was plough the bolt in the first few mm to centre the extrusion then I bolted 90° corners with T nuts to keep the extrusion straight whilst I drove the bolts in tight. Then unbolted the corner and T nuts and moved to the next one.

This won't work for the gantry but because mine was recessed it wasn't a problem as the aluminium couldn't twist when driving the bolt in. So I think the gantry will need to tapped or you will need to recess the extrusion into the gantry mounting plate.

Maybe you make a jig to keep the extrusion straight whilst you bolt it in. I wouldn't stress too much this is a solvable problem a PITA maybe but every first router build has to have it's drama it's traditional.

I learnt my lesson on the next build I'm going to go round either Zeeflyboy's, Routercnc or Clive S's house and steal their router, Chaz is safe with Thor I don't have a crane and I think my pickup would snap in 1/2 lol.

[AlexDoran]

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

[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.