Aluminium Extrusion Router Build

[routercnc]

Looking good

[NFryer]

Looking good

Thanks, it's not going too badly. I want the machine to look good, hence countersinking all the cap head bolts, tucking away the motors and not having them stick out and rounding and slope cutting bit like the gantry end plates. It probably won't add any to the performance of the machine but it should look good and sleek.


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[Richard]

I have yet to build a cnc router, but your build looks amazing! No access to a CNC mill or even a manual and you are turning out great parts...

Looking forward to seeing the finished machine and also seeing how it performs.

The design looked spot on and your skill in machining the parts is something to aspire to.

I am guessing you are an expert in woodworking!

Keep the updates coming!

[NFryer]

I have yet to build a cnc router, but your build looks amazing! No access to a CNC mill or even a manual and you are turning out great parts...

Looking forward to seeing the finished machine and also seeing how it performs.

The design looked spot on and your skill in machining the parts is something to aspire to.

I am guessing you are an expert in woodworking!

Keep the updates coming!

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the compliments, I have done quite a bit woodworking in the past. I've never however done any metalwork with the accuracy needed to build a CNC machine. I took a while to learn the basics of Fusion 360 and model the design and this has helped a lot with visualising the design. You can also isolate individual parts so it's easy to layout, check and make the parts.


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[NFryer]

I've now got the inductive limit sensors mounted for the z and y axes. I've got a 2 core CY cable to supply the power and a 4 core CY cable for the signal outputs. I used a couple of 5 way terminal blocks to connect the power leads of each sensor. I also tested a sensor and it seems to work well on aluminium with the output dropping to 0V when it is approximately 4mm away from it.

I've also got the aluminium profile that I need to build the frame from KJN Aluminium Profiles. They provided me a very good customer and the profile seems to be cut very accurately and pretty much bang on square as well.

Finally I had a bit of a puzzling problem with the Y axis ballscrew. As I was moving the Z axis along it would get harder to move towards either end of the travel. After a bit of measuring and checking I found that the 15mm plate the ballnut mount is fastened to was actually about 15.5mm thick which was enough to cause the problem. I took it apart and skimmed 0.5mm from it around the ballnut mount and put it back together. I tried to put the ballscrew back and found annoyingly that I couldn't. Apart it came again to skim the whole area to the side of the mount to allow the ballscrew to slide in.




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[NFryer]

I've made a bit more progress in my CNC router build, and have made a start in building the basic frame out of 80*80 aluminium extrusion, some simple plates that I made and some 80mm aluminium equal angle. I've also made some simple plates to bolt onto the bottom of the legs to which I can screw in some levelling feet. With the plates I smoothed the edges on a disc sander and gave them a overall sanding with wet and dry sandpaper. Not entirely necessary but they do look neat and a bit shiny.




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[routercnc]

Nice work there !

[CNCKitMan]

tasty mate!

[Nr1madman]

Those are some sexy plates :D

Well done!

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[NFryer]

Just a small progress update on my build, unfortunately I haven't had as much time recently to get on with the build. I have drilled and tapped the plates which have the x axis linear rails fastened to them and started on the x axis end plates which support the x axis ballscrew. On one I still need to rout out the motor mount which will be slightly different than on the original plan as the pulley on the ballscrew is a bit further away from the end plate than I thought it would. I intend to rout out a simple rectangular hole in the end plate and make a 6mm plate with the adjustment slots to bolt to the end plate. I've also accurately measured the cross rails and x axis rails and got some 0.25mm stainless steel shim stock to take up any differences. To get an accurate length I used a shorter length of aluminium profile and measured the difference between it and the piece I wanted to know the length of. That way you don't need to measure the entire length of the profile.




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