Kit's Machine

[Kitwn]

How things can change in four months!
When last I wrote in this thread I expected it to be at least another six months, possibly 2022 before there would be anything new to report. Circumstances including the ever changing border arrangements for travelling within Australia and other issues I shan't bore you with mean I have permanently retired to Tasmania a little sooner than I'd expeceted and now have most of a 6m x 6m double garage as my workshop. The bolted together base frame of my CNC router, which sat on a rather dodgy old office desk didn't make the journey from Exmouth, Western Australia to just outside Devonport, Tasmania (roughly equivalent to the journey from Barnsley to Baghdad in distance but with slightly fewer bandits) but the essential bits all arrived safe and sound. A new more solid base was required.

On Monday a nice man at Nubco Steel in Devonport sold me an 8m length of 100 x 50 x 4mm painted steel RHS and cut it into bite-sized chunks at no extra charge. That plus a couple of extra bits will make the new base. Yesterday and today I've been welding them together using the samel 'Bird-Poo' welding technique I perfected when I made the gantry, the only other time in my life when I have used any kind of welder.

With no welding table and no desire to make a mess of the nicely finished and flat floor in the new workshop I had to improvise a level working surface outside using a couple of pieces of nice straight Jarrah timber shimmed level using a spirit level and suitable spacers...different sized lumps of gravel. getting the two 1300mm side beams and 820mm end beams exactly square and parallel involved lots of nudging with a rubber hammer and repeated measurements but once those pieces were fixed correctly the rest of it had no choice but to fall into place. The legs were aligned prior to welding simply by tightening two clamps. The design was deliberately intended to make it simple to construct with limited tools and facilities. I made the decision to put the machine on wheels based on experience with the very difficult to move design I previously had and being uncertain at this stage exacly how I want it placed in the workshop. The was never any hope of getting four legs to sit level on the floor and so the inevitable error on one leg was measured on the flat floor of the workshop and shims applied under the fixings for the relevant wheel.

The final picture shows the almost finished frame with one of the rail/leadscrew/motor actuators sitting on it's mounting bolts to prove the frame is the right size! All that's needed now is to weld on some 25mm square rails above the wheels to help brace the legs and support the cupboard which will contain the controller, VFD and cooling reservoir/pump under the router base.

In fact the final alignment of the machine does not depend on getting this frame exactly correct but as close as possible helps. The next stage is to get the fixed rails fitted and aligned with shims before the gantry goes on and the electrics and motors are put back in place. Then the whole process of aligniment using taught wires as described elsewhere on this forum will start all over again.

I have come to the conclusion that the main cause of potential DIY router builders failing to weld together a suitable frame is failing to start. No, your welding will not be good enough for building a new Forth bridge. No, your welding will not be good enough to offer your service for paid work. But yes, you will be able to weld well enough to make a CNC router if you stop farting about and just get on with it.