1.7*0.74*0.4m Mill / Router building...

[Jonathan]

im still pondering the options for my fourth axis, im leaning towards a 50:1 harmonic with a stepper... it'll only be on light duties

Could you use a timing belt inside the harmonic gearbox as the flexible gear thingy? Milling the inside out pulley would be fun. Probably do it in two semicircles...

youve got me thinking now though.... it would be nice to be able to isolate the gearbox and run it up to lathe speeds

Yep, that's my plan ultimately - to be able to accurately switch between stepper and brushless motor drive.

Made good progress on the router today. Milled and drilled aluminium box section and channel to mount X axis linear bearings. Also drilled and milled one side of gantry to fit that, and put slot in for timing belt to go through. Lots of smoke and blue swarf when drilling the steel. It's a 20mm wide slot so I chain drilled @ 16mm (biggest I have) to save time with the 20mm milling cutter. Will probably make more sense when I put photos tomorrow.



I'm 14 holes and one slot away from finishing :) Plus a bit of assembly and wiring I suppose.