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

[Jonathan]

Spindle mounted + VFD:


Water cooling... crude but it works. My mum is wondering where her bucket has gone!


Closeup:


Trimming carbon fiber sheet. Having the spindle going off the end of the bed is dead useful:


I intended mounting the VFD there to be temporary, but now I'm thinking I might leave it since it saves on cable. The extra mass on the Z axis isn't much compared to what's already there. If I switch the steppers off the Z axis now drops due to gravity. Before the detent torque of the motor was sufficient to stop this.

[Jonathan]

I've finally got round to uploading the video of cutting a wind turbine blade mould, with my router, to youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puge7MSYoZU

It's, quite a long video but I've tried to use only short clips of each stage so it's not too tedious.

I will edit this post and add some more tomorrow.

[FatFreddie]

I intended mounting the VFD there to be temporary, but now I'm thinking I might leave it since it saves on cable. The extra mass on the Z axis isn't much compared to what's already there. If I switch the steppers off the Z axis now drops due to gravity. Before the detent torque of the motor was sufficient to stop this.

I'd be more worried about the effect of vibration on the VFD.

[Jonathan]

I'd be more worried about the effect of vibration on the VFD.

Yes I thought that too. I mounted it using those foam sticky pad things which, thinking about it, should damp the vibrations a little. Another issue is dust getting into the VFD which would reduce the efficiency of the heatsink.

[FatFreddie]

Carbon fibre dust is conductive...

[Jonathan]

Carbon fibre dust is conductive...

True, and texalium which I'll machine at some point is going to be even worse. Apparently carbon fiber dust is worse than asbestos, so I will allways use the dust extraction with it anyway.

[Jonathan]

I got the steel on Wednesday. Adey Steel were very organised and helpful. They cut the steel to the lengths I specified. They did accidently not give the offcuts from cutting my steel that I requested, so I went back and got it plus they gave me some box section free of charge along with some 6mm plate to practice welding with!! I'll use some of the extra box section to make the frame stronger if required..

Since then I have used my metal bandsaw to cut the box section - it's cutting very close to square now. I'm currently drilling lots of holes in it which will be used to support the bed at different heights. I intend to motorise the bed, effectively making it an F axis, to minimise the overhang of the Z-axis for each job.

I've ordered the ballscrews for X and Y (RM2510 and RM1610) - the tracking says they should arrive in one week, so my aim is to have the frame done by then.

The basic shape of the frame is going to be the same as in post #113, with a few extra pieces to strengthen it. The front is 'missing' to allow the Z axis to protrude past it at the end of the travel. I've used 50mm and 60mm, 3mm thick box section and 120x60mm, 3.6mm rectangular in places where I wanted a bit more strength.

Here's a couple of photos:

[Jonathan]

Slow progress with the frame, I've been getting distracted making other bits - such as spindle mounts:



I've drilled most of the holes required in the frame, just got a few more to work out. I think it's best to drill them all using the milling machine ... except I can't really do that with the holes for the linear rails as I'm not confident I will be able to weld the frame parallel enough. I'm using the bed support rails to clamp the three upright pieces of the frame in place to weld, not sure about the rest...maybe some sash cramps:

[Jonathan]

Finally got the gantry mounted. Started making the aluminium plates to mount the X-axis bearings on 50mm wide, then realised it needed to be 60mm so that was a waste :sad: ... anyway, picture:



The important point is I now don't have very high gantry sides, so the machine should be much more rigid.

I spent all of today working out where to put these holes for the Y-axis ballscrew bearing mount:

[Jonathan]

Got it all together ... and it works!





The last photo was after cutting 3mm off the edge of a sheet of 18mm MDF in one pass at 6000mm/min.

Y-axis rapid speed is 16000mm/min, X-axis is 10500mm/min and Z is 8000mm/min. The Y-axis will do much more, but I've left it at that as I don't see much point having it twice as fast as the X-axis. I prefer to keep the resolution good...

I think I'll try cutting some aluminium now.

(More to follow shortly, + video)