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

[Jonathan]

I've started welding it at last!
I clamped everything together with M12 studs and G clamps:



First weld was fine:



Didn't need the hammer to get the slag off...the wind did that for me!



Some tacking:



Then I got worse...

[Jonathan]

I've finished one side of the frame... took all day! It's nice and flat/square :)



Got some tidying up to do now! ...



I'm going to get the other side of the frame clamped up now, and weld it tomorrow. I think I'll clamp the other side to the side I've just welded.

[Jonathan]

I have now welded the second side of the frame. I clamped it to the other side to get it flat etc:



I then tacked it together and welded the horizontal joins ... then rotated it and did the same etc:



My welding is getting much more consistent. Still probably should have chosen something simpler for my first welding project!



Now I have positioned the remaining pieces to work out how to proceed:



I decided to use some spacers from steel tube. I'll put a few more in and use them to clamp the in between pieces. Cats were interested...



Any comments / ideas welcome.

[Jonathan]

thats looking good ,when will it be finished?

Thank you..... as soon as possible! I've just moved the frame up into the workshop since I decided it's best to weld it in there. I'm going to get it clamped together now (just stopped for a tea break!) and weld tonight.
I think realistically another two weeks to get it running, and some more for it to actually be finished. When the frame is done I still have quite a few parts to make to mount the X and Y-axis ballscrews and rotating ballnuts.

[Jonathan]

Frame clamped together then tack welded:



Some welding, then rotate it...


A weld:


Done!

[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)

[Jonathan]

I tried cutting a sign ... the test one with V-carve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThVYR...=youtube_gdata

I need to get a cutter which has a sharper point ... that one has a 3mm or so flat on the end which spoilt things somewhat.

[Jonathan]

Just tried cutting aluminium ... no problem! I put a bit of cutting fluid in the slot as it went round at 800mm/min, 0.85mm depth of cut with 6mm 2 flute HSS cutter @ 9000rpm. A lot faster than I could have used on my milling machine.

The edges are reasonably nice, still room for improvement but not bad I reckon for a first attempt. Next time I will add a climb milled finishing pass. Better than the milling machine...





Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ossjj...=youtube_gdata

I'm happy now that the conversion was worth it ... I always wanted the machine to be able to cut aluminium at a decent feedrate. I might try a relief with aluminium and ball nose cutter next.

[luke11cnc]

nice cnc you have there Jonathan are you going to paint it at some point ??