My baby 15" x 15" machine

[martin54]

I got a price from a local company DC, was quoted £36 for a 7.5 mtr length of 50 x 50 3mm box. Downside was that they would only sell me a full length which I didn't really see being a problem with what I would need. Company is called GM Steel but not sure if they would ship or what shipping would be,
Point is that if you have someone local it is sometimes a good idea to pop in & speak to them, had other local suppliers for various things who have offered decent prices when you went to see them, especially if they knew you had been looking on the net. Face to face is always better than phoning from my own experiences.

[JAZZCNC]

I got a price from a local company DC, was quoted £36 for a 7.5 mtr length of 50 x 50 3mm box. Downside was that they would only sell me a full length which I didn't really see being a problem with what I would need. Company is called GM Steel but not sure if they would ship or what shipping would be,
Point is that if you have someone local it is sometimes a good idea to pop in & speak to them, had other local suppliers for various things who have offered decent prices when you went to see them, especially if they knew you had been looking on the net. Face to face is always better than phoning from my own experiences.

Martins correct shop around at your local steel merchants. I pay between £24-28 for 50x50x3 at my local steel merchant. 7.5mtrs is standard lengths they come in so if they won't deliver or don't have transport suitable to move then Workout your rough lengths then take a grinder with cutting blades and rough chop to size or lengths that are more manageable. Most steel merchants will let you plug into wall before miss a sale.?

[martin54]

Same applies if they know you can buy online at a much cheaper price, some places will stick to their guns but others will try to give a better price rather than lose a sale completely.
Never thought about asking if I could plug in to cut lengths Jazz as I thought they may want to charge me a cutting fee. Generator, chop saw & grinder go in the back of the car & away I go lol.

[Jonathan]

It doesn't take long to cut through 50x50 3mm box section by hand with a hacksaw...just make the minimum number of cuts to get it in the car and do the rest at home.
The company I got my steel from cut it to length for me for no extra charge, but evidently they didn't know how to use a tape measure as some of the lengths were wrong! Luckily they were too long so I sorted it out. Not complaining though as they gave me some freebies to practice welding on which were very useful :)

[martin54]

It doesn't take long to cut through 50x50 3mm box section by hand with a hacksaw............ The older you get the more difficult it becomes Jonathan lol
Think I have reached the age where I need all the help I can get !!!!!

[wilfy]

i love how cutting box section is more interesting than my machine :(

one bit of input for anyone cutting steel, make sure you get nice thin steel cutting discs they slice through like butter, big thick grinding discs are no good for precision work.

i'll have an update 2nite.. it would have been nice for some input on wether i should use the 20mm alu plate or stick with steel and use 60x40mm box

you my friend are a star :D i've bookmarked them for future reference.



after the great advice from jazz earlier i've set about re-designing and i acctually feel much better about the one and it should bring everything close to rails aswell as giving me less work

Attachment 7244


the green is the front where the router is bolted to, i aint had time to put that in but wanted to make this post before i go bed. it is just 50x25mm box with a 5mm steel plate on the front it's opaque so u can see the bearings underneath

the 2 rear views are my current options... due to the bearings being 60 and 62mm wide i need to either use 60x40mm box x 3 the total here is 900mm over the 3 pieces which using a rough math from jazz's earlier post i get them 3 piece at 4-5kg total or i could use a big 15?20? mm slab of alu as per the 3rd picture.. this will bring the design 20mm closer to the Y rails but more crucially it'll weigh a hell of alot less...

i would rather stick with steel as this is going to save me alot of money a rough guess see's the piece of the alu at £30 and the steel around £10 and thats before i go to a supplier with a full order with the hope of a price reduction... does anyone have any good reason why i should choose the alu over the steel?

[wilfy]

ok i pushed ahead with the design with the thought of keeping the 60x40 in.

so this is 90% of the way there i just need to chuck the motors in.



the colour coding is basicly for me so i know which parts form each axis... for the x axis i'm looking at twin screws driven by one motor from the centre with a timing belt, i would have liked to have used one screw to keep the cost down but i imagine you guys will tell me thats a big no?

can you guys see anything wrong with this design?

[martin54]

Wilfy ok I'm new as well but do you really need 2 screws on a machine this small. I know why they say use 2 but that's normally on a much wider machine.

Oh and sorry about hijacking the thread, I would have comented on the build if I could have added anything constructive.

[D.C.]

Sorry about that wilfy, my fault for asking non specific questions on your build thread. I'm so used to shopping online that I hadn't considered doing some actual real world shoppin, it seems so antiquated, like having CD's or a television...

[wilfy]

haha it's ok i was only joking anyway.... if i need something answering i'll go straight to someone in a message, i just like to see the discussions round here as it helps me to understand why people recommend the things they do...

2 ballscrews on the X axis is me really covering my arse, if someone says its not needed then thats brill for me.. i just considered the extra screw as this thing is starting to look quite heavy.

the total width of the the whole machine is around 800mm which is double the cutting area i'm happy for this to be as it is, i know i have likely over engineered some parts but i'd rather spend a little bit extra to be sure.. also it might help should i want to machine alu further down the line.

if anyone can shed some light and let me know if i need 2 screws or not and also say if i need to strengthen anything else then that would be great. any information needed just say and i'll sort it out.