Small rigid router - Design advise needed

[mitchejc]

After Jazz's stern but true words about over design I do feel a little bit guilty to continue posting pictures but heck, if its not right please comment, so we can all learn.

Completed the alu base plates that joins the gantry to the x rails. I've made the plates adjustable in both y and z direction so I don't have issues putting it all together later. Had the spacing of the ball nut mount wrong on my cad drawing so I had to make little adapter plates and pockets.








Ran a belt sander with 80 grit belt over the alu which did give it a rather rather nice brushed kind of finish.






Done and all holes drilled and tapped. Thought these we going take a few hours but ended up more than a days work


Like most of my parts the actual size of these surprised me when seeing them in the flesh and I probably could have gotten away with much thinner material?

[JAZZCNC]

After Jazz's stern but true words about over design I do feel a little bit guilty to continue posting pictures but heck, if its not right please comment, so we can all learn.

NO NO please don't stop posting and my post wasn't aimed to discourage you or anyone else from building like this if they have capabiltys or means.
It soley to let those sitting on the side lines watching and wondering if this is the level they will have to build too know that it really really isn't.

You Sir are doing a marvelous job and for a first build I take my hat to you, thou I think you may have bushel in your thatch loose for doing it like this. . .Lol

Keep it up and don't let my rantings sway you it's the last thing I want.! . . . Just Like I don't want Newbies swayed away.!

[mitchejc]

Thanks for encouragement Jazz! The reason I felt a bit guilty was because I understood what you meant with your post e.g. I've seen this with air rifles as well were a few guys buy and post about extremely high end target rifles even thought they don't know which end should point forward and other newbies think that's what you need to have fun. After bonding the house and downgrading the car to buy a big $$$ gun they realize they actually had more fun shooting beer cans with the little budget plinker rifle they had. Now, I'm that guy that does not know sh%t but I'm still posting my stuff... :-) When all is done and dusted I'll post my "lessons learned" which will hopefully be helpful to other first timers.

Anyway, thanks, I only got great info and advice on here and I'm having a BALL trying to hack this beast together

>>> bushel in your thatch loose
Hehe, yes I get that often from friends. Why is someone considered nuts just because the they have the dedication and commitment of a suicide bomber towards their hobbies

[mitchejc]

A few more pics of progress on X.
Went with the Silyavski 8mm epoxy dams.


Thought I'd cast a T shape on my base to eventually use as reference to do initial setup of the gantry and Z. Things got out of hand as per usual and I had spare epoxy and did the whole base. Used modeling clay for the dams. VERY bad plan, don't do it. It works nicely to build the the dams but its a total bitc$%$ to remove the later.

base done

I made a little tent using a blanket and plastic sheet and stuck a little fan heater under there to get the temp up to about 50degC for proper post curing. You guys in the cold places might find that handy.


X sides painted light gray. The base is just white primer and is not going to be painted as it will be fully enclosed anyway.
X epoxy done and fully cured.

[mitchejc]

Finished the last work on the gantry before it goes on the machine.

Did the last bit of welding for the bottom plates and epoxy dams


When I did this it was raining everyday here in sunny South Africa so I had no choice but to spray inside. This reminded me why I hate to spray indoors. Managed to get it sprayed but also the floor, myself, my tool cupboards and everything else in the near vicinity :-)

starting to make things ready for the epoxy. Did not take photos of the epoxy process but you you know the drill.

[mitchejc]

Some work I've done on the Z parts during the last few weeks while I was waiting for epoxy to cure and paint to dry etc.


Here's some of the laser cut steel parts. Z will be steel and front plate from alu. I wanted my Y and Z carriages on top of each other in sort of a + configuration. I did not want any welding on the actual plates so all the parts just bolts to the plates. This might not make sense but I'll post more pics to hopefully explain it a bit better.

Welding the z ball skrew mount


After some serious welding, grinding and sanding

Managed to get it a little out of square to I'll have to epoxy shim my fixed bearing side a little


welding part of the z stepper mount



NB. Newbies please take note!! These leather gloves were new when I started this project, which should give you an indication of the amount of work that goes into building a CNC. ;-)

but I found this helps a lot, before, after and during the process

[EddyCurrent]

Can't wait to see it all put together, it's a work of art.

[mitchejc]

Most of the parts are now made and I've started assembling things. Still lots of drilling and tapping to do though.

Other newbies take note: When you ever post a picture like this and don't realize you have "slightly" over-designed your little 600x500mm DYI router, then sir, you are an idiot Ok, its not really that heavy but its more than uncomfortable for one person to lift.


setting up x rails




Made these little adjusters front and back of both gantry bases (stainless allencap in pic below) to help adjusting things before I epoxy putty mated the gantry to the alu base plates. I'll use them again for final epoxy shimming if required once the z is on.


Aligning and measuring stuff. Really pleased with how things are turning out and I'm cautiously optimistic I'll get the accuracy I was hoping for.



No mater how well you think things thru beforehand there's always going to be that one hole you have to drill in an impossible place. No turning back now so just have to make a plan...


X and Y rails and X ball skrews fitted. Have to compete the Z back plate before I can fit Y ball skrew


Test fitting parts of the z back plate. Still quite a bit work left on the z but I hope to complete that next weekend.


So close but so far....

[GEOFFREY]

WOW. A little OTT perhaps, but awesome - absolutely mighty. I think that this might just qualify for the best homebrew ever. Geoff.

[mitchejc]

Gents, thanks for the kind words. I really hope the end product is going to be be worth the effort that going in :-)