Small rigid router - Design advise needed

[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 :-)

[mitchejc]

Fitted and aligned the Y ball skrew and complete Z axis, so most of the mechanical parts are done now.

z front plate before all the drilling and tapping


Had to but join rails for my Z due to a change in plans. Was quite surprised as the carriages runs very smoothly over the joint with absolutely no click or resistance, so it seams feasible to join rails if one has to.


z stepper mount



100mm spindle fitted just to see if all the holes line up etc.


Now time to start with the control box which is about where I run out of skill and creativety. Wish Eddy could pop over to my place to help a bit:-) I sort of know what needs to be connected but I cant figure out a good layout to do a neat job with routing all that wires etc.