Small rigid router - Design advise needed

[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.

[EddyCurrent]

Wish Eddy could pop over to my place to help a bit:-)

Bit too far I think
Here's a few things to keep in mind;

1. Use a proper metal electrical panel with backplate
2. The size of the panel is not the space you get, it's how big the backplate is and the distance it is from the inside of the door.
3. Two items are sort of fixed, terminals across the bottom or up one side, a door mounted isolator positioned along the edge of the door that opens.
4. Use CAD to draw rectangles representing the guts of the enclosure, i.e. backplate, terminal rail, door isolator, drivers, power supplies, bob + interfaces, fuses/circuit brreakers, relays, trunking, vfd, etc.
5. Just drag the rectangles about to get the best layout, the space you need is going to be bigger than you think.
6. Obey any rules regarding ventilation, and keep large transformers away from sensitive items like the bob
7. Use the cable trunking to route power cables in one and signal cables in the other.
8. The backplate will have an earth point, use this as your earth star point, you can use the DIN rail mounted earth terminals I used to make life easier.
9. Use proper terminating glands for the type of cable you will be using
10. Get a crimping tool and some bootlace ferrules, cable number markers make a better job too.
11. Use tri rated single core cables inside the panel, check the standard colours for panels used in your area, e.g. here it's black for AC power, blue for 24 DC, etc.
12. Make provision for cooling fans, ideally some blowing in and some sucking out. The ones sucking in should draw air through a replaceable filter, you need to keep a higher pressure inside
the panel so dirt is not sucked in through gaps.
13. Use DIN rail to mount everything.
14. Use quite deep trunking, it fills up quickly.
15. there must be more