The Green Machine!

It's been a long and dirty road, but the Minisink Valley Middle School Technology Department proudly presents..... "The Green Machine!"

X travel: 44.8"
Y travel: 44.8"
Z travel: 9"

The frame is made from 6x3" 3/8" cold rolled tube steel welded to 2" tube legs and 2" angle iron for the supports and table. The gantry is formed from 7x2" .25" tube steel and weighs approximately 150 lbs with the z axis attached. All axis have 20mm supported linear rails, 5mm pitch ballscrews, 387 oz/in motors. The motor controller is the awesome Gecko G540 and a 12 amp regulated power supply. The spindle package is a typical 2.2kw Chinese spindle with Huanyang inverter. Tying the whole package together is an old Dell gx270 workstation running xp and mach3.

So far after working out a few kinks, the router is running like a champ! We have cut several different projects including a large sign using a 120 degree 1.5" diameter V bit. it bogged through the material incredibly well. As soon as we straiten out some software usability issues with Mach 3, we would be able to have students run and produce their own projects!

For more pictures and to see some of the build progression of this machine check out: http://www.minisink.com/~rbudd/

I love it. I am an art teacher in an ohio middle school looking to build something like you have. What is you top speed?

Thanks,

We get about 200-250 ipm. We could get over twice as much if we used 10mm pitched screws but it is plenty fast enough for the kids and what we cut. Not to mention the 5 mm pitched screws give us plenty of power to cut aluminum! I still have to do some cleanup on the wiring and make some odds and ends parts for usability but for all intensive purposes it's a fully functioning machine.

i had shop in jr high. we made book ends. you have takin it to a new to level.

Thanks

We are always looking for new ideas and activities to do with the kids. We really like to do renewable energy stuff but we are having a hard time finding cost effective supplies. This machine helps teach automated manufacturing, rapid prototyping and technological systems.

Here is an update on the green machine. This info was originally a private message but I thought the info would be beneficial for everybody looking at this design.

There are a few changes I would make. First, the motors are plenty powerful enough to cut al. however, you need a good cooling system for the bit to cut a depth. Second the linear bearings are not as strong as I would like and slow the gantry to flex and tilt backwards. To combat this I would install longer bearings spaced further apart on the y axis. You would need about a foot between each bearing and a longer rail to get more travel.

Third, I replaced the thrust bearings in the bearing blocks with higher quality parts and replaced the spiral motor connectors with lovejoys.

Last, I machined a heatsink for the g540 because it would shut down on hot summer days.

She is still running strong after 4? years! That machine has made our technology club a lot of money.

That's pretty awesome!