Hey thanks. Without this forum this would not be possible. Even if you bought a kit there would be so many questions. CNCing is so much fun. I'm already planning my build. Funny how common that is.
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Made it to HD. Picked up the skins for the torsion box, gas pipe, threaded rod, and random fasteners. It was great that HD cut up the wodd and pipe for me. Big time and effort saver there. That allowed me to get most of the torsion box glued up. Love how this build squares itself. Seems like everyone who builds a joes2006 shows pictures of the torsion skin being clamped while gluing. Would hate to go against the grain.
Ordered a Microcarve z axis assembly. John is excellent and I'm very excited to have that part for my build.
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Been a challenge to find time lately to get any work done on the build. Few days ago I thought it a productive day when I had enough time to secure my wasteboard with 2 screws. Life is interesting when you have a kid.
Nonetheless in the last two days I got some cutting done and was able to complete x axis torsion box. Very happy to be past that portion of the build. Using positioning pins I was able to recut the gantry box in preperation for the z-axis assemble from microcarve. Could've used a table saw but it's unaccessible in the shed until the snow melts a bit more.
The cutting to do list
- front plate for the gantry box, x-axis blearing plate and bearing walls (nested in one cut).
- spacer plate for the x-axis assembly
- bearing blocks for the x & y
- router mount
- dust shoe
Non cutting
- Assemble bearing slides for the x and y
- Order leadscrew for the longer x-axis
- Make table/stand
- Assemble (good times)
Bring me to painting. Ug. Not sure what I'll do here. I'll seal the edges but painting? If I have too, which might be mandatory on such a nice machine, it'll be dark grey hammered or white. Still researching painting MDF and hammered paint.
Not sure why a bag of bolts makes me happy. It just does.
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So true about the kid(s) and the bolts!
As to the hammered paint+MDF, I always had to seal the surface very well or the light components of the hammered paint soak in and leave the mica bits on the surface in a silverish film. I used a thick water-based polyurethane from Home Hardware to seal it, and protect it from the occasional coffee cup.
How did you cut the longer parts on the jgro been searching but can't come up with anything.
But hey thanx for posting!!!http://htcf.info/17.jpg
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Busy but productive weekend. Was able to get some linear slides assembled. Only some because I miscounted the number of 5/16 nuts required. Had to drill out the threads of half the nuts between the bearing and aluminum angle for the x linear slides. The bolts that are available to me are not threaded the entire length leaving a good 1/4 where you cannot put a nut. I don't have many stationary tool but I do have a drill press. Times like these I'm thankful for it. I was going to use the slides off the JGRO but none if the angles are 1 1/4".
Cut a few more parts, glued the z axis carriage, and test fitted. For sure I'll have to sand the rails. Made a slight sizing error on the x rail bearing adjustment. It's about 1/16" off which makes it difficult to use the bolts as originally designed. Hopefully glue will do it's job. will glue a bit more support on the top just to be safe.
Did I mention I'm getting a microcarve z axis? Excited about that. To accommodate the assembly I bought a 1" hdpe cutting board that I will use as a spacer plate better the assembly and carriage. The front plate on the carriage has been changed to 3/4" mdf. The hdpe plate should be strong enough to be drilled and tapped.
I felt like a rushed a bit this weekend trying to get so many small tasks done. I have to slow down and do better work.
My jgro days are numbered.
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Many of us have smaller gantry CNC's that we use to build our Joes2006. I have a JGRO and most of the parts can be cut in one job. The long torsion box parts cannot. The options are reducing the parts into two pieces and gluing them together or using them as a template to use with a hand router, getting someone else to cut them for us, or as I will try to explain cutting one long part in muliple cutting jobs.
I don't have any of the real Joes2006 files at work so I'll use simple drawing I made in paint. Material thickness is 1/2" for this example. It's important that during the whole cut to maintain your x & y zero.
Step 1 - long part
Nothing to say here. Just our work file to start with
Attachment 181307
Step 2 - Setup postioning pin cuts.
I start by drawing out a box to the length I want to break the cuts into. I then add 1/8" circles to where the postioning pins are. I save this file into two seperate files named part1_cut1 and part1_cut2.
Attachment 181308
Step 3 - Seperating the cut jobs. part1_cut1
Delete the section of your part outside the box.
This step will produce 2 jobs.
1 Drilling. Set to drill all 4 holes. Positioning holes 1 will be drilled to 1" depth and positioning holes 2 will be drilled to 1/2" depth. In my case I use 1/8" endmill.
2. Profile cut the part. In this example there is a open vector which I cut outside the line.
Attachment 181309
Step 4 - part1_cut2
I open the second file part1_cut2. I delete all vectors within the box other than the positioning holes, then move all the vectors over until the second holes are on top of the first holes. I set a profile cut. No further drilling cuts is required for positioning.
Attachment 181311
Step 5 - Cutting parts
1. Run drilling part1_cut1. When complete secure the wood with screws into the first position holes. #8 counter sunk work well for me.
2. Run Profile part1_cut1
3. Remove screws and slide the wood until positioning holes 2 are on top of positioning holes 1. Screw in positoning holes 2 with the same screws.
4. Run part1_cut2 profile.
That should do it.
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Got the gantry together. It'll have to come apart at least once more to attach the space plate for mounting the z-axis assembly and put in a 1/2" spacer for the top bearing in the carriage. I had to adjust the tension on the top bearing slides until there was almost not adjustment left to get out all of the play. After doing so I stood on the base of the gantry and tried to deflect the carriage. If there was I couldn't tell. A good sign. I didn't sand the rails so it's not as smooth as I'd like but the galvanizing does seem to be flattening out as I move the carriage more.
Time to build a table to put this thing on.
Attachment 181442
Package arrived. The microcarve z-axis. It's small and compact. First impression, this thing is not big enough to handle my router. 1/2" shafts can't be enough can they? We shall see but I could not deflect the rails by hand. Something about being case hardened. Fit and finish are impeccable and so very smooth. If it doesn't work out for my joes2006 it'll certainly see use else where. Maybe a A4 desktop router? 3D printer? Lazer cutter? Probably none of the above as it seems it will be up to the task of holding a 800kw spindle. Exciting. Sorry no pictures mounted yet. I rushed to the post office during lunch so no time to play. Maybe tonight I'll cut the mounting plate. Had to wait to confirm the mounting holes. Will try with MDF first. HDPE next.
This weekend I'll tackle the stand and bearing blocks. Probably the router mount as well. After that's done all I have is the long x axis leadscrew to arrive in the mail and the JGRO will be no more. Good little soldier but time to move on.
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