After completing my 1st build and using machine for more than 3 years i have come to point where i need upgrade.
My first machine was intended mainly for wood and some light aluminium cutting and now machine is only working aluminium and some rare light wood cutting
1st build was all aluminium and now i'm having some troubles with vibrations and rigidity of machine. But still i'm cutting parts out of aluminium in tolerances of 0.05mm which is good for machine not intended for this type of work.
1st machine photo and some parts
Attachment 429614Attachment 429616
Second machine will be all steel maybe some parts from EG or solid granite.
I'm liking design from Datron MxCube so this will be some kind of mock-up from that and my ideas. (also i have friend who work in granite machining center, so that can help )
Plan is to build machine capable of milling aluminium parts without any problems with good tolerances 0.01mm.
So i'm aiming for working area of 1000x1000x300mm
Welded structure filled with sand or EG. (cca 500kg)
Gantry - steel EG combination cca 150-200kg
profile rails 25mm on all axes
20mm-25mm ballscrews on all axes probably with 10mm pitch.
Double ballscrew on Y axis.
Servo motors, looking on DMM 400W set, but i dont know if this will be enough for gantry of this weight.
Probably teknomotor spindle, still deciding if i should go ATC or not.
So i have started designing cad and i have come to my first dilemma.
Gantry beam is 120x220mm steel tube wall thicknes 12.5mm (80kg)
I'm deciding should i build gantry sides like left or right side.
Attachment 429610
left - solid block of epoxy-granite with embedded steel plate for bearing and gantry to bolt on .
right - hollow welded steel side out of 10mm steel sheet
weigh of both is pretty much the same (20kg) but i think that vibration dampening will be better on left side.
This will be project for next year so now i'm in cad phase. So any input in design will be appreciated.
What so you guys think ?
Luka