[snoyce]

Hi All,

I've been quietly building my router while lurking on here. Would have been finished along time ago if not waiting an extraordinary long time for parts to be delivered (stepper drivers arrived today, ordered 2 1/2 - 3 weeks ago). I ordered the rockcliff parts kit 3 from a company on ebay not sure if im aloud to name them on here but easily searched for. The kit basically contained all the rails, acme threaded rod, linear bearings and pillow blocks, lovejoy connectors nuts for the threaded rods and i also ordered some carriers for the nuts. The kit meant i had to make a few changes along the way but this machine was all about learning the ropes.

Anyway i've been taking photo's along the way and thought i'de share my experiences/mistakes along the way so it will hopefully help someone else in the same way this forum has helped me (pass it on and all that).

This post and attachments are basically day 1 in the build. I added a few of my own ideas for stiffening up the main frame of the machine i'll find out if any of this was a good idea later (comments welcome).

Right working through the attachments......

basedry.jpg-
I boxed in the base and biscuit jointed the parts together (i used biscuits throughout the frame).


bisuitybox.jpg -
For the Y axis back plate i went with a box section again joined using biscuits and glue.


ribsuprights.jpg -
On the uprights for the gantry i joined some ribs to the outsides to add abit of stiffness (hopefully).


biscuity.jpg -
Here you can see the biscuits used to join the gantry uprights to the y axis box section.


framedryfit.jpg -
Here's the frame dry fitted together mainly to check for trueness and because i like to see some progress


day1parts.jpg -
Here are all the parts i completed on day 1 the ribs on the gantry sides are still dry fitted at this point and the base was biscuited glued and clamped then brad nailed to hold it all together whilst drying.

[snoyce]

After the initial day building the main frame i was basically waiting on parts (took about 3 weeks due to rush on people ordering those kits) before i could do anything solid. Due to this I done the odd bit here and there and didnt photograph all these steps so theres a bit of a jump from day 1.

Anyway the pictures...

bearingblockinside.jpg
Ok, the kit i bought from ebay included some bearings to support the leadscrews but nothing to hold the bearings so, I didn't think MDF would be man enough to support the bearings so i made some aluminium bearing blocks(luckily i have a lathe) Basically i cut some 2"x2"x1" blocks on my cheap wood chop saw and turned these on the lathe they have a recess each side which is a pretty tight fit for the bearings and i turned down the inside so the whole block will sit in the 25mm holes in the MDF gantry sides i then drilled and tapped the blocks so they could be screwed on from the inside. This one obviously hasnt been tapped yet and has some rough machining marks.


bearingblockoutside.jpg
The outside of the bearing block. I made the outside fit a little looser i honestly cant remember the thinking behind that but im sure it was pointless.


frontz.jpg
Maybe a fair bit to explain here! firstly at the top you can see the bearing block in situ, i turned down the leadscrew so it first fits through the bearings then threaded it so i could add a nut to hold it in place and then turned down the end some more for a tight fit in the lovejoy connector. The block is screwed on from the underside of the mdf. then once i had this in place i measured and made the sections to support the motor (and turned a recess in the top plate to match the lip around the motor shaft and drilled and tapped to connect the motor). Originally I planned to drill and tap the motor support sections to connect them together but i just couldn't drill accurately enough using my cheap old drill press so i used 2 part epoxy to stick it all together this allowed me to align it nicely with worrying about the trueness of the aluminium edges to much (i really want a milling machine). Also of note, i've reversed the z axis compared to the plans because it was the only way i could think of for using the kit parts without reducing any x-y travel the z travel is a different story but i figure how thick a part do i really need to mill. you can also see the rails and the tops of the pillow blocks in this picture more next...


ymotormount.jpg
Here's the y axis motor mount


frontyz.jpg
heres a view along the y axis you can see the bearings & pillowblocks and also the leadscrew nut & carraige on both the y and the z axis.


basex.jpg
Ok, here's my x axis base plate. I have access to a water jet machine that my brother and dad use in their business so i thought i'de blag some time on the machine to do something about holding work down on the bed (i had a lot of time to think about this whilst waiting for the stepper drivers). Basically i cut the bed with the mounting holes for the pillow blocks and leadscrew nut carraige and an array of holes all over the bed which i tapped to m5 so i can use cap screws and clamps i also cut on the water jet (see last 2 pictures). I will make up an MDF spoil board out of thin MDF with a matching array of holes and glue this to the aluminium.


fullmachine.jpg
Here is the full machine in all it's glory! Just the x axis and electronics to finish.


partclampeddown.jpg & partclampeddown2.jpg
Here you can see my waterjet cut bed and clamps and m5 caps screws holding down abit of MDF.

[sanjiv]

its great job

[snoyce]

its great job

Thanks sanjiv,

As i mentioned the stepper drivers arrived today so i'll post another update soon with the next stage of progress, i'll also add some thoughts on where i went wrong etc in the mean time if you have any questions,tips or comments on things i could change or have blatantly got wrong it would be appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

[gmfoster]

Thanks sanjiv,

As i mentioned the stepper drivers arrived today so i'll post another update soon with the next stage of progress, i'll also add some thoughts on where i went wrong etc in the mean time if you have any questions,tips or comments on things i could change or have blatantly got wrong it would be appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

Looks very nice. What do you supose you have in it when don without the computer?

Hope to see videos of it cutting..
Garry

[snoyce]

Looks very nice. What do you supose you have in it when don without the computer?

Hope to see videos of it cutting..
Garry

Sorry not sure i understand your question?

[emtffkev]

I think he means about how much did the machine cost for materials and electronics, minus the computer.....

[tajord]

Niiice, I really like how you altered this "little" machine, looks like it's gonna be fairly precise too, just keep us posted, interested to hear what performance you'll get with it.

[snoyce]

I think he means about how much did the machine cost for materials and electronics, minus the computer.....

Ah ok, well as im pretty sure my wife won't read this. Way to much...

bearings,pillow blocks, rails,couplers,leadscrews 310
MDF about £15
Aluminium for bits i had to make around £15
Drivers £83
Motors £56
Assorted Electronics, Wires switches, connectors etc £20

Total £499 or $963 ssshhhhhhh obviously i could have saved alot by not using the parts from Marchant Dice and sticking more to the plans. But the idea is i'm emmigrating to australia pretty soon so i can strip it down for parts and build revision 2 in australia. Although i've already decided the major weak point is the unsupported rails so think ill be sorting that on the next one

[snoyce]

Niiice, I really like how you altered this "little" machine, looks like it's gonna be fairly precise too, just keep us posted, interested to hear what performance you'll get with it.

I'll by putting together the electronics and soldering all the connectors to there cables etc today so should hopefully be cutting near the end of the week.

I'll get some videos of the first cuts and stick em on u-tube.

Steve

[snoyce]

I've put together all the cabling today. Question? if i give the driver board power with no printer cable attached just the y axis motor i get a hissing noise noise from the motor and it locks tight. Is the normal or should i stop and start wiring again?

Thanks in advance?

[snoyce]

Wasn't sure about the humming noise from the steppers but took the leap of faith and plugged in the pc anyway and it lives! The z and y axis are now moving i've done some motor tuning and the maximum speed i can get without skipping is about 635mm per minute.

I have had some minor crisis getting this far i broke the aluminium motor mounts clearly epoxy is just not a strong enough bond on aluminium. So i remade the motor mounts in hardwood ( i'll chuck up some pictures soon ). The second crisis was i had the rails slightly misaligned right to left on the y axis with an end result that the leadscrew was binding to the far left of the rails which seems to have slightly bent the leadscrew (noticed a vibration that wasnt there initially). I've chiseled off the rails supports and realigned them now so the binding is cured but think i may order a new y leadscrew and this time machine the trailing end for a support bearing (i'm going to do this on the x axis now).

Steve

[snoyce]

Hi All,

Here's some new pictures of recent progress/changes..

newmount.jpg
Here are the new motor mounts as i broke the epoxy joints between the aluminium motor mount parts. I rebuilt them out of hardwood. Much quicker to make and pretty strong.

screwsupport.jpg
I bored a bearing sized recess into a small block of hardwood to use as a support for the opposite ends of the leadscrews. I turned down the leadscrew end to fit through the bearing and threaded the end so i can stick a nylon lock nut to hold it in place. This setup should hopefully reduce the resonation when the screw is turning at full power.

controllertop.jpg
Here's the top of the controller box theres three jack plugs for the limit switches (to be installed) and the main power button.

controllerbottom.jpg
Here's the bottom of the controller box. You can see the power jack (im using a 24v 6A switchmode power supply which i got from Maplin on sale for £25.) and in front of the power is the parallel in from the computer and to the right ive installed three eight way sockets for the steppers (i used eight way sockets to give me some flexibility wiring the motors but in retrospect could probably have got away with less). The stepper driver is a four axis stepmasternc so i may add another socket down the line.

Just the x axis to finish off and the tool mount now hopefully cutting by the weekend.

Steve

[dan dimock]

Can you just buy plans for this machine, also what size will it take?
Dan

[snoyce]

Can you just buy plans for this machine, also what size will it take?
Dan

Yes the plans are really simple to build (designed to be buildable with basic tools) ....

http://www.rockcliffmachine.com/cnchome.htm

[snoyce]

Can you just buy plans for this machine, also what size will it take?
Dan

Sorry forgot the second question. The working envelope is about 13"x13"x5" (ish) you can scale the machine where required although i personally wouldnt go much bigger with unsupported rails.

[snoyce]

Heres the first couple of jobs i ran. Both fairly simple while i get the hang of the software. The first is a three layer sign cut out of an offcut of pine i had to hand and the second is cut from .5mm aluminium sheet.

The first one was cut with a 3.2mm router bit then I varnished it and filled the void in with epoxy which is still drying then ill clean up the edges and put another level of clear epoxy in.

The quality of the cut in the aluminium wasnt great, pretty burred round the edges sort of looked like the material was getting to hot so ill try some coolant next time.

On the software front seeing as i dropped a fair amount on building the machine i didnt want to stump up the cash for mach3 straight away so i've been using emc from linuxcnc.org. I used the live cd version so i didnt need to install linux on my PC just stick the disk in and boot to linux with the software all ready installed (very simple).

For the experienced people on here, functionally is there anything major ill be missing not using mach3 at least to start with?

Overall i've gotta say im very impressed with the quality so far. Got some hardwood projects to try next..

Cheers

Steve

[dan dimock]

Steve;

Man, that sure looks good to me, I have been studying the Mark 3 manual, 153 pages, I may look into the programs that you are using as I am new to all of this, just hope before summer gets here I can get as far along as you have,

Dan

[tajord]

Those look really nice, i have a few versions of linux and i'm interested in EMC, only problem i have really with it is that i'm very familiar with cad, dxf's and that sort of thing, and i want to know if the formats i'm familiar with will still apply to EMC, i don't mind changing over to linux for the purpose of running the machine, but i'd prefer these two (linux & EMC), to be the only changes i'll have to make, perhaps you can shed some light on the subject for me.

[steve parkins]

got plans last week, steve do you like it ? do overs? same thing ?
(befor i start dummping the cash)