Thread: Heavy large scale gantry mill/router/3d carving 5 axis build

**FandZ** · 02-21-2010, 06:28 AM

You don't F around do you? It's looking great. That 4th/5th axis, depending how you look at it, is going to be all business. How heavy do you think it'll wind up being?

**stangtjk** · 02-21-2010, 06:51 AM

I'm more interested in the process of making those sculptures, mostly the part about casting and pulling the molds, how about some detailed pics lol, jk

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Looks like its going to be a nice machine.

**Tristar500** · 03-17-2010, 03:14 AM

Been working on the electrical enclosure for the 4 G&L Servo drives. Got luck at the local scrap yard and scored a enclosure box for $5.00 Got all my wiring done in a couple of hours this afternoon.

Next,I took a dell desktop machine and liberated the essentials from the plastic fluff and brackets. Now it will fit nicely in my interface enclosure with it's touch screen monitor.

**Tristar500** · 03-17-2010, 03:19 AM

Now for the deep Z axis. I hit the local scrap/recycling yard this morning and purchased a couple of pieces of 1 inch thick by 5 inch pieces of 6061 T-6 aluminum. This is the primary material I will use for the Z. I started off by chopping to the length a piece of the material to mount the bearings. A chop saw with a carbide blade made the cut quickly. I'll set up the mill to true the end after rough cutting to length.

**Tristar500** · 03-17-2010, 03:32 AM

A couple of years ago I picked up a couple of THK linear rails and cassettes at the same scrapyard for $10 for the pair. I got 4 rails and 4 cassettes and some .5 inch aluminum. The rails are about 26 inches long. An hour later I had it stripped down and a "pile o' parts" on the table. Bearings were well greased as you can see and are in excellent shape. Time for some thinking..

**Tristar500** · 03-17-2010, 03:45 AM

Slept on the Z axis for a night and came up with a plan. It will be based on the 1 inch thick by 5 inch 6061 T6 aluminum pieces procured at the local salvage yard. Here the mill is happily plugging away doing a G83 routine for the mounting holes for the 4 bearing cassettes. A quick tool change and it's back counter sinking the mounting holes.

**Tristar500** · 03-17-2010, 03:47 AM

Bearings and rails took an hour of so going back and forth with a run out gauge to make sure they are dead on parallel. Once done they are tightened down and I'm moving to position the ball screw. After a lot of thought I went with a somewhat unorthodox design for the Deep Z axis. Rather then run the screw done the center I opted instead to run it to the side. This allows me to keep the two load bearing members as close together as possible. Considering the stout construction of this axis due to its unusual reach I see no problem with mounting the screw off center. It's got a 19 inch inch Z travel. Grin