[workinwoods]

If it was marketed for a rental as a home with detached garage, then it probably should be kept up, but if it wasn't, then that sucks. Also different rules apply to renting or leasing.

Oh yeah no it was marked as a rental with detached shop/garage actually so your right it should be maintained

To be completely honest I know why that landlord can't do it lol but I will keep that with him its just one of those deals that sucks for you as the tenant and you have to make that decision should i stay or leave and really I need to keep the overhead low right now so if I have to put a couple hundred bucks into something to make the company operate then I will do so even though I can't take the repairs with me when i leave sacrifice I am willing to make I bet I blow more money over time on soda pop and skittles edit: (beer and beef jerky cause I am a MAN!!) HAHA

[Wildkard]

The build has started!!!



My pup needed to strach his head with all the different parts lol

So one quick gripe about the leveling feet and no washers on connections

This machine for any business is a capital investment and in doing so you want to get top quality parts for your money within a certain budget and if it costs you a little extra in the total price you should defiantly go for it that being said I like the steel leg kit it is heavy gauge galvanized steel tubing but at all the tube connections you are using a single socket button head allen bolt into steel bracket now I am not an engineer but I am a Certified class A Caterpiller technician and have degrees in diesel technology so I am mechanically inclined and have college level training in areas pertaining to design and function of components

I would like to see a slightly longer Socket Cap allen bolt with a washer for the steel to steel connection or simply a full thread serrated flange bolt and I realize that these are not spinning components but I would like to see them supplied with blue 242 loctite as well

I have always been taught that steel on steel = washer cast iron on cast iron= no washer

So you have this nice heavy frame and it is all supported by 6 plastic leveling feet and the feet along with the connection inside the tube are also plastic within the housing with I believe a brass threaded insert. The thread on the leveling feet is m16 which is nice and big.

What worries me the most is the plastic ball and socket on the actual foot I see this as the weak point in the design. So I think I would have liked to see an all steel construction on the leveling feet. just for piece of mind and long term rigidity I know that once the machine is put in place it will not move but for people like me that will be changing shops in the future the machine could get moved 3-4 or more times and accidents happen plus alot of these machines are in industrial settings and per example what happens if you spill a corrosive liquid on the ground is it going to eat through my feet in a hurry?

These are all just my opinion and take with a grain of salt this is in no way a bash on CNC ROUTER PARTS everything looks well designed and will probably last I am just the kinda person that is always trying to further improve a design so I enjoy making suggestions

Onward and Forward with the build!!

Flat washers should only ever be used if there is a specific need for them, something like a slotted bearing surface or if the bearing surface is made of something soft like plastic, or galls easily like aluminum. For two pieces of steel where the through hole is sized properly for the bolt there is absolutely no need for a flat washer, and is in fact improper design.

As for the adjustable feet, there is nothing to worry about with nylon feet, the m16 versions of those feet are rated at ~1200 lbs and if you are spilling something that is going to eat through nylon you got bigger problems than your routers leveling feet. I don't remember enough about what the piece inside the legs look like, but there is a no reason that a nylon block with a brass insert couldn't be rated at 500-600 lbs pretty easily, more than enough for one of these machines.

[ericclinedinst]

Preach. What this guy said times two.

Flat washers should only ever be used if there is a specific need for them, something like a slotted bearing surface or if the bearing surface is made of something soft like plastic, or galls easily like aluminum. For two pieces of steel where the through hole is sized properly for the bolt there is absolutely no need for a flat washer, and is in fact improper design.

As for the adjustable feet, there is nothing to worry about with nylon feet, the m16 versions of those feet are rated at ~1200 lbs and if you are spilling something that is going to eat through nylon you got bigger problems than your routers leveling feet. I don't remember enough about what the piece inside the legs look like, but there is a no reason that a nylon block with a brass insert couldn't be rated at 500-600 lbs pretty easily, more than enough for one of these machines.

[RCaffin]

What worries me the most is the plastic ball and socket on the actual foot

I was always under the impression that the CNC frame was what provided the rigidity to the router structure, not whatever table it was sitting on.
Should not the router work to spec even if free-floating in the air?

Cheers
Roger
PS: you haven't seen MY concrete floor! Fly-Ash crete.

[workinwoods]

So One a side note I had a problem today with my small cnc machine and I am not sure why it happened can anyone let me know as to why this happened?


hello everyone I had something bad happen today I waited 3 days for this piece of material and look at what happened

Attachment 323810
Attachment 323812




Can anyone tell me what happened?

I designed in Fusion 360
sent to Universal Gcode Sender Version 1.0.9/ Nov 11 2015

and cut on X-carve

any help would be appreciated thanks

[workinwoods]

Alright the base is all done I added a couple pieces of support for where the table connects in the middle and then added .75" mdf to the base to act as a shelf with counter sunk mounting holes

[workinwoods]

Okay I got the 2 large side rails on the machine I really think I should of gotten the solid units direct from 80/20 if I could go back and change that I would lol

I have realized that I defiantly dont have enough space in the shop I think I wont be able to walk down the side of the machine by the table saw

So I want to put the cable tray on the left side of the machine will this mean that my spindle will be facing the back of the shop or the front?



I would like the spindle to face me if looking straight at the machine and the cable try on the left side against the wall

Also one problem that I am running into is when I built the base I squared everything as square as I could get it but when I put the long rails on it the middle leg supports are not perfectly inline with the outer ones so when you tighten up the bolts it puts pressure on the legs drawing into the extrusions is this okay?



Also I picked up the computer and monitor today traded both of these items for work on the new machine once up and running so I saved some money there
Let me know what you think of the specs on the computer

Windows Xp 32 bit Home Premium
2 gig processor
2 gig ram
80 gig hard drive

Should I install windows 7 or keep the xp running on there?

[RCaffin]

The Frame:
With all due respect, I think you are building the frame the wrong way. You seem to be trying to use the support structure as part of the frame. In my opinion that is wrong. You should be building the machine frame so you could take it off the support structure. You may never do so, but that is the only way to really get it square and aligned properly.
So, what to do next? I suggest cutting 3 or 4 lengths of extrusion to go from rail to rail. These should be identical in length, to within 0.1 mm. When you put them in place, make very sure that all the ends are touching the long rails. Yes, that may distort the support uprights slightly. That does not matter! What matters is getting the extrusion frame square.
Frankly, I would suggest also getting two more long lengths of extrusion and bolting them on the outsides of the existing ones, to add a bit of strength, but that is another matter.

The Computer
I ran my CNC on an XP SP3 machine for a long time. It was very satisfactory. I only changed the OS when the HW died and had to be replaced, and that was to W7. I hesitated, but figured I could always scrap the W7 and load the XP SP3 I had, but W7 works OK. The config you have would be fine.

Cheers
Roger

[workinwoods]

yeah i just realized that the new version of the machine does not use angle brackets to hold the center cross members in place so now I have to take off 2 of the mounting plates at a time and slide the cross members on in place

Also I would love to build the base and then the frame in a separate area and just put it on top of the base but I just dont have enough room to do that


Also I am not sure what you mean about cutting the extrusion this is all pre cut and comes in a kit? there should be no cutting involved? let me know what you where talking about

[RCaffin]

Ah - a kit. I did not realise that. I guess you will have to go with what's in the kit, at least for a start. You could add diagonal bracing later.

Cheers
Roger

[workinwoods]

So tonight I got the base pieces all on and all in position they are not tight but the 2 x rails are square within .5mm I am sure that I will have to go back and get everything square again when I start to tighten everything I am having a little trouble with the way that the y cross braces are attached they are very difficult to get a allen key into and do not have alot of movement to turn the allen key maybe there is a special tool that needs to be used but I can't think what tool that would be but very nice touch on the stamping of cncrouterparts logo into each piece

Here is a snip of the cross member attachment point hardware I am just not sure how to tighten these very good (getting a tool in there to get a accurate torque reading) even a ball allen key does not fit on there very good and almost no movement once you do any suggestions?







also I am a bit confused on 2 issues eric if your reading this I will probably give you a ring tomorrow morning to see what you think on this

but #1

I got the machine level left to right but I am not exactly sure how to get it level front to back unless I have a 96" level and held it tight underneath the support structure

because currently I can't lay it across the mdf shelf due to the fact that it is not 1 solid piece its actually 2 pieces split right down the middle (this was probably a mistake) and when I put a level across the middle its not flush there is a ridge in the middle lol

also I can't put short level on each side of the split because that just doesn't seems accurate enough to be but I might be wrong

any thoughts on this would be appreciated


#2 there is about a .125" gap on either side of the cross braces to the x rails. The x rails are tight to the mounting plates and legs so as eric suggested I should loosen all the legs up and let them move freely. Kinda the problem with loosing all the legs is that you cant loosen the 2 center ones completely because 2 of the bolts are covered by a piece of the square tubing running down the edges of the base I am just not sure why I need to do this because I squared everything on the leg structure before when i was putting it together. I guess the problem must be that the leg material tubing is not square to is throws off my measurments at the top of the legs where they connect to the machine base

I measured the left to right distance of each set of legs and the front and back leg sets are exactly the same but the middle set is off by a 1/32" on either side so its not that far off and to me doesn't explain why there is a .125" gap on either side of the y cross members to the long x-rails

I am worried that when I try and draw up that gap by tightening the cross member to the x-rails it will tweak the x-rails out of square I am not sure that it would matter a whole lot because there is a cross brace every 15" but what does matter is I dont think that I can draw up the gap evenly on each side and if they are not tightened evenly then I will over the total distance make a wave out of my x-rails and that wouldn't be good

Does anyone have any suggestions on why I have this gap in the rail connections? and what to do about it?


gap right side (cross member to x-rail


gap left side (cross member to x-rail)

[dgage]

For the hex key, you should get a set of ball hex keys (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...words=ball+hex). The ball allows you to tighten up to say a 30 degree angle (guess). I have the Bondhus and I'm happy with the SAE and metric sets I have. But I also have T-handle ball hex keys, which I reach for if I'm tightening up more than a couple items.

[workinwoods]

For the hex key, you should get a set of ball hex keys (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...words=ball+hex). The ball allows you to tighten up to say a 30 degree angle (guess). I have the Bondhus and I'm happy with the SAE and metric sets I have. But I also have T-handle ball hex keys, which I reach for if I'm tightening up more than a couple items.

Yeah i have a set of ball allen keys and they just didnt seem to make a good connection seems like the angle was a bit more than 30 degree.

I am thinking I need to buy a set of 3/8" drive socket long reach ball allen wrenches that might work a little better

[Rob77]

I would recommend the 3/8" socket extra long ball Allen wrenches. Got mine all together yesterday now on to the electronics today.

Also note the gantry end caps can be put on in such a way to present alignment issues with the bottom holes of the end cap and interface plate.

[workinwoods]

Okay still having a problem with the gaps in the extrusion connections and I am not sure how to fix it here are some more photos of the problem

This picture is showing me trying to close the gap but this does not work and it worries me so I abandoned that idea



This is a side view of the gap on the right side it is the same all around the machine every connection looks like this


Another view of the right side


showing the extrusion mounting plates they are flush all the way around the machine


any help would be appreciated thanks

[ericclinedinst]

Two things. Measure the base cross members. And measure the crOSS member extrusions. Tell me what the measurements are

[workinwoods]

Two things. Measure the base cross members. And measure the crOSS member extrusions. Tell me what the measurements are

The 2x2 square tubing measures 45"
And the aluminum extrusion measures 1250mm

[RCaffin]

You 'orrible 'orrible man - metric OR imperial, not a mixture, PLEASE!

Anyhow, you should ignore completely where the support frame puts the bars. Start by assembling the main (extrusion) frame solidly, then mount it on the support frame with the support frame bolts slightly slack, and only THEN tighten the support frame bolts. I repeat: the support frame is NOT the critical bit! It is just a table for the router.

Cheers
Roger

[workinwoods]

You 'orrible 'orrible man - metric OR imperial, not a mixture, PLEASE!

Anyhow, you should ignore completely where the support frame puts the bars. Start by assembling the main (extrusion) frame solidly, then mount it on the support frame with the support frame bolts slightly slack, and only THEN tighten the support frame bolts. I repeat: the support frame is NOT the critical bit! It is just a table for the router.

Cheers
Roger

Believe me I would of loved to do that I just dont have enough room in my shop to do that but I guess if I have take everything apart and figure out some way to do that then I must do that

[RCaffin]

I am not sure you have to pull everything apart and start again. You have several options:
1) loosen all the bolts in the support frame and fully assemble the extrusion frame in place, and THEN tighten the support frame bolts.
2) assemble the extrusion frame separately, leaning up against the support frame, then lift it up and on.
3) take the support frame outside on a sunny day and leave it there while you assemble the extrusion frame inside.
4) take everything outside on a sunny day, assemble it out there on a flat surface, and then bring it back inside.

Cheers
Roger