[CarveOne]

Moore gear seems to be the preferred place to buy from right now. You still have to email them for a quote, but it's not too big a hassle, and I understand their racks are better quality than Mcmaster Carr.

Just call them and ask for Diane. She will give you a price and take your order. Tell her you are trapped in the CNC Zone and are trying to buy your way out. She'll understand ..... She has talked with a bunch of us. :cheers:

CarveOne

[lgalla]

Appears we have lost Digidem the thread starter and are rambling on about where to get cheap R&P and things not related to his thread.
Larry

[Diane-MooreGear]

You know my day is not complete without speaking to at least ONE CNCzoner. Although I seem to have lost my voice today, so email may be a better option.

BTW, I appreciate each and every one of you guys. What would this world be like without all this ingenuity? I am so proud to have our racks in so many machines in so many garages and shops in so many countries!

Diane
[email protected]


As an aside, suddenly "zoner" has a brand new meaning to me!

Just call them and ask for Diane. She will give you a price and take your order. Tell her you are trapped in the CNC Zone and are trying to buy your way out. She'll understand ..... She has talked with a bunch of us. :cheers:

CarveOne

[digidem]

Thank you everyone for your replies, sorry for the delay in responding.

A day after my last post, my father had told me that he did in fact underestimate the weight of the gantry. Him having built so many machines, and me none, it is tough to get him considering the possibility of being wrong on certain aspects of the design.

He has taken everything posted into consideration, done a lot more research on his own, and has a specific frame design in mind. I trust every part of it, but two things. The gantry I'm concerned will flex, but he thinks even if it does that it wouldn't ever be enough to make a difference with what I plan to be making. For cost reasons he wants to start with acme screws, so I can just get going fast for under $1k, and just upgrade as I can, later on. I feel like maybe with a 10' acme lead on x, and the weight of the gantry, it'll be too much for a single Nema 34 type motor (which seem to be the only kind of motors suitable and in my price range).

The materials for frame are being ordered today. Tonight I will go over things once more with him, and try to at least get some sketches up if not autocad or edrawings from solidworks.

Also, I'm really trying to go for rack & pinion on the x, if I can manage to find a good deal. Whats the cheapest I might expect paying for two 10' Racks & Pinions?

[digidem]

By the way, don't worry about going off topic with the rack & pinion stuff. These were things I wanted to ask, but it just so happened, someone else did

[digidem]

Would it be possible / practical to use two 6' racks to create a 10' length?

[MrWild]

Yes it's possible. Flex is your enemy. Machining anything creates harmonics. A little flex goes a LONG way to making junk as it starts bouncing. A 10' long acme lead screw is foolish. $1,000 for the entire machine? You're dreaming.

Are the rails fully supported? If not, scrap the idea. There will be no "little flex." it will be MAJOR flex.

Exactly what kind of machinery does your father design? Not all designs cross over to all needs.

[digidem]

Yes it's possible. Flex is your enemy. Machining anything creates harmonics. A little flex goes a LONG way to making junk as it starts bouncing. A 10' long acme lead screw is foolish. $1,000 for the entire machine? You're dreaming.

Are the rails fully supported? If not, scrap the idea. There will be no "little flex." it will be MAJOR flex.

Exactly what kind of machinery does your father design? Not all designs cross over to all needs.

A lot of the aluminum for the frame and the router, we already have. That which needs to be ordered we'll be getting a great deal on. So the money we spend will primarily just be on the drive system, and electronics.

The rails will be fully supported.

He has designed / built various kinds of filling machines, palletizers, lid placers, entire assembly lines, and more. He has worked with basically every kind of machine for over 30 years. At work he uses four Hurco CNC milling machines and a Kia CNC lathe daily, along with any other kind of machine you might imagine. Mills, lathes, presses, benders, punchs, laser cutters, they have it all, and its all high end / large scale stuff. He uses and repairs all these types of machines.

It would be more productive if he was the one posting, but he doesn't have the time and I want to learn all of this, so I can fully understand the machine I plan to start a business with.

[ben_jackson]

Would it be possible / practical to use two 6' racks to create a 10' length?

You can use another segment of rack clamped tooth-to-tooth to ensure they align. The savings of shorter rack segments is mainly that you can only go to about 102" (if I remember right, I can't find it on UPS's site right now) before you have to switch from UPS to freight and the shipping cost goes way up.

[CarveOne]

Would it be possible / practical to use two 6' racks to create a 10' length?

Yes. I have two Moore Gear racks on each side of my 12' machine that are butt joined with a clamp that I made for the purpose. There is a procedure to grind the ends of the racks on the Moore Gear site.

Download the PDF file and look at the info for figure 1 on page 2. It's very easy to do with a just a disk sander and a short piece of the gear rack.

CarveOne

[digidem]

Here's an image of the autocad file my dad had created for his concept. It is not complete, just a rough draft to get started.

[ahren]

Digidem,

Not sure if Diane mentioned us to you, but we sell R&P drive units that work with their rack, and have been a popular choice for lots of builders here. We sell both Nema 23 and Nema 34 versions.

Best regards,

Ahren
CNCRouterParts

[EBC]

have you spent anytime on the mechmate forum? some great info on there that applies to any cnc router

MechMate CNC Router - Build your own with our detailed plans

[lumberjack_jeff]

Be aware that a gantry spanning a cutting width of 60" will need to be significantly longer to accommodate the width of the Z apparatus.

I would strongly suggest reviewing the mechmate site before pulling the trigger.

I have a 4x8 mechmate - I built it about as inexpensively as is possible and I'm still into it for about 3x your budget.

[digidem]

Thank you for all the responses. I've decided to give it some more time before I build the machine, and meanwhile continue researching so no money and time ends up wasted. My father still seems certain his frame and gantry design will be the right choice with the materials and deals we have access too, but the electronics and drive system he now finds himself unsure about, and so do I.

This weekend, I'm getting an old Hamilton NC bench top milling machine for $50. Going to add a motor to the Z (X/Y already have motors) and get the drivers, breakout board, and power supply needed to get it hooked to a PC I've built specifically for machining. This will give me something small to experiment with as I learn the software, tools, feed rates, spindle speeds, etc. I'll move to large scale once I'm certain our design is right.

I will stay active in this section of the forums, because the quest to build a 5' x 10' router isn't stopping. Though, discussion of the machine will probably continue under another thread that is titled more appropriate for the project, rather then this one which started off asking about motors.

[LeeWay]

I hate to think that I may have helped to scare you off the project, but it may be wise to do a little more research. I would hate to see you make some costly mistakes that others have found out about the hard way. One of the best things about this Forum is that many common mistakes have been identified by at least a few attempts and are becoming common knowledge. To have a 10' cutting machine, you would need about an 11' screw. A correctly sized screw that long would be massive in both size and cost. That isn't counting the oversized motor that would be needed to drive it. You might get that built and see that racking is very much an issue and then need to add another long screw and put them on the outside drive both sides of the gantry.
There are just more efficient design cost wise that would not break the bank.

It is probably very wise to start small like your new machine. That will give you a chance to get to know the software and see first hand some of the stresses involved in machining. I would recommend a small inexpensive router build as well. The experience you gain from that would be golden in sorting out a design for a larger one. I look forward to seeing your progress.

[manmardam]

Was very useful
But why unfinished?
Almost all the friends was agree with this theory "A 10' long acme lead screw is foolish"
Should we use the R&P for long X axis?
but i find many machine that use single Ballscrew centered in the frame
similar this image :
http://www.actioncnc.com/images/pro_front.jpg

i decide build router machine With dimensions of about 3X2 meter and need more information.
i think this design is suitable for big router ,because The two side plates of the gantry are connected at the bottom with a plate that will prevent racking of the gantry :
http://www.techno-isel.com/CNC_Route...eries_Side.jpg

Amir

[brtech]

You can get ball screws that would work for that size design, they are just big, expensive and hard to work out a support mechanism. R&P at 3 meters is less expensive, accurate and easy.

[manmardam]

R&P at 3 meters is less expensive, accurate and easy.

yes ,but i compare this two design in terms of solidity.
i think center frame is stability because the gantry are connected from The two side.

Amir

[brtech]

you can do the same thing with r&p