[alan_3301]

Hi, I plan to document some of my build and post a few pictures.
I've been meaning to bring my camera to work to get some pics, hopefully this will help me remember to do it.

I already have all my parts, I got the hardware only kit, and the diy nema 34 kit.
my 3060 gantry came bent, so I am waiting for another to arrive so I will have to disassemble a little bit, and I'll take pics along the way.
Don't get your hopes up yet, I only get a couple hours a week to work on it, so it may be a little bit before I have something to show.

[vtx1029]

bent 3060? wow!

I hope to finish my wiring enough this week to get some movement out of my crp 4848. :cheers:

[alan_3301]

I got my new extrusion, put it on and took a few pics.

you can see how the extrusion was bent in one of the pics, and the resulting gap on one of the bumpers. I was also able to get the Y axis mostly put together. Everything is going smoothly so far.

I kept the bent extrusion, will try to cut it short and maybe use it as a bed for a small lathe.

[alan_3301]

I thought I'd give a little background
I built my 1st cnc, a hotwire foam cutter in 2005 to assist with lost foam aluminum casting projects. cheap drivers and 1/4-20 leadscrews were the way to go back then. I had no idea 12 ipm was slow. Played with a sherline mini mill for a while, then started building routers. I wasted a lot of money and metal trying different designs, mostly using vxb linear shafts. When cncrouterparts came out with the rack and pinion system, I knew I had to have one. Luckily I came across a manufacturing company closing up, so I was able to buy ~150 feet of metric 4080 extra light extrusion, along with many fasteners and hardware, and a lot of other cool stuff for very cheap. I managed to get it all together with the metric stuff, only buying a 3030 gantry and 1530 z extrusion. I sold it recently, so time to build another!
a couple pics of that setup, then its all crp4848 from here on.

[vtx1029]

I like how your gear rack mounts. Cleaner then the rack clamps. If you don't mind me asking what did that rack cost.

[alan_3301]

those racks are from fineline automation.
I do like the rack clamps, but the racks I've gotten from mcmaster were hit or miss. they are $60 each plus $20 or so on bolts and tslot nuts.
quite a bit more money than the other route, but I like them.

[alan_3301]

I will be using a chinese 2.2kw spindle I got from ebay seller solar-jean.
Since it didn't come with both sides of a connector, I decided to get a quality connector on it. Here is the receptacle and here is the plug
I found this on an Australian woodwork forum, I think. These are very nice, and not too bad at $15 for both sides. It is fully strain relieved, the screw terminals are nice and easy to use, and it looks very good quality. The old connector was 3 pin, so i wanted to add a ground, and it wasn't hard to do. The cable I chose was this. I was on my own figuring this one out, so hopefully it will be up to the job.

I guess whoever put this spindle together didnt trust the orings judging by the silicone blobs in it. I was also expecting some beefy wiring when I pulled it apart, but it looks like 22gauge. I guess that is large enough? Nothing I can do about it.

[alan_3301]

Well i posted a little update this morning, but I guess it got lost or something.
anyways. I removed the crap connecter from my 2.2kw spindle, and replaced it with something I can trust. Both pieces of the connecter are amphenol from mouser $15. Here and here. I was amazed at the small size of the wires inside the spindle, they look like 20 gauge or smaller. Also notice the blob or silicone under the cap, I guess they didnt trust the o-rings they put in there.
4 conductor cable (hopefully up to the job) I got from allied here.

[alan_3301]

quick update. I tried posting twice now but I guess it gets lost in the spam box because I put links in it.

I installed the spindle, and replaced its junk connector with a quality one.
Wires inside the spindle were smaller than I expected, 22ga or so.
Also they had blobbed silicone inside to seal it up. There are 2 o-rings that should do the job. I'll see for sure once I clean it all up and reinstall the cap permenantly. I'll probably leave it under vacuum to check for leaks. I'm not trying to have water running through the wrong parts of this thing.

Also I've got some backlash in my Z leadnut. I'm going to try replacing the tension o-ring with a smaller one. If that doesn't help, I guess a little misalignment will do the trick.

[alan_3301]

I made a decent amount of progress over the last week.
First and second pics are of Z and X cable chains and wiring. They worked great and were pretty cheap. $60 shipped for all 3 from china. search ebay for
"Cable drag 18 37mm R48" and you will find it. If I were doing it over, I may have gone larger on the Y axis(or X axis if you prefer(whatever, the axis the gantry rides on top of)) also I tried to find a larger bending radius, but 48mm was as large as I could find. I wasnt sure if that was too tight, but it looks ok

third and fourth pics are of the t-track I will use. the stuff meant as t-track seemed overpriced to me, I used 10S 1050 from ebay 8020 store. 5 60" pieces for about $70 shipped. I will scrounge up some clamps and bolts. I have them roughly placed, I will bolt them down and use MDF between.

and finally my temporary electronics setup. I think my first project will be to make a proper enclosure out of acrylic and extrusion.

[kinghong1970]

I like how your gear rack mounts. Cleaner then the rack clamps. If you don't mind me asking what did that rack cost.

+1

so the FLA109-01 rack from Fineline automation works with the rack and pinion assembly from CNCRP?

[alan_3301]

+1

so the FLA109-01 rack from Fineline automation works with the rack and pinion assembly from CNCRP?

Yes, they work great together.

[alan_3301]

I started thinking about how to brace my table legs together to stiffen everything up. I like the idea of my first attached pic, which is what 8020 surplus sells on ebay for $15 for a 6" piece. No thanks. So I have a bunch of extrusion laying around, but no way to couterbore the recess at 45 degrees. So I came up with using very short angle cuts of the extrusion to eliminate the need. Pics will explain. Substitute drill bit for bolt and you get the idea. Now I can have many 45 degree supports for only the price of bolts (which I will order monday) and t-nuts. I will post pics of them installed once I get to it. (probably 2 weeks or so). It sucks how work gets in the way of hobbies.

[DonFrambach]

It sucks how work gets in the way of hobbies.

Sure does! And then when you add in honeydo's . . .

[vtx1029]

5/16 carrage bolts work really good.... Nice job thinking outside the box.

[alan_3301]

It has been too long, work has been slow the past week, so I have made a lot of progress..

Some pics of my control box, and computer stand. Also a very large heatsink, Y axis cable chain stuffed full to bursting, my water cooling setup, and vfd mounted on control box.

I managed to get the huanyang vfd to communicate with linuxcnc with the rs485 port, so spindle on/off and speed controls as well as speed and amperage feedback are linked directly from pc to vfd. Thanks to scotta for figuring this out years ago..

All that is left now is dust boot/collection, cutting mdf inserts for between t-trakcs, and some base frame bracing and supports.

[Analias]

Alan, where are you getting all that extrusion? You have so much of it you are using for your workstation stand. Do you get it locally? If so, where would I look locally for surplus extrusion?

-Analias

[LouF]

Alan nice job looks great..


Lou

[alan_3301]

Analias, yes at one point I had around 200 feet of the stuff. I built my first machine out of it, as well as tables and workbenches, a ladder rack for my truck, a coat rack, a tv stand, and a bunch of other stuff. I just got very very lucky and saw a craigslist posting for a automotive hvac supplier that was closing up and selling off all of their equipment. I took home 3 truckloads of extrusion, plexiglass and 3 tables with 1.25" steel tops, as well as a 100lb box of extrusion fasteners/tnuts / misc stuff for $500 total. It truly was the deal of a lifetime for a tinkerer.

Lou, Thanks a lot!

I hope to get a little work done on my machine tonight, so hopefully I'll have some final pics and some completed workpieces in the next few days.

[alan_3301]

It's been a while, and I finally got some time to do some work on the machine.
Dust collection is mostly done, I still have to order some strip brushes, and install them. I thought for a while on how to route the dust collection hose, and ended up making some acrylic brackets on extrusion to hold the hose and it worked out pretty well.