[lazorus]

Hi Gents, guess it's time to show what I have been up to. But first, a little history...

I started into the machinist trade back in 1995. I was never involved in any CNC work however, all manual. Lathe, mill, drill, brake. Did that for a few years, and then switched over to mechanical repair work (Heavy duty mech). I always hated standing in front of a machine and building 300 of something. I didn't mind making one or two of something, just the multiple part machining bothered me. Working at a sawmill, they paid by the hour, and they had the machines, so my employer would get me to make the parts. Back then I had no idea that CNC equipment could be possible to make in your own workshop. Hell, I didnt even know it was possible until October 2011.

Anyways, fast forward a few years. After getting out of a service truck working in the natural gas industy, and into a product support role (more free time at home), I found this site and was floored. Some of you guys (and gals) have been tinkering for years!! Anyways, I started building a JGRO back in October 2011. Bought some good parts, some bad parts, and some parts still yet to be used :nono: But in the end, I had a functioning piece of equipment that DID respond to computer inputs.

I know I havent been very active in posting on the board, and spent most of my time lurking, but hopefully that will change now that the new machine is built. I want to thank everyone that provided answers to my questions, and will try helping those that need advice.

The second machine that I have built is made from 1/8" steel tubing, the rails are 2"x4" and sit on a bed (4) of 1.5"x1.5" tubing. Cutting area is 48"x26". Most of the parts are from CNC router parts (Ahren), which is a GREAT place to get parts from. I am in Canada, and some of the shipping was slow, but that was to be expected. I built the acrylic dust shoe myself, from a few pics on the board. I had a hard time finding any dust broom, so I cut up 4 paintbrushes (3" wide) and glued them into a 1/8" pocket on the bottom side of the shoe. It didnt take too long to get it all fixed up, and I think it looks good too. It works GREAT! No more dust all over the shop.

Anyways, thanks to everyone on the forum! :banana:

[CarveOne]

Yet another one shatters conventional wisdom and proves that steel machines can be welded. It's a nicely designed and built machine too.

You're going to get a lot of use out of that one. Enjoy your newfangled hobby.

CarveOne

[lazorus]

Thanks Carveone. It really wasnt too hard to weld it up, I didnt have any fancy jigs or even a large flat table to weld it up on. I did it on 2 wooden sawhorses. (flame2) I just took my time and squared everything up. I was told along time ago, "tack, measure, then attack". Using the cold rolled steel for the track allowed me to shim everything up square and true. I am probably within .005" on the long axis (which I call my X axis!!). I would expect that if someone built one which was welded up, using CRS rails, you could probably be out 1/8 inch and still shim it up. It just needs to be shimmed properly. A person can do alot with a good aluminum straight edge and a couple of machinists squares. Of course measuring well first saves a lot of time shimming. I learned along time ago that every time you cut the tolerances in half, you double the time to do it. And I am very happy to get that kind of tolerance, especially with something built at home!

[CarveOne]

It is some effort, but it's my preferred construction method. If something goes awry it has always been me that was in too much of a hurry. I've built two successful steel machines and I'm certainly no highly trained expert weldor. I've been noticing a few more steel builds appear lately.

CarveOne

[DeadTom]

I like it, my next machine is already underway and it too will be fully welded. Here are a few pics of the base minus the stand yet to be made. My gantry will be very much the same as to what you have built. My outside dimensions are 40" x 60".
Thanks for sharing,
Tom

[lazorus]

Nice work so far Tom. Are you going to be using CRS rails for your x and y axis?

[PaulRowntree]

I like it, my next machine is already underway and it too will be fully welded. Here are a few pics of the base minus the stand yet to be made. My gantry will be very much the same as to what you have built. My outside dimensions are 40" x 60".
Thanks for sharing,
Tom

Tom, is that racking/shelving material that you are using for the long pieces? How straight is it?

[adprinter]

Thanks Carveone. It really wasnt too hard to weld it up, I didnt have any fancy jigs or even a large flat table to weld it up on. I did it on 2 wooden sawhorses. (flame2) I just took my time and squared everything up. I was told along time ago, "tack, measure, then attack". Using the cold rolled steel for the track allowed me to shim everything up square and true. I am probably within .005" on the long axis (which I call my X axis!!). I would expect that if someone built one which was welded up, using CRS rails, you could probably be out 1/8 inch and still shim it up. It just needs to be shimmed properly. A person can do alot with a good aluminum straight edge and a couple of machinists squares. Of course measuring well first saves a lot of time shimming. I learned along time ago that every time you cut the tolerances in half, you double the time to do it. And I am very happy to get that kind of tolerance, especially with something built at home!

My welding experience allows me to burn holes right through most pieces I have tryed. (cheap chinese 100 amp arc welder- overheats at the drop of a hat!). So I drilled, and tapped, drilled and tapped, and then did some more drilling and tapping on my build. Mostly steel, only aluminum used was for the table slats. However, I like your concept of using cold drawn and shims.

It really set me to thinking about the possibilities for my second build. A rigid, welded base frame would be really nice. (IF I can ever get the hang of welding with the cheap equipment I have to work with). However, I would still use the adjustable design features I used in my first build. They do come in handy, for truing things up. Even though it does involve a LOT of drilling and tapping!

Things like milled slots, and threaded holes for jack screws at key frame-to-track mounting areas of the machine allows for adjustability to dial things in. Judging from your photos, My hat is off to you, Sir for an excellent design!

[DeadTom]

With the indulgence of the original poster I will answer just these few questions and thank you for the comments.

lazorus,
I have not decided that point yet, as with everyone else I have budgetary constraints to work within but do not want to compromise the use of such a rigid base.

Paul,
Yes, ding..ding..ding, we have a winner. These were the straighest that I could lay my hands on. There is a business locally that is like a part junk yard and part storage solutions... any ways they have tons of racking in various sizes and these are very short and stout.

adprinter,
thanks, but if you notice I did not show closeups of the welds as I did burn some holes into the 1/8" square tubing which had to be repaired nothing major though. The racking seems to be fairly thick when I welded the two together I had no hole burning problems. It sits nice a flat no warping issues that I can detect now comes the stand to place this upon.

I will start a build thread when I get some work done to show,
Tom

[HorridHenry]

My welding experience allows me to burn holes right through most pieces I have tryed.

Perhaps you need more experience welding with different settings on the welder.
Teqniuqe is also a factor to consider.

What thickness was you welding to burn holes? anything below 2mm takes a bit of experience to weld without blowing through.

[adprinter]

Perhaps you need more experience welding with different settings on the welder.
Teqniuqe is also a factor to consider.

What thickness was you welding to burn holes? anything below 2mm takes a bit of experience to weld without blowing through.

The settings on my welder go up to 1/8" (100 amps). Because of the over heating issues, I generally leave it set at around 85 to 90 amps. I have been practicing with everything I have around the place. Conduit piping, (about 1/16" walled), angle steel (about 1/8" thick), reinforcing rods (3/4" diameter), etc. The over heating of the cheap welder is a major problem to getting the hang of it. As it seems that every time I am successfully feeding the rod to the puddle for a good bead, is when it overheats and clicks off. Then it's wait about 45 minutes for it to cool down enough to be able to turn it back on.
I have already resolved, that it's going to require better equipment, before I will be able to learn the technique! It's just that being on a fixed income, makes dealing with what I already have necessary.

[HorridHenry]

This sounds like an 'Arc Welder'? if so dump it and get a Mig.

A mig welder is a doddle compared to rod arc welding and you can get right down onto the job no holding a rod in one hand and the torch in the other.

Where was these 35 yeard ago?

[arizonavideo]

You can do just fine with a stick welder.

The trick for thinner metal is thinner rod.

Take a look at the 1/16" rod at ebay.

1/2 lb 1/16" 6013 Electrode Welding Rods by Forney 32260 | eBay

This is a good place to spend $15.00

Set the current to around 40 to 60A You will blow through less and the unit will shut down less. Put a box fan on the welder to help to keep it cool too.

I have a Mig and may pick up a spare stick welder just because it is faster to set up to do a small weld most of the time and I don't have to move the tanks around and change gas for different metals.

Have fun

[Pplug]

Hey, that looks like the machine I built for school! We also used cold rolled tubing and welded the whole thing! We used the same design with the y axis supported and no risers on the gantry. The only major difference looks to be the size and the choice of linear rails.

The design is rock solid.. Isn't it?

[Pplug]

Now that I closely look at the Picts, they aren't that sim miler at all! Oops!

[lazorus]

Sure they're similar...they both cut up wood! LOL

Yours looks a bit more pro though. And its green. :-)

[Pplug]

Don't let the stickers and spray paint fool you!

[lazorus]

Hi guys

A couple of updates...I have updated the router from a Bosch Colt variable speed to the Hitachi M12-VC. It dramatically increased my cutting speed. It at least doubled it. I have also included some cableing pictures, in case anyone is interested. I have around 700 hours cutting time on this machine, and have only had to re-align it once. Everything stays nice and true. I dont expect miracles from the machine, and it is probably within .005 thou. Repeatability is excellent.

On the down side, I have been having trouble with either my stepper controller (Gecko G540) or my computer. I cant pinpoint it down which one it is. Everything is grounded properly. I dont think I am getting interference from cabling. But every once in awhile, the G540 just quits. It turns on the red light, and Mach3 stops. I exit the Mach3 program, restart, rehome the machine, and can continue cutting the gcode where it left off. It never gives me a fault on my computer. I used to tear my hair out when it happened, but if I could catch the line that the gcode stopped at, and rehome my machine, I figured out that I could continue cutting like nothing had happened.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears...thanks guys. And if anyone has any questions about my machine, ask away!

[Pplug]

We had the same problems on our machine in school. I did a couple of things to fix the problem. The first thing I did was make a heatsink for the g540. It was getting very hot so I was thinking the g540 had hit its thermal limit. We now have a fan blowing on the heatsink as well. The next thing I had to do was ground the heatsink separately. Then I had to run a wire from the ground point to the negative power terminal on the power supply to get the touch sensor working again. Finally I had to replace the power connectors on the g540 because I noticed when my wires were moved a certain way the drive would fault. My wiring was good and since I replaced the connector we haven't had any problems.

Even with all the wiring issues I've had. It is still a nice and easy package compared with the xylotex drive I started with.