[leix_99]

Hi everyone, after reading here and squeezing my head, i started today my first fixed gantry mill.
This thread might be a help for people that is interested on building their machines. I' ll be posting as soon as i have results, but it will take a while to be ready because i'm coursing my degree right now and i don't have too much free time.

I hope you enjoy!

[rusel]

It's looking good. I am very interested... think of doing one myself
Some questions
What resin and fillers did you use.. if it not a trade secret?
Why the steel tube through the middle?
How will the steel and epoxy handle the different co-fiction of expansion that is going to happen?
It look as you have used brass inserts.. why brass and not steel?

Russell

[leix_99]

It's looking good. I am very interested... think of doing one myself
Some questions
What resin and fillers did you use.. if it not a trade secret?
Why the steel tube through the middle?
How will the steel and epoxy handle the different co-fiction of expansion that is going to happen?
It look as you have used brass inserts.. why brass and not steel?

Russell

Resin is EPOLAM 5014 from AXSON, low density and 1,5-2 hours pot life. Filler is:
- 40% "volcanic" garden stone (5-8mm), it is very irregular has lots of pore so sticks really good to the smaller agregate.

- 30% quartz pool filter sand
- 20% sandblasting sand
- 10-15% resin (i added a litte more to fill up everything)

The steel tubing is designed to route on it's inside all the cables of the machine and also add a little "reinforecement", as long as i experimented, the whole piece was cooked 4 hours @ 80º and nothing happened.
Regarding the inserts, i used the ones i got, they were previously tested and work fine.

Feel free to ask anything more if you want!

[leix_99]

Demoulding suceed!

The structure has little air bubbles inside, i'll fill them when i have some time, just finishing and stethic improvement rather than functional.

I added a little more resin on the open side to machine it and get better finishing.

Gantry almost done!

[rusel]

The part look very neat. Can you give some dimension so we can get some idea of scale.
With the small air bubble you could of used a vibrator like in the concrete industry. Hind sight is a wonderful thing.
Are you going to make any more of your mill from EG?

We made a new head on our mill from EG but our vibrator was not strong enough so we got some bubbles also.
But thinking of making a mill total out of EG.

Russell

[leix_99]

The part look very neat. Can you give some dimension so we can get some idea of scale.
With the small air bubble you could of used a vibrator like in the concrete industry. Hind sight is a wonderful thing.
Are you going to make any more of your mill from EG?

We made a new head on our mill from EG but our vibrator was not strong enough so we got some bubbles also.
But thinking of making a mill total out of EG.

Russell

Actually the whole mix was vacuumed but due to low mould walls and a more expansive mix than i thought, i could not reach pressure 0 and this small bubbles are the result... I first thought about using E/G for the machine bed/base but yesterday found some nice 1M long 80/40 T-slot alu extrusions and now i'm thinking about all the possibilities.

The bridge is:
- 1000mm total length
- 800mm light (in spanish it's called "luz"=light, the distance between pilars)
- 340mm ground to lower point
- 480mm ground to higher point
- 120 thickness

[leix_99]

Anybody knows a great store to buy linear guides (Hiwin on THK) within the EU?

[Mad Welder]

This looks like to a start to an interesting build, thanks for sharing.....

and continue to post loads of pics.....

[Dingenman]

Anybody knows a great store to buy linear guides (Hiwin on THK) within the EU?

Perhaps you have already seen this one in The Netherlands:

DamenCNC.com

[leix_99]

Little update:

Started milling some motor mounts and ballscrew supports, right now i'm quite busy due to university projects but i'll be posting some interested things i expect to happen this week

I finally ordered a set of hiwin linear bearings from a local supplier, 30%off, yeah, big deal!

[leix_99]

Little update:

Started milling some motor mounts and ballscrew supports, right now i'm quite busy due to university projects but i'll be posting some interested things i expect to happen this week

I finally ordered a set of hiwin linear bearings from a local supplier, 30%off, yeah, big deal!

F**K it... turns out that the 10 mm thick "flat stock" i bought is actually 9.8mm.
My fault to pay an overprized material and not checking it.

No worries, just have to mill some things and everything will be okay:banana:

[leix_99]

Look what showed up today:banana:

I'll skip college tomorrow and fit them into the machine frame and see what happens. Right now i'm really broke but these things are awesome, nothing compared to the "cheap" linear bearings i bought from zapp automation, i now really see that this's a must to for a decent working machine.

Posting tomorrow with detailed pics! Cheers.

[RomanLini]

F**K it... turns out that the 10 mm thick "flat stock" i bought is actually 9.8mm.
My fault to pay an overprized material and not checking it.
...

Welcome to the world of a designer. You'll get used to that.

Congrats on the nice machine build too!

[leix_99]

Fitted today the guides to see how squared the frame was... Here the results:

Average is pretty fine, ran a comparetor mounted on a bearing and error in the perpendicularity of the rails is about 0.01mm+-, pretty decent, but i made a mistake in the mould and the upper rail is a little bit unparallell to the vertical, aprox 0.8mm.

I think i would tahe to tap it actually it's d=5 to a little bigger diameter and play with the bolts to have it properly aligned.

Any guess or suggestion, i'm a a little bit upset to tap the rails as they costed me a small fortune but...

Anyway, i'll see what i can do.

[leix_99]

Some pics ad a video, i've been playing to get everything squared... I haven't got much time this days, i'm having exams but in a couple of weeks i'll be fully into it!

Test2 - YouTube

[leix_99]

And sorry for the shaky-bad quality video...

[leix_99]

Well, after having the important planes cmm'd, i ordered a 20mm ballscrew from hiwin (expected to be here next week), an mpg for the pokeys and a touch-screen monitor for my machine.

Today i did some work, milled foot mounts for the EG bridge and the ballnut housing for the Y axis... And yes, flood coolant is a must have for aluminium milling.

[leix_99]

New material!

I have received a massive 20mm Hiwin ballscrew and fsi ballnut... Compared to the chinese ones i got for the Z axis... no comments, just next step in manufacturing quality and not much more expensive.

I'll have to machine the ballscrew, any suggestions on doing it, i mean, i have no experience with the lathe and i think i'll ask my dad to do it for me, i don't want to ruin it... Anyway, if somebody knows how to get them turned, please, comments will be gently appreciated.

[rocketflier]

Looking forward to seeing that mounted!

Do you have any shots of the mixing process?

[mactec54]

leix_99

This may help you with your Ballscrew machining

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/cnc_wo..._friend-7.html