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  1. #21
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    15
    Yea, I am going to go with the center punch, and step drilling for my rails. FedEx says they will be here in five days. I just got three meters of 4590 profile that will become my gantry. I plan on assembling all my electronics this weekend and running some test code through my "machine" to make sure that everything works properly. I can not wait to start making chips with this thing! Good luck on yours, and don't forget to post pictures as you go along.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Well i just opened my box to a big disappointment. I ordered cold rolled and think i got hot rolled. It looks just like the piece i bought earlier which was covered in a grey coating. To the best of my knowledge cold rolled shouldn't have that grey coating. Now I have to go through the process of emailing to see if they're going to fix their problem. I'm i wrong isn't cold rolled 1018? Can someone post a pic of a cold rolled at a very close distance? This is the image of the one I bought earlier which looks like the one I just received yesterday? Did they send me the wrong one? The receipt says 1018.

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  3. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    15
    Hey, I really hope that you did not get more hot rolled. I wasn't able to get my electronics assembled, but I hope to tonight. I wrote about my weekend and you can read it over at my site. I would post my build log here, but keeping up two versions would get tedious. I hope I can get my rails by Friday.... Apparently, they never made it to the FedEx office until today. FedEx updated my tracking info to show a friday by 8pm delivery...

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Well i received an email from the people i got the rails from and they said their going to send me the right one. I'm just waiting for them to send me an email on when their going to send me the cold rolled.

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    15
    I hope they decide to expedite. My bearings just cleared customs in Cali, so they should be here by Friday. I got my screws on Monday, had to have the ends machined, the company I bought them from didn't do a good job cutting the ends. I will put another post on my website tonight, after work, if you want to check out pictures.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    15
    Just wanted to let you know, I got the rails in today! Check it out at rusty.rrusselljr.com. Any luck on your cold rolled yet?

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Well I was finally able to work on my machine this weekend. I have been working many hours and haven't been able to get to it. This was my first weekend of in a month and niece came over so it cut down the amount of time I could work on the machine. Well the company I bought the steel from made good on their promise and I finally received the right cold rolled steel. Here goes another mistake that I made on my part because of lack of knowledge. I bought 3" steel thinking that it would be a perfect size for the linear rails I had, not taking into consideration the risers. I asked this questions many times but I was never able to get a straight answer. So here goes the right answer from my experience so far. If your planning on using the gantry risers from Cncrouterparts the steel shouldn't be no more than 2.5" wide. The 2.5" steel squares up perfect because the 3" I have sticks out 1/4" on each side. With the 1/4" on each side it makes it harder to square it but not impossible. If anyone decides to build a cnc machine with the risers buy the 2.5" steel and the jig cncrouterparts has on their website, it will make your life so much easier. I have a drill press and it doesn't make it easy to center the holes on the steel. Well I have the 3" steel and I will try hard to make it work, but if it doesn't I'm getting the 2.5" steel and jig.

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Well I decided on the 2.5" cold rolled steel and the jig from cncrouterparts. I just received the parts yesterday and will hopefully work on it on the weekend. I should had bought the jig a long time ago. This thing is nice and it also comes with a drill bit.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Well it's been awhile since I last posted an update to my build. I have been working on the machine but haven't had a chance to update. I ended up using the 2.5" CRS and used the jig I bought from cncrouterparts. I should have bought the jig and 2.5" steel from the beginning. Now I have 2 3"x60" steel useless to me sitting next to my machine. Well I drilled the x and y axis using the jig, which made it so easy compared to all the trouble i went through drilling the 3" steel. I used superclean to clean the steel thoroughly and lots of fresh water. Made sure it was really dried before applying primer and a red top coat. I used rustoleum, because of its rust protection properties. My gantry riser is red so that's why I used a red color. I had bought a nema 23 motor mount to use as a guide to square off the rails. I started at the ends and worked myself to the middle. Just make sure you have a couple of clamps, they really do come in handy. Adjusting the middle was a little trickier, but a c- clamp is really needed, because the metal might have a bulge, which you need to straighten using a couple of clamps and lots of force. I took lots of pictures but my computer crashed with all the pics. I have my computer working again but this time I’ll be saving all my work to a different partition. The pics I do have from after they were primered and painted red. The are already installed also. I will install linear carriages, gantry risers and gantry next.

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  10. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Installing the linear carriages was pretty easy. Cncrouterparts has a section were they explain how to install them. The gantry risers came with all the hardware needed to install them. Being that my frame is pretty squared I used 2 angle brackets to use as a reference point. I double checked the measurements and they are even on both sides. I place both linear carriages against the angle and clamped them there. I placed the gantry risers on top of the carriages making sure they are evenly placed on each carriage. The risers need to be as even as possible to each other in order for the gantry to be straight. This is where the 2 angle brackets I installed on the frame come more into play. Being that i don't have a set of bumpers yet they will have to do.
    I continued by installing the gantry on the risers. If anyone decides to use the risers which I recommend make sure to get the ones for your specific size of extrusion. There is only 2 sizes 3030 and 3060, because you don't want to make the mistake of ordering the wrong one and having to return it for an exchange. Ahren at cncrouterparts is a great person to deal with and he will gladly exchange it for the right size, but you’re out shipping cost for the round trip and it's not cheap. Installing the gantry was a little hard because I didn't have anyone to help me hold it in place while I tighten one side with the supplied bolts. Make sure both sides are pretty tight and then check the alignment by rolling the gantry up to the bumpers but in my case the angle brackets.
    If for some reason it's not even do not panic, according to the CRP website use a piece of aluminum shim on the opposite side of the gantry like in the picture. I had a piece of thin aluminum I had laying around which I used as a shim, plus a shim made of soda can to bring it even closer. Well I ordered all the parts needed to build the z-axis assembly. Will start working on z-axis next which should be fun. It’s taking long but slowly and surely I’ll get there.:banana:

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  11. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Posts
    1
    Hiya Jerseydog, nice build. I'm a total CNC newbie, but your design looks neat. I do have one question for you though, since I'm building my own rig with 80/20. Why did you not use 80/20's linear motion rails? One of my favorite things about 80/20 is how almost every rail can be used with a nylon slider adapter. My design is a hot wire foam cutter with 1/2" 10 ACME rod and 80/20 slider rail, so I wanted to know if there was any particular reason you aren't using 80/20's sliders.

  12. #32
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78
    Stephen_G

    I’m also a newbie like you. I started building my CNC machine after reading countless threads here on cnczone. I really didn’t know what I was doing but did know what I wanted as a final outcome. This website is a great resource but it’s time consuming getting the actual information you really want or need. That’s why I have started this thread to help others fight through the clutter. Sometimes it’s hard to get questions answered in a timely manner if at all. I have made many mistakes which have cost me money but hopefully I could help others not make the same mistakes. Well as for the reason I didn’t choose a linear rail from 80/20 is because of the length of my machine. The overall length of my machine will be 60”x39” which will be hard to incorporate an acme screw because of the backlash and whip that it will create. For more information read here plus using cncrouterparts linear bearing was easier to incorporate into my design which I finally settle on. So in short anything under 4’ feet using an 80/20 linear will be logical but anything over R&P will be better. Maintenance in the long run will be cheaper with CRP part than with 80/20 if you have to replace any parts because of wear and tear. The 80/20 parts are pretty price. If you have any question please feel free and ask will try to answer ASAP. You should also start a thread on your build. I will definitely follow just to see how a machine using a hotwire will turn out. Good luck on your build and hope to hear from you soon.

    Jerseydog,

  13. #33
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78

    Re: How is it so far?

    Well since there’s not much interest in my build the next post will be of the finished machine. I have been working on and have everything needed to finish, minus the spindle. Once I have enough money I’m going with a water cooled spindle. It’s been a learning curve but its well worth it. I can’t wait to finish this machine. It’s been a long road but it’s almost the end.:banana: If anyone runs into this thread and needs some advice or help just ask. If can help I will if not I’ll let you know I have no idea.

  14. #34
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    108

    Re: How is it so far?

    I just now found your post, nice looking so far, keep posting... Btw, in case you haven't seen it yet, cncrouterparts has a subforum.

    Sent from my SCH-R720 using Tapatalk 2

  15. #35
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78

    Re: How is it so far?

    Buck thanks for the interest. It has taken me a long time to get where i am but it's been a great learning experience. Once i make a little more progress i'll post more pics. Thanks about the cncrouterparts subforum, i didn't know.

  16. #36
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78

    Re: How is it so far?

    Well I have finally finished the machine. All that is needed now is the spindle which I'm still debating on. I'm leaning more for water cooled because of the lower noise. I'm not going to order from china because it's pretty hard to get any warranty and service done to it. I think an American company will give me better technical service than any overseas company. Here are the final pictures. I can't wait to start using it but at the moment I'm on workers comp because I got hurt at work. I'm getting shoulder surgery next week so I'll be out for about 3 month.:wave: So I'll be saving for the spindle and learning mach3 and CAD.

  17. #37
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    663

    Re: How is it so far?

    Suggest you try CAMBAM for an all-round CAM program for 2D, 2.5D and 3D. Bit of a steep learning curve, but the forum is top notch. One contributor took the CAMBAM help files and translated them into a PDF. Suggest you print the PDF in color as much of the info to be gleaned comes easily from the colored diagrams.

    As for MACH3. Though is a lot of pages [350..I think], print out the whole MACH3 manual. [Do it on a laser jet printer, not on an ink-jet printer; laser is faster and better quality, plus less expensive!] I found it is easier to really learn MACH3 when I could write notes in the margins as I read; plus using the usual amount of sticky notes.

    Oh, buy a package of paper [ream...500 sheets] that is already punched for a 3-ring binder [they have it at Staples]. Save you lots of grief in both having these two documents always organized...and not having to punch holes with a 3-hole punch!

  18. #38
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78

    Re: How is it so far?

    Zool
    Thanks for all the good advice. Being that you mentioned staples I'll have them print the mach3 pdf file, it'll be cheaper for me being that don't have a laser. I'll definitely look into cambam. I have plenty of time to learn. I love this site lots of good information.

  19. #39
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    15

    Re: How is it so far?

    @zool; Your advice is awesome, and I am working kinks out of my machine right now too, so it's useful in the very near future. Thanks much!! @Jerseydog; Your machine looks fantastic! I am glad things have finally worked out for you. I am really keen to see what you make on it. Also, hope your injury gets better really quickly and you can get lots of learning on the machine in while you convalesce.

    Rusty

  20. #40
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Posts
    78

    Re: How is it so far?

    Hey rusty13jr how's everything? How is your build going? I have been going over to your site but haven't seen any updates, unless you have updated lately. Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully I'll recover fast because I hate to be home for so long. The advice zool gave was great and I'll be getting the cambam+mach3 bundle once I'm ready. Take care and have a great day. God bless America.

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