[rwskinner]

I just ordered my CRP4848 yesterday and I'm about to start on the stand. I will be building the legs from 3x3x.125" Tubing and the crossbeams will be 1.5x3.0x.125" rectangle tubing.

I'm curious, what is a good height to have the bed of the router at? I'm a short guy (5'5") and I'm looking for ease of loading sheets and for operating.
I see some mention of 36" but that seems a tad high for me. I'm think 30-32" would be straight arm height for sliding 4x8 sheets in by myself.

I know each will have their own opinion but I hate to make it 32" tall and obviously overlook something.

Richard

[ger21]

The $150,000 routers I've used for the last 15 years have lower tables (in the 30" range) and that's what I prefer myself for easier loading/unloading.

[freecncplans]

I went with 32 inch, but the legs are shorter due to the feet.
Sean

[rwskinner]

Thanks, I'm taking into account the Leveling casters (3.250") and the 3" height of the 8020 Bed. I just finished cutting them for the OA height of 32".
Anyone happen to know what size mounting holes are in the flange of the Access Casters 2P80F casters so I can drill my plate and weld nuts on the inside?

Richard

[ecurb5]

My table surface ended up at 37" for my CRP9648 build. But I'm good with that height, I'm 6'1...

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[Analias]

Richard, I have a CRP -4848 I built for myself. I built the table to place the table height at 35". I chose that value mostly because it was at a convenient height to match my steel saw horses, which made it easy to support work that hung over the table. One problem with making the height too convenient is the CNC table is another horizontal surface to collect tools and projects when not in use.

-Freeman


Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[rwskinner]

A little bit done on the table. I still have to weld out some cross bracing and grind it down and put some center supports in.
Leveling feet might be in by next weekend so I can drill and weld the bottom plates on. I'm not much of a welder but the grinder takes care of that.

Richard

[rwskinner]

Oh, how is the best way to skin the top? 3/4" MDF? Since it's an odd size I guess I'll have to add some supports and cut 2 sections of MDF to cover it all.
The bottom will be sheeted will 3/4" ply wood. There will be a divider on the front and I will put some drawers on the front right and on the left I will put a cabinet door for the PC to go it.

Richard

[rwskinner]

Thanks Freeman. I looked over your build log and it looks like a nice build!

Richard

[rwskinner]

Dang Gerry, you're everywhere I go Helping everyone as usual!

I'm so tempted to go with a Smooth stepper on this thing but I ran into to a couple of gotchas on my mill and ATC where all the Mach stuff isn't fully supported and causes limitations to what I can / can't do. Such as the Mach Dwell not working properly.

I ran across one of your post where you participated in a conversation about homing not being fully supported for both sides of the gantry. Since I haven't built mine yet, I don't know how rigid the gantry is on this machine and if the dual homing is something I can live without or not. I kind of have that on hold for now until I do more research.

Richard

[vbgraves]

Richard,

I would highly recommend that you implement homing switches on both ends of the gantry. I started out with single sided homing on my PRO4848 machine because I didn't know how to set up dual sided in LinuxCNC. Everything was good till I crashed the machine making too deep of a cut. I recovered from the crash but didn't notice the gantry was cocked. When I cut my next piece, the 10" rectangular board I was cutting was more than an inch out of square!

It took me a couple of days, but I figured out LinuxCNC homing well enough to get the second home switch working. Once I adjusted the switch locations, my machine homes itself square.

It was well worth the effort.

Van

[rwskinner]

That was what I was afraid of. I'm glad I asked. I happen to have one machine left with a parallel port and another with an add on port and a buffer card so I will use one of them to be safe. I'm not sure why Gregg won't put support in the SS for it but he must have his reasons.

Thanks again for the input.
Richard

[rwskinner]

From reading in the Warp9 forum, it appears homing slaved axis independently is now supported. Can anyone verify this is the case?
Forum

Richard

[rwskinner]

Ah, another question. Is the CRP4848 designed where it is self supporting from it's two outside rails? In other words, no braces or support under the center cross braces of the machine? Seems like the more contact points created the harder it is to align and keep that way.

Richard

[ssw]

Hi Richard,

I'm just starting my Pro 4x4 build, and plan to get a log started soon. I can say that the weight of the machine is definitely on those outside rails. I'm building my machine's base with extrusions, outside dimensions of 49.0" x 63.0". So, the support is under the "L" brackets. Photo attached.

-- Bernie

[rwskinner]

I spoke to Greg today and Jeff Birt and they said the Ethernet SS does support auto squaring however the USB SS does not, yet. He stated when they finished the Mach 4 plug ins then he will add it to the USB SS. So, I ordered an Ethernet version today. My desktops don't last real long out in the shop with the humidity, condensation, and temperature swings so with the ESS I will be able to use my laptop on all the machines and bring it back in when I'm done.

I did get my MS Surface Pro tablet working with my RF45 and the USB SS the other day. Worked slick but that 10" screen is a little small for a touch screen and the stock Mach screen set. It was for fun more than anything else.

The stand is finished up. My leveling casters came in this evening and I got the bottom plates drilled then I tapped them and welded them on. I'll sandblast and start painting it this weekend and should have it ready for all my stuff coming in Tuesday.

I'm more of a metal worker so the wood is new to me. I'll have to start researching to find out what few router bits I'll need to get started with and then I can add to it. I figure a 1/2 60 Deg V and maybe a 30 deg. for Vcarving and then a couple of up cut and down cut 1/4" EM's should get me started, but I'm more less guessing. Looks like the compression bits are pretty cool as well. I will mainly be playing for awhile until I figure it all out. Suggestions always welcome.

I have been using Vcarve Pro 6 for my milling machine for a couple of years now so I have a decent grasp of that portion. I just need to learn the feeds and speeds for different woods and MDF. I really hadn't looked to see how much of that was in GWizard or accurate it is.

Richard

[rwskinner]

That's going to be nice Bernie!

I wish now I would have just ordered extrusion and built mine from that instead of the 1.5"x3" rectangle tubing. Keeping it all from twisting and warping while welding was pretty tough and it was perfect until I finished up the angle brackets, which pulled the long sides in a bit. It was about a 1/4" less in the center than the outside edges but another spreader brace in the center fixed that.

$250 in steel + sandblast, prime, and paint so I'm sure 8020 from the ebay store wouldn't have been much more, and a lot easier to work with, and hell, it looks better!
Maybe next time.

Richard

Hi Richard,

I'm just starting my Pro 4x4 build, and plan to get a log started soon. I can say that the weight of the machine is definitely on those outside rails. I'm building my machine's base with extrusions, outside dimensions of 49.0" x 63.0". So, the support is under the "L" brackets. Photo attached.

-- Bernie

[rwskinner]

Okay, I know you all around here probably get asked about DC systems several times a day. I've been reading up on them some and it seems most buy a cheaper one (Grizzly or HF) then do a bunch of mods. I'm thinking of something a tad different and may be venturing down a bad path. I was thinking about putting my DC outside under the lean-to next to my shop. It would be pretty much dedicated to the router and that's about it.

Would the HF 2HP be good enough for that with 25' of 4" going to the router? That would include both verticals then the overhead horizontal runs to the DC.
Since it's outside and I have no neighbors for 1/2 mile, would the factory filter bag work okay?

I guess I could start with that and if I had to go to a better bag or a 35A filter I could always add to it later. Just looking to have something to get started with.
My only other choice is to use an old shop vac and I rather not do that.

[ger21]

A 2HP HF will be fine as is outside. But I'd run a 5" line all the way to the machine, with just a 4" hose at the machine. The inlet on the HF is 5", and you should get quite a bit more suction if you keep it at 5" as long as possible.

[rwskinner]

Awesome! Now I have to google for 5" pipe because I never heard of it. 4" and 6" but never 5". The HF Brochure shows a Y connector with 2 Four inch fittings. Is this a typical HF typo or is it 5" for the main collector the Y mounts to.

I was going to make my own dust shoe but I have enough to work on now so I broke down and ordered a KentsCNC shoe. Pricey but hopefully they work good.

Hey, I finally get to use your screen set I bought ages ago!

Richard