[limbo]

Just after completion of my first router someone told me that he had a large, old XY table lying in his garage. He gave it to me for free. It needs a lot of work but I couldnt resist: A second router had to be born. This is what it all started with:

[limbo]

Cleaning and dissasembling yielded some great linear ball bearings (rexroth star) and steel guides. It took some guts to take the bearings off the guides because I was afraid the balls would fall out. I rolled up a clear plastic sheet to form a 3cm diameter tube and very carefully slid one of the bearings on it. It revealed I had nothing to worry about.

[limbo]

I'm building something that will resemble the MAXNC router. I like the way the guides are below the table to keep the dust away and also the flat tabletop with open ends to allow for long workpieces. Construction is also fairly easy when you simply bolt the steel rods between the end-panels. This required some machining to drill and tap the head ends of the guides. Luckyly I found someone willing and able to do this. The first centimeter of the hole is widened to 12mm to accept a short piece of pipe that will also fit exactly in the end panel. If the 12mm holes in the panels are properly aligned this will be accurate enough to eliminate the use of alignment blocks.

[limbo]

These are the MDF panels that build up the frame. Both identical panels were stacked and clamped together first and then drilled to ensure proper aligning of all holes. The holes for the shaft-bolts are slightly smaller than 12mm so this will give a nice press-fit for the short guiding pipes. (whats a good word for this?)

[limbo]

Here are two assembled Y panels. On the rear one the small copper guiding pipes are visible.

[limbo]

Below the original XY frame there was a small precision xy assembly hanging, of which I used one part to make the Z-axis. Travel is only 5cm but this is more than I need for routing plywood and balsa.

[limbo]

complete Z axis. The Ferm tool is low quality and had to be modified. I took the front bearing out and wrapped it with electrical tape twice to make a tighter fit in the housing. This helped a lot. I also replaced the tool chuck with a better quality one. Much less runout and in total a better performing and quieter tool.

[limbo]

YZ assembly. This is the last pic I have today. If y'all are bored to death or offended by this flood of naked router pics please stop me now!

regards,
John

[Mr.Chips]

Limbo,
I can tell even though this is your 2nd machine you'r as excited as a first time builder. Lady luck has certainly smiled on you.
Your machine is looking very good, and I envy you of that highly polished work bench, it's first class.

Keep up the good work and please keep the pictures coming. It helps to stimulate us newbies.

Hager Hay

[ToyMaker]

limbo:
keep 'em coming. I, for one, enjoy seeing what other folks are doing. It's wonderful brain-food.
You mentioned the z-axis is only ~2 inches (5 cm), and that you are only routing balsa and ply. What are you making? Are you doing any engraving?
Your y-axis appears to be about 25 cm (10 inches), how much x travel will you have?
robotic regards,

Tom
= = = = =
I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy.

[limbo]

I guess I can get somewhat overenthousiastic somethimes. Guys at work start throwing stuff at me when I talk about CNC. They were happy when the first one was finished. That highly polished workbench is our dining table.... Dont tell my wife I already made a big scratch.
Toymaker, I'm making parts for R/C airplanes. Y-travel is some 18inch, X travel is 40 inch.

greetings,
John

[balsaman]

Nice!

keep at it!

Eric

[limbo]

A quick test of the X axis. This stacked drilling of the end panels really works! Theres no binding over the whole length. I had to wait a long time to get the shafts drilled and tapped so I made almost all other parts in the mean time. Would be a pity if they didnt fit or work as expected. Now everything is going together great and fast so I'm a happy camper . Next thing to do is cabling and cable guides on the Y axis to complete that unit.

[limbo]

Finally found some time to finish the gantry and start on the total assembly. Frontside of gantry:

[limbo]

And backside. Leadscrew pitch is 4mm and I'm getting 70IPM with the drivers from my old machine. They are 0.8A max while the steppers are rated at 1.4A. I'm planning to make new drivers that will (hopefully) increase the speed further.

[limbo]

Complete frame assembled here. The gantry weighs around 30kg(guess) and that causes the X-rails to sag 0.5mm when the gantry is in the middle. I didn't expect that as the shafts are 3cm thick and MASSIVE! So now I've made adjustable support-bars for the tabletop to match the bend. Will post pics later.

[Mr.Ed]

Hi Limbo, greetings from Ridderkerk,

You should consider yourself a bit fortunate to have gotten a donation like that.

Impressive construction, looks real sturdy.

I wonder what kind of electronics you're getting, i got mine from a German fellow, nc-step.de

My steppers ran only days ago for the first time, but due to circumstances i couldn't press on to start engraving or cutting something.

Good luck with the remainder of you project. It's looking good.

Mr.Ed.
(Edwin)

[limbo]

Hi Ed, greetings to you too I'm in Weert, Limburg. Are we the only two Dutch guys around here? I've been following your progress too. Can't wait to see some pics of what you are doing.

My electronics are home made. They are based on the TCA3727 chips by siemens. Work really smooth but lack power. Now I'm playing with the allegro A3977, same chip as in the Xylotex driver. A bit rougher while running but lots more power. I think (hope) it will reach my 100IPM goal.

[Cold Fusion]

Looks awesome dude!

Thank you sooo much for posting the pictures. They have been a big help for my cnc router that I'm starting to build.

[limbo]

Here is a picture of my poor mans cat track. The idea comes from an old plotter, where a curved metal strip forces the cables to bend sharply. I reused the strip in my Y-axis cable guide. Then it hit me that this strip is similar to a normal tape measure. The flex tubing keeps tape and cables nicely together, and it turned out to work just as well as the original thing.