[Adamj12b]

Hello All,

Thought I would start a thread of my first router build. I have converted 2 mills before and have 4 machines in total. Bridgeport, X2 Mill, Jet Mill, and Emco Maximat Super11 Lathe.

This router is something I designed and am building for my brother-in-law. He will be helping with the controls of the machine.

The machine was initially designed to be all 80/20 and a reasonable priced build. Well, after my wife bugging me to clean the garage and get rid of some stuff, I decided to contribute everything I have scavenged to build a VMC (Vertical Milling Center). This will never really happen so I mind as well make the wife happy. After all, A happy wife = Happy Life.

Anyways, down to the details.

The machine will be used with alot of different materials. Lots of wood, and aluminum. But also plastics and fiberglass.

The original goal is 4x3 ft working area, With the frame and gantry being all 80/20. The base frame is all 2040 with 2020 legs. The gantry beam would be 3060 with some reinforcement.

Attachment 249272

Well after agreeing to clean some stuff out of the garage, the machine has changed a bit and building it with my contributions have proceeded.

The rails that will be on the machine are IKO LWHD35 with 2 blocks per rail. For both the X and Y. The 35mm rails are HUGE! I was reading a datasheet that the dynamic load of each block was 10k lbs! The screws for all 3 axes will be precision ground screws that I acquired for free like the rest of the equipment. The X screw is a double nut preloaded setup with precision end bearings. This screw has 46" of total usable travel. The Y screw is from the same machine and has about 32" of usable travel. If I dont use this screw for the Y, I have another ground screw that is a bit longer, getting closer to the desired 36" Y travel. It all depends on how big the saddle assembly ends up being.

The Z will be built on either 20 or most likely 25mm IKO rails as well, With another ground screw for it. The head will be a pneumatic counter weight setup and use a spindle that I paid $530 for. It is a cartridge spindle rebuilt from a VMC. It uses a BT30 tool and has the whole spring loaded draw bar assembly. I Just need to add a pneumatic cylinder for actuating the drawbar.

So, By now, Im sure your saying that this equipment is way overkill for an 80/20 machine, and I would agree with you. But, I have more free stuff, that will make this one of the best budget built machines ever.

I happen to have a fabricated I beam, that the original 35mm rails mounted to. This will be cut the long way, and used to reinforce the 80/20 down each side, and provide a ground surface for the rails to bolt to. This will straighten the whole frame and create a nice rigid base. The remaining pieces of the beams will be used as metal stock for building the gantry uprights as well as reinforcements. The only material I think that is needed to purchase is a plate for the face of the gantry beam.

Thats it for now, I will leave you pictures of current progress.

FULL PHOTO ALBUM: https://plus.google.com/photos/10488...MqUjuz78pPbpgE

Next Time: Controls and Electronics

Enjoy!

-Adam

First 80/20 Supply:
Attachment 249274

Cleaning the X Ballscrew:
Attachment 249276

Frame Assembly:
Attachment 249278

Feet Installed:
Attachment 249280

Leveled with initial 35mm rails installed: (These are different rails. Dual V roller rails. I only have 3 blocks )
Attachment 249282

X Screw Drive End Mount:
Attachment 249284

Attachment 249286

X Screw Half mounted:
Attachment 249288

[ger21]

Not sure how a ballscrew in the kitchen sink can somehow result in happy wife??

[forjay]

nice job!

[blau_schuh]

What thickness plate are you going to use for your gantry uprights?

I ask, because I am going back and forth between 1/2 and 3/4". I'm figuring I'll need a 12x36x piece and the weight diff is 52lb versus 36lb.

[Adamj12b]

Not sure how a ballscrew in the kitchen sink can somehow result in happy wife??

She's pretty easy going with things like this. Using the sink for a little while doesn't cause a problem. And it gets me to do the dish's

What thickness plate are you going to use for your gantry uprights?

I ask, because I am going back and forth between 1/2 and 3/4". I'm figuring I'll need a 12x36x piece and the weight diff is 52lb versus 36lb.

I assume your looking at aluminum? Originally I was going to use 1" aluminum sides, and most likely add some bracing to keep it from flexing.

I am currently working on some design changes to use some steel plating (0.800") that I have. The steel is from another machine I took apart. It is ground on one side.

-Adam

[blau_schuh]

She's pretty easy going with things like this. Using the sink for a little while doesn't cause a problem. And it gets me to do the dish's




I assume your looking at aluminum? Originally I was going to use 1" aluminum sides, and most likely add some bracing to keep it from flexing.

I am currently working on some design changes to use some steel plating (0.800") that I have. The steel is from another machine I took apart. It is ground on one side.

-Adam

1" thick... and then braced? Don't you think that's overkill?

I played around with an online deflection calc for a 24" long , 10" wide, 0.75" thick cantilevered beam with arbitrary 50 lb point load 24" away (at the very edge) from the fixed point. The deflection in aluminum was something like 0.0003". I guess if you already have the material on hand.

[Adamj12b]

1" thick... and then braced? Don't you think that's overkill?

The bracing was just going to be a spine down the side. Something like U channel or just a piece of 3/4 x 2" to form a T.

-Adam

[Adamj12b]

Well I was hoping to have more of an update so I head off till today, but still not as mush as I would like.

On Friday I started the mount for the far end of the X screw. I only had an hour to work on it so I only got the plate cut and drilled for the 80/20 nuts. I then marked where the bearing block holes were and now I have to take the leg off again to get the whole thing out.

X Screw Tail Mount:
Attachment 249732

My back has been hurting me to a couple weeks and the doc said to take it easy so I decided to work on something light that I could stand at the bench and work on. A little early, but I decided on the console.

In my machine raiding, I ended up with a stash of panel buttons. Friday Night, I laid them out to see what I had.

Buttons:
1st Row: Raised Red, Buzzer, 3 E-stop
2nd Row: 4 Green, 3 Red, 4 Yellow, 1 Key Switch
3rd Row: 3 Illuminated Green, 2 Illuminated Toggle Red, 1 Illuminated Red, 3 Illuminated Green w/ White Face
4th Row: 2 2-Way Selectors, 2 3-Way Selectors, 4 spare safety covers
Attachment 249734

Saturday Morning I raided my metal stash in the garage to find some stuff to start the console. I ended up with some aluminum side panels and some aluminum silk screen frames.

Attachment 249736

After cleaning the frame up I cut a bevel out of the frame and bent it on the remaining edge. I then cut the aluminum panel to width and bent it to match on my Harbor Freight brake. I then Tek Screwed the skin to the frame. This will hold the frame in place for when I get around to welding the seam. I then started layout out the screen. I happened to have a 13.5" (14"?) touch screen that was an OEM for a kiosk. I ended up stripping the unit down so I could save space. I traced it out with some offsets for just viewing area and went back to the table saw to cut the face. I wanted to make sure I get all the holes in line. I gathered a few pot's, a joystick and another selector switch and decided to spend some time going through the functions and assigning buttons.

Console with Display Cutout:
Attachment 249738

Buttons Laid Out:
Attachment 249740

After knowing what I wanted to use each button for (Only 2 extra) I then did some layout on the front to take some measurements and then drew the from in CAD so could mill the holes with my cnc mill. I will most likely use LazyCAM to generate the code...because im lazy. My other option is Visual Mill. I will use the cad file to generate the holes to cut, then I exported it to Adobe Illistrator to create the front screen labeling. I will either silk screen it on or cut it on a vinyl cutter and paint the labeling in when I paint the whole thing.

Well that's It for now. Ill leave you with the console layout with button descriptions.

If anybody sees anything I should consider changing, Please let me know!

-Adam

[UA_Iron]

Very awesome man.

I am big fan of IKO and NSK rails. I've used them in actuators and motion in industry and have been very pleased. I work with a lot of guys from the semi-conductor industry who won't use THK as they have seen failures in wafer handling business of their products - I am always a skeptic though, the application could have been wrong for the rail types.

you going with steppers or servos?

[Adamj12b]

Very awesome man.

I am big fan of IKO and NSK rails. I've used them in actuators and motion in industry and have been very pleased. I work with a lot of guys from the semi-conductor industry who won't use THK as they have seen failures in wafer handling business of their products - I am always a skeptic though, the application could have been wrong for the rail types.

you going with steppers or servos?

Initially, when the machine was smaller and lighter duty, we were going to use large steppers, But now we are looking at DMM-Tech servos.

I am looking at a 400W servo for the X and Y and a 300W servo for the Z. Only thing im trying to make sure of right now is if I would need a 750W servo for the X.

-Adam

[Adamj12b]

Well its been another week and some more progress.

We have decided that we will be going with the DMM-Tech servos. After talking with them, we have decided that 400W motors on the X and Y axis with 3:1 timing belt ratios will suit the machine very well. The X will also use a timing belt reduction and a 200W motor. Currently we are trying to source affordable aluminum timing pulleys to keep the rotating mass down so acceleration and deceleration is high. If anybody has suggestion for a source please let me know.

This last week was mostly light duty work again. More on the console and I started testing out the pneumatic solenoids and actuators for the machine.

I made a quick video as part of a build series. Its parts 2, as I need to redo a good section of part 1. That will be coming.



The big cylinders kept trying to fall over which made it a pain...

Anyways, I got more work done on the console. I milled the right side section on the cnc knee mill then finished the bottom section on the bridgeport as the knee mill does not have a deep enough throat.

Cutting holes on the Bridgeport:
Attachment 250662

I mounted up all the buttons I had and salvaged some pots from some other automation stuff. So far, Ive only spent $35 on an 80mm MPG from Ebay. New 5V CNC Line Driver Dia 80 Manual Pulse Generator Hand Wheel Encoder 100p R | eBay

Console with buttons:
Attachment 250660

I've been working on building the back of the console which will seal it up and also provide a mounting structure to hang it from an arm.

That's it really for this week. I have a few solenoids to clean up and those will be ready to go.

O, and I found out that a friend has a matching 35mm rail to the 106" long one I have so I'm picking that up this weekend. This will give me the overhang needed to get the gantry over the end of the table and keep the tool changer at the end of the machine.

-Adam

[nlancaster]

Having the gantry mounted to those air cylinders seems overly complicated. Why not just put the tool changer on the air cylinders, that is how most machines do it. And the reason I think that might be a bad idea to move the gantry, is that is just one more area for slop and deflection.

[Adamj12b]

Well its been 2 weeks, Time for another update.

I have mostly been finishing the design and testing components.

I built myself a vacuum table to test the ability of the 1.1HP 3p regenerative blower I picked up a few years ago. It was just a simple box with peg board on one side and 1/4" plywood on the other. I pue a center rib down the middle to help support the peg board.

My plan is to make a vacuum box that can be bolted to the mill table to hold large flat things like plywood or sheet metal when I need to cut something like that.

The pump tops out at 6"Hg when I block the intake 100%. I still have to research some more, but the pump held sheet metal 2ft x 2ft with more then 160lbs of force. I couldn't budge it with all my weight on the side pushing down. I think it will work well for a vacuum table, but I will need to divide the table into a decent number of chambers to maximize the vacuum to working area.

Test Vacuum Table with Blower:
Attachment 252488

I have also been working on the spindle mount. We purchased a piece of 7075 aluminum 7.75 x 7.125 x 6.5 tall on Ebay for $120. It was blanchard ground so it should be pretty close to square, but I will still fly cut it to make sure. I have been cutting it to mount the spindle cartridge. I scribed where the hole will be and mounted it on my 12" rotary table on the Bridgeport and am currently working on roughing it so I can bore it to fit the spindle.

Block on Bridgeport:
Attachment 252490

The spindle will powered by a 2PH 3p 3450RPM motor. It will be controlled by a sensor vector VFD to vary the speed. The motor will be coupled to the spindle through pulleys and a jack shaft to keep everything in the spindle assembly inline vertically.

I have also been working on the power drawbar setup for the spindle. When I purchased the spindle, I also picked up a 4" bore Fabco air cylinder. Well after doing some research, I don't think it will be strong enough to compress the spring stack in the bt-30 spindle. From my research, the low end of spring force on the drawbar should be 900lbs and ive see mention of over 2300lbs. Well since a 4" cylinder can only exert about 1200lbs at 100PSI, it will most likely not be strong enough. So, I am going to modify the cylinder to include a second piston and divider plate in the center of the stroke to make it a pair of 4" pistons and be able to exert closer to 2500lbs of force at 100psi. This way I will be able to adjust the force with the regulator of the cylinder and tune it in.

Spindle without Cover:
Attachment 252492

Last project has been the tool changer.

I have been working on the design of the tool changer. I originally considered a wheel tool changer, but in order to maximize space, It would need to be one big wheel 3ft in diameter, or 2 smaller 1.5ft wheels. I wasn't a fan of this idea and wanted to do something different.

Chain tool changers have always interested me. So I decided to try designing one. This kept the design long and skinny and can holds a good number of tools. What I came up with is a 24 tool changer using a chain setup. Outside dimensions with upper cover to cover the tools are 37" long and 14" wide. All tools are held in grippers that are printed on my 3D printer, same with the chain links. The links bolt together with a flat head screw so nothing protrudes and creates a pivot point. The chain "roller" protrudes from the back on the link and engages the sprockets. This is also sandwiched between 2 pieces of material, to provide vertical alignment. The idling sprocket is also a tension adjustment. The actual gripper and link are 2 separate pieces. The use long bolts as alignment pins. The smooth shank of the bolt allows the gripper to be extended from the link when it is engaged in the pneumatic extender of the changer. This will push the tool out to the spindle and retract once in the spindle to release the gripper. The drive sprocket is directly connected to a 31rpm 24v gear motor that will be servo controlled with some kind of plc.

I think some pictures will help the descriptions.

Full Tool Changer without top Cover:
Attachment 252494

2 Links with test bolt:
Attachment 252498

Gripper Rev 1.5:
Attachment 252500

Gripper Rev 1.5 w/ Tool:
Attachment 252502

Well that's it for now. This week more material is being ordered and the spindle motor soon as well.

-Adam

[eloid]

Any update on this build

[MPD5678]

Any update on this build

The build is on hold for the moment. I'm not sure when we will be starting up again. Keep checking back for updates.