[NCStratos188]

I've wanted a CNC router for quite a while. A few years ago, I researched it and my conclusion, right or wrong, was that the affordable plans builds were made from MDF or wood. This wasn't very exciting to me and I didn't read or research any more for a few more years until 2 months ago.

I was actually Googling another subject and a site came up in the search, MyHeap.com. On this site was a very good documentation of a Kronos Robotics KRMx01 build. I spent the next few hours reading this site and looking over the Kronos site. I downloaded the free KRMx01 book from the Kronos site, read it from cover to cover about 3 times in order to get a feel for the entire project scope and the next day, I bought the steel and began building the stand/table for the router. Before I finished the stand/table, I also bought both of the paper copy books for the KRMx01 project off eBay. Some guy had bought the books and never got around to actually building the machine and decided to sell the books. I got a good deal in them and off I went. I'm sure I could have built the machine by using the PDF download version, but I like to have a paper copy to sit at home at night relaxing, reading and educating myself on the project.

I had originally thought I'd do a thorough documentation of the build, much like Joe did at MyHeap.com, but decided not to. Joe has already done that as well as anyone can ask for and from past experience when I've tried this, it seems that the project becomes more about the build log than the project itself. I also have what some would call a weird building style. I tend to not follow the book chapter by chapter. For instance, if in chapter 3, there are 5 pieces of steel that need to be built and then in following chapters there are identical pieces, while I have my tooling set up, I'll just build them all at the same time. For instance, in this build, all of my carriage parts, X, Y and Z were all built at the same time. One day when I was using my table saw, I had some MDF there and just went ahead and cut all of the bearing block parts, even though it would be weeks before they would actually be needed.

I'm also a "trial fitter". I'll build a part and assemble it to the machine, testing the fit, looking for improvements..etc., then when I'm happy, it all gets deburred, cleaned, painted and stowed away until it's time to assemble it permanently. You will see in my pictures there will sometimes be unpainted parts assembled to the machine or parts assembled out of order of the build, going by the chapters in the book. This is why. Just my building style.

I won't narrate most of the pictures that I'll post as there's not much to say... a picture is worth a thousand words. If anyone has questions or comments, feel free to voice them.

Before anyone asks, yes, my router is in a "house", not a typical work shop. A while back I needed a storage place for my boats, tractors and several other items. I checked the prices on storage fees and I bought this house along with quite a bit of land, cheaper than I could pay storage fees....and the house has central heat and AC, running water, bathrooms....so it makes a heck of a good place to work!

I'll start out by posting some pictures of the table/stand and kinda keep the future pictures in chronological order as best I can.

[NCStratos188]

Some pictures of when I was working on the Y Rails. The table/stand makes a good work bench.

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[NCStratos188]

Pictures of the Y carriages. These parts were supposed to be built from 3/16" steel angle. The local steel supplier gave me 1/4" and it didn't dawn on me until I'd already started making the parts so I just went with it.

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[NCStratos188]

Few pics of testing fitting the X Beam.

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[NCStratos188]

In the 2nd book, it shows how to build braces that make the X-Y axis' more rigid. I thought I could improve on this for my machine so I built mine a little different.

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[NCStratos188]

These next pictures are basically where the machine stands at this point. They are in no particular order. I have 2 identical computers, one has Mach3 and the other has LinuxCNC. I've not decided which one I'll use yet. I still have to put the bottom shelf in my stand/table to have a place to sit my electronics. I'll get to that this week I'm sure.

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[msimpson99]

Great pics. I like your braces.