[mhiggins]

I started buying parts in Nov. 2005 and have been tinkering along ever since. I hope that starting this thread will help keep me on track so I can get this thing finished.

I know that a number of people either ordered kits from Joe or used an existing CNC to cut their own parts from his drawings, both excellent choices. Since I have a reasonably well equipped wood shop I decided to give it a shot without doing either. This is where the "Slightly Modified" part comes in. I could have tried to duplicate Joes design exactly but it would have required a lot of template routing. I stayed with the overall dimensions of the original design but made changes to the way the pipe rails are mounted. It makes for a really clean looking machine with no exposed ribs and seems to be very solid.

I have attached some photos of the gantry torsion box build so you can see what I am talking about. The ribs are glued into 1/8" deep dados on the top and bottom.
Sorry that the pictures aren't larger. I copied these from my website after the originals were lost in a hard drive failure.

[mhiggins]

A few more photos of the modified router after some assembly.

The last one shows it with motors wired and working. Even though the table is not built I couldn't wait to see it move under its own power. And yes, it is sitting in my dining room. Married men don't try this at home!

I'm using an Arcsin controller with Mach3 and 1/2-10 acme lead screws with dumpster nuts. In 1/8 step mode I am getting about 93 ipm.

[DayneInfo]

I like it, does look very clean and slick. Have you even started on the table yet?

Dwayne

[mhiggins]

I haven't done anything on the table yet. I was hoping to have wiring done so I could use my dust collector before the next round of MDF cutting. That hasn't happened so I may have to go on without it.

[DayneInfo]

Does your website have more pictures? What is the web address?

[mhiggins]

http://mikehiggins.home.mchsi.com

The actual construction photos are on the Mechanicals link under CNC. They show a fairly detailed account of building and assembly so far.

[Greolt]

Looking real good Mike. :cheers:

Now you are on a roll we want to see regular updates. :stickpoke

And lots of pics.

[DayneInfo]

I just checked out the website...really nice work. keep it up and post lots of pictures.

Dwayne

[joecnc2006]

Looks good mike, I like it. Look forward to seeing more.

Joe

[bp092]

Joe's CNC 2006-R2

"I borowed this image from Joe's forum on cnczone.com.
Joe is on his third or fourth CNC router design. He spits these things out like popcorn. "

[ccsparky]

Great job Mike!

Your build and creative design additions are very nice! I was going to ask if you bolted down the pipe but found the answer on your site. Great job on the site as well, very detailed.
Look forward to see more!

[mhiggins]

I tried to go into a fair amount of detail on the website for anyone who might want to try a similar build. I probably should have gone with more detail since I have already forgotten how I did some of it.

[Marm]

Nice job Mike. I was looking at the Joe's CNC but I have all the tools to make it your way. I might give this a shot and maybe use Baltic Birch plywood instead of some of the MDF.

Nice work.
Mark

[mhiggins]

Thanks Mark. What I have built so far is quite strong. I have been very careful to build whatever jigs and fixtures I need to make sure that everything is as precise as it can be. That is the key to getting a good build using this method. Developing a plan to get each part built right is kind of fun in itself.

Joe's table uses interlocking ribs which may be a little more of a challenge to build manually, mainly because of the size and the number of pieces. I haven't decided how I will approach this part of the build yet but I want to try and stay with that design since it should make assembly easier for one man and maximize strength. It may come down to a lot of bandsawing and template routing. Whatever it takes.

[BMG]

Nice work indeed.

I attempted to build Joe's kit without access to a CNC and had good success fabricating identical ribs for the X torsion box.


Here's what I did;
- cut MDF blanks for the ribs.
- took Joes autocad drawing and made offsets corresponding to the distance between the router base and the nearest cut for the router tip. For one pipe seat only.
- glued this print down to a piece of scrap and created a router guide by nailing finish nails all along the offset line (every .5 inch is good).
- routed out the scrap piece
- Fixed "keepers" to the back side of the scrap piece to hold the piece to be routed
- inserted a blank in and cut out the pipe rest.
- pulled the blank out and flipped it - cut out the other pipe rest
- Reveresed the board and cut out the opposing side
- flipped it and cut the last pipe rest in blank # 1
- repeated on the remaining blanks

I also had the hole for the allthread marked - I drilled each one after each cut. THis resulted in identical pipe rests for all ribs in the torsion box

For the interlocks, I was able to dado them with my table saw.

due to improper placement of the keepers, I spaced the pipe rests a bit to far apart. In spite of the error, each rib was visually identical.

Having only spent $20, I was going to redo them. However, time limitations led me to make a kit purchase.


In spite of that, I found that the ribs are not too bad to make jigs for. 15 min in autocad, 1 hour to glue on the sheet and set the keepers, 2 hours to cut the pipe rests and 2 hours to do the dados.

Hope that at least feeds the idea mill for ye.

[Marm]

For the table I was thinking that I would use my dado set to make the notches, I have a Delta 18-36 sander so I thought that as long as the notches were real close but on the tight side I would sand down till it was a tight fit. Since all the notches are the same distance apart I was going to make a jig that fits on my miter guage for the first notch to fit into and give me the desired spacing. I do not know if I will make the cuts in the center for weight or not, might just use a hole saw and overlap the cuts.

[BMG]

One thing I forgot, on that first attempt, the dado's I cut were at the extreme setting of my table (3.25" I believe). I have a 10" blade and when I dry fitted the long pieces, My depth as a wee bit shy. I was planning on just ripping the long pieces a hair deeper, before I gave up.

As to the weight cutouts, I was going to ignore these. I figured for a hand cut job, the added mass would hopefully make up for my errors. you could probably make a guide for your router out of 1/2" material with 2 keepers that would sit in the notches. Then you could just use a router with a bearing bit to quickly make the cutouts.

[mhiggins]

I have a 6" dia. dado set so I won't be able to get nearly enough depth. Just another obstacle.

Tonight I have been measuring the E-drawings for the table and redrawing them in AutoCAD. I can only find 1/4" MDF in 2' x 4' pieces so I made a change to allow 1/2" skins on top and bottom. If I decide to brave the cold shop this weekend I may start working on a template. I guess I need to check my inventory of MDF or I may not be doing anything.

[joecnc2006]

I have a 6" dia. dado set so I won't be able to get nearly enough depth. Just another obstacle.

Tonight I have been measuring the E-drawings for the table and redrawing them in AutoCAD. I can only find 1/4" MDF in 2' x 4' pieces so I made a change to allow 1/2" skins on top and bottom. If I decide to brave the cold shop this weekend I may start working on a template. I guess I need to check my inventory of MDF or I may not be doing anything.

1/2" skins will work just fine.

Why don't you download the dwg files and use those, that way you can just mod them if you need to, and also you can print to 1:1 and use as a templete.

Joe

[mhiggins]

I didn't know there were dwg files available. Where can I find them?