[johncarpenter]

I plan on building a CNC router using single axis linear actuators from IAI and Yamaha. The work envelope will be 20 inch by 24 inch by 6 inch as determined by the stroke of the actuators. It will use a fixed gantry and a moving table. The bridge of the gantry will be manually adjustable for height. Thus the 6 inch stroke of the Z axis will be available from the table surface up to about 12 inches.

Using actuators because I have a lot of them laying around. Really the design is just a frame that gets the actuators bolted onto.

[johncarpenter]

Got the frame parts rough cut and some finished. Clamped it together to see how it looked. May have to revamp the balance legs a bit. Looks bigger in real life than on the computer.

[johncarpenter]

Clamped the X and Y actuators in place to see how they fit. Got clearances so it is time to do finish machining on the frame.

[louieatienza]

Great googly-moogly! How many machines do you have there?!

[johncarpenter]

It's a sickness.

[johncarpenter]

Got most of the machining of the frame complete. Bolted that together and mounted the fixed gantry axis actuator and the Z. Moving table will be next.

[johncarpenter]

Lots of work on the linear axis CNC today but no photos as we took it apart again just before we quit. Got the servo swapped out of the Z axis and installed the 425 in-oz stepper motor. Photo is testing the z axis with the new stepper motor configuration.

[johncarpenter]

Fixed gantry actuator (Y) converted from servo to stepper. Long length actuator in the picture. Pretty easy mod with the folded actuator design.

[johncarpenter]

Gantry and Z axis actuator converted to steppers and mounted back on the frame. View of frame on its side on the floor gives a sense of the machine size. Back view shows all the bolts and gussets to stiffen up the design. Table actuator is in the process of servo removal and installing a stepper motor. Customer has asked that the table be supported on the sides with SRB rails and bearings so we gotta figure out how that can be accomplished. Rails for this 26 inch stroke moving table design will probably be 5 foot long!

[johncarpenter]

Mounted the 2.2kw water cooled spindle on the fixed gantry router today.

[louieatienza]

Looks like you'll be cutting soon...

[fretman_2]

Very interesting design!!!

[johncarpenter]

We hope to test run this thing soon. Need to switch out the servo in the table actuator for a stepper and then we can smoke test it. Design is based off my ISEL Techno DaVinci CNC but this one is much larger. Need to keep this rigid while scaling up the size. A friend is helping me build this and he gets to take it home when finished. We are seeking to keep our material costs under $1K and we will be pretty close thanks to some ebay bottom fishing.

[johncarpenter]

Starting to put the control box together. This will be a 38VDC system though the drives will handle 60 volts.

[benmasso]

Hey,

For your controller, I highly recommend the MASSO CNC controller. Dedicated hardware and no need for a PC.
Right now you can also get some free homing sensors with your order. Just head over to Home - Hind Technology Group

We are just a small business in Australia, but are getting awesome results. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Regards,
Ben

[johncarpenter]

Only slow progress this week. Got the top bar installed on the frame. This ties the two gantry towers together.

Getting ready to remove the servo from the table actuator and mount a stepper to the side of the actuator. The servo uses the end of the ball screw end for the armature of the servo motor. I plan on removing the guts of the servo and installing a HTD belt pulley on the shaft. Then a stepper will be mounted on the outside of the actuator in parallel with the ball screw with another pulley and belt. A slot will have to be milled in the side of the actuator to attach the belt to the stepper.

[johncarpenter]

Removed the servo from the table actuator and side mounted a stepper motor that belt drives the actuator. Mounted the table actuator and put three cross bars on it to support the extruded aluminum table. The customer is concerned about the extreme cantilever of the end of the table actuator. We may consider adding SBR rails on each side of the table actuator to stiffen things up. One of the advantages of the moving table design is that machining is always done in the area that is most rigid. If the end of the actuator droops it may not matter as no machining is done in that area. We will see.

[johncarpenter]

The electronics enclosure is complete. The table actuator with the cross beams has been permanently mounted. The table was installed on the crossbeams. Preliminary parameters into LinuxCNC. Smoked tested the electronics. And lastly first motion today on all 4 axis. Wahoo!

[johncarpenter]

Last photo. Linear actuator CNC router is as done as I will get it. Cuts fine, accurate and quiet. Customer will be installing the energy chains, the limit switches, and the lathe plate on the 4th axis. So I'm done with this one.

Coming up next: Design and fab of a 4x4 CNC router using 80/20 extrusions.

[1Jumper10]

Good Job!