[DeWalt58]

Its been a year now into my second CNC machine. Picked Joe's machine for its looks and style, Thanks Joe for a great looking machine!!!. My first being a much modified "PipeDream", it was good for learning on but not the end product for me. Besides I got the CNC BUG!! and can't stop building em!!! LOL So far have got the Z-axis about 99% finished, finished all the skate last weekend. Got all my motors Keling KL23H286-20-8B 425 oz/in. Done built and running Dave's New HobbyCNCPRO 3 axis board. Made my own dumpster nuts out of PVC for 1/2" threaded rod on my HF 7x10 Lathe and HF mini mill, yep, I had to have the lathe and mill, even if I don't have the room for em. I already have Mach3 and SheetCam and use em constantly to make parts for Joe's mill, great programs!! So far the investment has been small for me, trying to keep cost down and maxamize fun. Its a great hobby to be in!! I love doing it all myself but do admit that sometimes it cost more to buy the tooling then to buy the part already made, but then if I need another I can make it!! The Hitachi M12VC router is fantastic! A very quite running machine, I couldn't resist the urge to mount it on the the old "PipeDream" and run it... Got lots of pictures which I'll post of all my ramblings and failures for those who like to read what others are doing, like me. So stayed tuned for more as time permits, I still work the day job!!!:wave:

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

This is how I made my own Bearing retainer nuts. Got the 1/2" x 10" Acme tapered tap at Enco, drilled my tap handle to take a 1/2" dia. solid shaft of brass. Then made shaft holders and bearing holder on my old CNC mill out of PVC scraps that I have. Attached the whole mess to a junk counter top I had, clamped it in a wood vice and started tapping!! The PVC plugs were cut from a junk chunk of 1-1/4" dia. PVC rod with a hacksaw, turned and drilled on my HF lathe to size then counter sunk, drilled and milled on my HF mini mill. I think they will work just fine and the price of em was free, even tho the tap cost around 65 dollars. I plan to tap my own floating nuts for acme rod so tap will get used again!! You MUST use a tap fixture to tap these things, I tried it without and it wobbles on acme rod, just hard to get a straight tap by hand. And be sure to run tap all the way thru and out the bottom, DO NOT reverse tap to remove.

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

The Mill room.....where I make it all happen!!! Now where did I put that table saw? LOL

Cheers
dewalt58

[joecnc2006]

Very good job on the parts so far, looks like you have the tools to make it happen for you. the tapped clamps look great.

On space, where there is a will there is a way. I started in a 8'x10' utility room which had the washer and dryer, plus all the tools, table saw, drill press etc. and my cnc machine, it was tight.


Joe

[DeWalt58]

Thanks Joe for the comment on my bearing nuts. I must say your drawings you made inspired me to do all this. And yes where there is a will there is a way!! My engineering computer is in front room and above it on wall pin board are printouts of most of your drawings. After seeing Mike H.'s layout of his version, which is exactly like how I'm doing it, had to start a tread here and share my mods with all. Maybe give inspiration to someone else to start building one. I really enjoyed building my first machine and now find that all the info and practical know how pays huge dividends in knowledge towards building another from scratch with what ever I can find or drag home. Built the "PipeDream" machine, my first CNC, that way. Picture of my "PipeDream" is attached with Hitachi router clamped to it. She's only limited by the shaking she does at speeds!!! LOL

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

When I was at Lowes one time a few months back, I found 4 ea. 6'-3/4 size gas pipe that was perfectly smooth, looked like it was polished and blued. Got em for the X-axis rails and now that I'm ready for Y-axis building phase, wouldn't you know it, no nice stuff around like I found before , so bought the normal badly painted 36"x3/4 gas pipe, with plans of smoothing it up some. The plan is to use end caps with a 5/16" hole drilled in the center and skate bearings mounted on em and rotated with a sewing machine motor I have. So far have got one gas pipe end cap done, plan looks good!! Had to turn a flat spot on end cap in my small 9x10 HF lathe, chuck was bearly large enough to hold it using outside jaws, and drill a 5/16" hole dead center. This weekend will do the other one, make the skate bearing holders and alum pully for motor belt, time permitting.

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Just finished the second 3/4 gas pipe end cap and alum pully for the 5/16" threaded rod. Just need to make the bearing mounts and set the whole thing up on a 12" x 48" board, after breakfast, gotta feed the machinist!!

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Looks like its a manual job from now on, the old PipeDream CNC mill has crashed for the second time now. I tighten it up the last time but this time is a lost cause, my bad design on the Y-axis(chair) . The bolts that hold the bearings are too long and keep bending, even at 5/16" bolts, and it won't handle the power, weight of the router. Just way too much vibration going on with it. So will go manual on cutting out parts for Joes 2005. The PipeDream crashed while I was making the PVC bearing holders for the pipe rotator, so had to come up with another idea. Will use the bearings I bought for Joes 2005 which have a 1/2" ID, because I made extra PVC bearing holders that where too big, all I have to do is make sleeves for the 5/16" threaded rod to fit inside the bearings. That way I don't have to redrill everything to 1/2" and buy 1/2" threaded rod. Have some 5/16" threaded rod already on hand. So found some 1/2" rod and did some lathe work on it...presto!! 2 each sleeves complete. All this, just to clean up two 36"-3/4" gas pipes...what a pain!! Just need to drill bearing holder blocks, cut some rod and mount all the parts on a board unless something else goes wrong.

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Changed the design on the pipe rotator, made a bigger pulley so speed is not at critical mass destruction!! Those little sewing machine motors can turn some RPM!! Can go full speed now while sanding pipe, no real need for motor speed control unit. Soooo thats two weekends spent building a pipe rotator and not building real parts for Joe's mill, but its all a learning experience and part of the fun. Once the pipes are done I'am not going to paint them, instead I'll put some gun blueing on them. That will turn them black and keep them from rusting and keep the surface smooth.

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Had some time and ambition so thought I'd polish a Y-pipe and see how it looked. Took about an hour and a couple sheets of 220/400 sandpaper, applied Perma Blue with an acid brush, then wiped off with a wet rag and polished it with a dry rag. Very easy to do and smooth!!

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Thought I'd post pictures of the Keling stepper motors that I'll be using for Joes 2006 R2, They are KL23H286-20-8B, 3A, 8 wire, 425 oz. rated. I'll be running them in a 6 wire unipolar mode with a HobbyCNC Pro 4-Axis board using a 24VDC switching power supply. Except for the motors, all else has been used on my old PipeDream design so electronics are proven to work, no unknowns in that area. Software will be Mach3 with the Blue Screen, the best!!!!

Cheers
dewalt58

[gacrwell]

Thought I'd post pictures of the Keling stepper motors that I'll be using for Joes 2006 R2, They are KL23H286-20-8B, 3A, 8 wire, 425 oz. rated. I'll be running them in a 6 wire unipolar mode with a HobbyCNC Pro 4-Axis board using a 24VDC switching power supply.
dewalt58

Same motors and controller I have - seems to work well, but I've only run the Y-axis and that only 'in air'. I've got 38 volts on mine, and it seemed to make a significant difference just going from 35 to 38 volts, but I don't know - there may have been some other factor involved.

Gary

[DeWalt58]

Thanks for the info Gary, I will increase the voltage later on but for now just going to use what I got, I'm sure theres a sweet spot where VDC, speed and harmonics will all click together. It will be fun later after I get more built to do a lot of testing, thats whats kinda neat about DIY, the way we can change things here and there, fine tuning em so to speak. I already have the Acme 1/2x10 single start rods but do note that some of the guys are going to 2 start for more speed and I might do that later also, depends on the bank account...LOL Sure wish I had a shop to work in here, an Air Conditioned shop, we're having a heat wave down here in the south, not very conductive to me to drag table saw out and cut wood in 105 degree heat index right now. I also want to test more making the floating nuts out of Delrin for the Acme rods, looking for less backlash in em. Got a couple designs in my head, just something I can make myself with out buying them, will post results when I perfect it.

Cheers
dewalt58

[cnclee]

Looking good Dewalt58!! Just wanted to post a reply and say thanks for all the info you've gave me. Talking to you at work has made me more interested and ambitious about building my own. Thanks

Lee

[DeWalt58]

Thanks Lee for the comments, I do enjoy our talks about these machines, heres the new acme threaded rod nut I finished tonight , its adjustable as far as backlash, I hope. Just a small amount of tighting on the screws goes along way to wards griping acme screw. I'll use this one on the Y-axis and make another for Z-axis.

[DeWalt58]

Finished making my own motor coupler this weekend out of brass. Was some hairy milling on the HF mill but I won!! I'll put this one on the Z-Axis and make more later. Slow progress but I'm getting there. No backlash in coupler, very tight fit.

Cheers
dewalt58

[joecnc2006]

Very nice work....

[DeWalt58]

:banana: Thanks Joe for the comment....I really love this DIY thing...its the CATS Meow!! That one coupler took me about eight hours of work!!....most of my junk stuff starts out square!! Re-cycling does work for me!

Cheers!!

:banana: dewalt58 :banana:

[DeWalt58]

My new design for Z-axis drive nut mount made out of 5/8" Alum.

Cheers
dewalt58

[DeWalt58]

Been working on my new Z-axis acme drive nut mount today, almost done with it, just a few more holes to drill and some machine work on side supports which are not in pictures yet.

Cheers
dewalt58