[harryn]

Hi - so some of you know me from the past on the forum.

I was chasing down various methods to build a 4 x 8 ft size cnc router at one point, then finally just accepted that there wasn't any way to make this fit into the space that I have.

The budget didn't work either.

Over time I ended up doing a trade of some work for a non functioning router with about a 3 x 4 ft table area.

Where it started when I got it:
- Mostly 1530 based frame with is fine but assembled in kind of an odd way.
- Mach 3 on an marginal laptop and communication issues
- cnc router parts trollies / carriages
- acme screw drive

Typical moving gantry design with the X screw drive down the middle of the table push / pull on a 1530 cross piece under the table.

Wow - had no idea I started this journey in 2007.

[harryn]

Over time I realized that for what I was interested in doing:
- It was not going to be strong enough to machine any aluminum
- It was not fast enough to really do the wood cutting that I wanted to do ( just could not work at those cutting speeds in hard woods )
- Was not going to be accurate / repeatable enough to do the precise work for little small objects / fine work

So it sort of languished until recently.

It turns out what I do a fair amount of is drilling holes in various X-Y patterns for building electronic products.

So I am attempting to turn this into an X-Y drill press of sorts.

There are routinely 30 - 50 holes that need to be fairly carefully placed and right now I do this by hand. With some luck, this thing will make my life much easier.

[harryn]

The items that I need holes in tend to fall into two categories:
- Flat sheet material - 18mm baltic birch or similar.
- Items roughly the shape of a full size suitcase but made of polymer

So the modifications are mostly about changing it so that it can accommodate the fairly deep suitecase (roughly 20 x 20 x 30 inch or smaller ) easily so that it can drill into the faces.

I spent more than a little bit of time taking it part way apart to remove some items that were in the way.

Will try to post some photos as I go along of the work in progress.

You know how DIY build / mods go - sometimes they work out, sometimes there are interesting obstacles.

Harry

[harryn]

I meant to post this in the project log section. Maybe it does not matter.

[peteeng]

Nope, matters not - I'm here watching! Peter

[harryn]

Thanks to anyone following the journey and the suggestions.

As a practical matter, I am going to try to re-use as much as possible even if it isn't ideal for the task to get it functional.

I do have some components and software that were purchased along the way from prior efforts and accumulations.

This is an example of the type of thing that I build now by hand. It is a rugged polymer case with the electronic contents inside and then various ports for access.

A number of firms build things similarly for instruments that need to operate in rugged environments, etc.

In this application, it is used to provide backup power for example to refrigeration and other modest power uses going during disasters.

You can kind of see the challenge that I have - hand drilling a lot of carefully placed holes on the faces is right on the edge of my skills on a good day. On an off day it just does not work at all.

It is also very time consuming to hand mark them to roughly +/- 0.5mm.

This particular case is ~ 20 x 30 x16 inches and the holes are along the 30 inch side. ( about 500 x 400 x 750 mm and most holes on the 750 mm face )

The eye is very sensitive to these all being co linear so my plan is to align them along the Y axis and just drill / X step / drill along that path for each "level".

Attachment 497152

[harryn]

Thanks. I want to apologize in advance for my spelling and grammar errors.

Two years ago this month I was in a pretty bad car accident where the other driver ran a red light at fairly high speed.

I took a real beating and it affected my speech center and spine some, so especially when I am tired spelling and sentence structure can really go out the window.

Normally I go back and correct this over time, but this forum does not provide much time for error correction.

Anyway - this is another reason for attempting to use a cnc drill press approach to make at least the pilot holes.

[peteeng]

Hi Harry - I think your challenge will be the high Z to accommodate the case. It could be a pit vs a high column design, or a high rail design. Do you have a sketch of your design yet? I'd also think about mounting the spindle horizontal so you machined boxes on the side, that would make fixturing and machine height a bit easier, I think. Mach3 can flip the axis easily. My first machine had a spindle mount that I could swivel to be able to do this.

I'm sure the machine will be able to finish the machining... Some four decades ago one of my jobs was laying out & drilling dashboards for a hovercraft. We went over to having them machined and they always looked better machined, even though I had excellent eyes and hands back then...Peter

[harryn]

Hi Pete - I will try to post some photos to make it easier to visualize.

There are two types of items to be "drilled". Flat sheet baltic birch plywood 18mm thick. (sold as 3/4 inch in the US)

The cases like are in the attachment. Not sure why photos are not showing up this morning - must be something on my end.

Anyway I am trying to limit modifications as the original building assembled the 1530 8020 material with recessed hardened steel screws. They largely do not turn so the only way that I can change things is to slip a narrow blade in between attached pieces and slowly cut through the hardened steel bolt.

I am also fairly budget limited so only so much change is possible right now.

[harryn]

The general idea though is that there will be roughly 100 mm of clearance between the bottom of the lowest Z item and the bed aluminum framework.

So anything that needs to be drilled or worked on will need to fit into this gap one way or another.

I removed the center drive screw and the plan is to make it a dual drive from the sides.

One cross member of the table has been removed and this creates an opening for the case to drop down into the middle of the table. The plan is for the case to largely be "in" the table with just the face at the working height for drilling.

I will try to find a similar machine on the forum to link to as similar for the starting point.

[harryn]

The general idea though is that there will be roughly 100 mm of clearance between the bottom of the lowest Z item and the bed aluminum framework.

So anything that needs to be drilled or worked on will need to fit into this gap one way or another.

I removed the center drive screw and the plan is to make it a dual drive from the sides.

One cross member of the table has been removed and this creates an opening for the case to drop down into the middle of the table. The plan is for the case to largely be "in" the table with just the face at the working height for drilling.

I will try to find a similar machine on the forum to link to as similar for the starting point. The original builder didn't build it the way that you would expect so it does not really get some of the benefits of the dual steel rails that you might expect.

[harryn]

A few pictures. Will see if any of these show up.

This is the general structure of the unit.
- 1530 framework
- roller bearing style carriage

The steel plate that acts as the guide for the y axis plus the rest of the Z motion is so front heavy that I needed to beef up the X axis with another set of bearings.

The way that the original builder designed it, there are only carriages on the outside of the fairly wide ( essentially 1 meter) distance.

This seems like a real limitation vs having them on both sides of each of the cold roll steel but it would be a very large effort to change this so at least for now - it is what it is.


Attachment 497328

[harryn]

This is the general concept of how I am envisioning using it.

- The case will slide down into the "well" of the frame until the surface to be drilled is roughly flush with the table height.
- At least 4 of the faces of the box / case will need holes drilled into it so the guides will be hopefully able to provide a common X, Y and Z = 0 or fairly close.

When it is not being used for drilling the cases, it will be used to drill into normal sheet thickness plywood.

I am attempting to make it also able to drill into a 4 x 4 but that is not an absolute requirement.

For now it is all just sitting on a low moving table that I use to move things around. It is just a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood screwed to some 2x4s with wheels.

Not fancy but really handy to move stuff around and store out of the way.

Thanks to img2go for the image crop web site.

Attachment 497330

[harryn]

Here is where I could use some advice on the motor mount area.

It originally had the size 23 stepper motors mounted in line with the drive shaft.

With the rebuild, it will be a lot better if the motor are mounted off to the side and a belt is used to drive the shaft.

So I temporarily have the screw drive shaft mounted in approx the right position and it comes through one of the thrust bearings that I think is an cnc router parts / avid style setup.

The motor mount with a size 23 motor does not seem like it wants to align to the 15 series framework to mount.

Does someone sell a mount that fits / aligns to 15 series or do I need to make something?

It seems like a handy version would be if the mount mount would attach to the side of the 15 series similar to how the bearing mounts or to the face of it but I don't know how to mount this.

Or am I just missing something in how this all goes together?

Thanks

Attachment 497332

Attachment 497334

[peteeng]

Hi Harry - Here's a man and machine to muse over. A brilliant Korean woodworker. Maybe an open bench design with carpenters vice is a good path for you... At this stage of the project you need to think through many things. Once you start down a particular path its difficult to change. But at the front end all things are possible... Peter

(?)????? ? ???? ?????. (xn--hy1bk0em0qqwau64c.com)

Woodro does many excellent videos
Are you using the "Go advanced " setting at bottom RHS of screen to attach images?

I think you are going to hit several limits in this conversion exercise eg the motor mount. Why not design a machine from scratch that does what you want, still use the bits you have as best as possible. I'd design/build it in plywood then use it to make aluminium parts down the track if needed. You will use up a lot of head time and always end up in a compromise or a dead end using this sort of construction. I've always found construction extrusions to be very limiting in what they can do, in fact they can't do much at all IMO.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

I've always found construction extrusions to be very limiting in what they can do, in fact they can't do much at all IMO.

They are as limp as an over done noodle. Poor choice for CNC, even if its convenient.

Craig

[harryn]

Hi - this will only be used to drill pilot holes in various x - y coordinates in plywood and plastic..

The typical size will be #10 screw holes.

It will not be used as a cnc router.

If I had the finances to start from scratch I would honestly just buy something that fits my needs at this point but I am working with what I have.

It isn't just the extrusions - the entire guide rail and roller skate bearing concept is not really suitable for real cnc router use from my perspective but I need to get this running first and drill some holes.

The case is just one part of it - it needs to be able to drill into sheet goods equally.

_____________-

As far as images - I have sometimes logged in using the industry arena approach as it seemed to direct me that way. This time I went in via cnczone.

I uploaded images this time using the insert image icon in the header area of the posting.

[harryn]

It sounds like I need to build my own motor mount setup that will attach to 1530 material for now and see where it all goes.

[harryn]

Some more mechanical parts arrived yesterday - so that is always fun.

Various gusset connectors, 45s and plates for 15 series from Parco inc in Indiana.

They carry some items that are not so common on the other sites.

Will post some pictures when I get that far but it is fun to get toys for boys.

[harryn]

My youngest son is being roped into getting the control stuff running after a long break.

He had demonstrated that at least one axis of the controller worked a few years ago using the controller and software on his desktop at home.

Now we just need to dust the stuff off and our minds after an absence.


https://www.cnczone.com/forums/planetcnc/