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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37

    My first Build (2'x3' $1800)

    I've attached an image of my CNC machine. A detailed parts list, lots of images and more can be found on this page of my blog. The only reason I didn't post everything here is because I didn't feel like formatting all the information and pictures again for this site, but I did want to post my progress here because this site was so helpful getting my engraver built. Thanks guys!


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    90
    I think you just raised the bar in terms of both design and presentation. Thank you

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Posts
    187
    Looks great.... simple, clean design, Very nice!

    Keep us posted on how she performs.

    Especially those bearings, I have been eyeing them for a plasma project.

    Once you get it fired up maybe even a video?

    Keep up the good work,

    Andy

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    578
    Absolutely great design. I did notice that the bearings in that configuration was exposed to wood or plastic debris. A simple felt wiper or cover over the bearings wood make life easier. Again great job.


    Bob

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    634
    Nice to see you are getting some press on this project, caught it on Hack-a-Day before I saw it on here.

    One question though, what do you think of the ideas the folks on there offered about the z travel? It doesn't seem that there will be any functional z travel for you right now, as no matter how far you can retract the router it still can't clear any work because of the z sticking down.

    You going to make a drop mount for the router, or flip the slide, or do you have another kind of idea?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    I don't see the z travel issue as a really big issue like others are. It takes me about 1 minute to move my z axis up or down depending on the length of the router bit and I don't plan to change router bits to increase cut depth often. Engraving drastically different thickness items would also require this 1 minute setup.

    It is something I might refine in the future, but I really think this will NOT limit my z travel. It just adds a little extra setup time when I change to a longer router bit for added depth cut. Most of my cutting will be 1 inch or less.

    Changing this isn't a trivial problem and I can certainly test what I have without changing this. If I do change this in the future, I'll probably leverage some of the work Ahren is doing on a z mounting plate on this thread. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...575#post484575

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    90

    Question Is the Z carriage not mis-mounted?

    [QUOTE=GlacialWanderer;484946]I don't see the z travel issue as a really big issue like others are... It is something I might refine in the future, but I really think this will limit my z travel. ???

    As a relative newbie, I'm likely missing something here but doesn't the current setup limit your Z travel severely? It kind of looks like you had lots of Z clearance and travel in mind but mounted the router such that it will run up and down the track in a mostly unusable way making that great looking Z carriage redundant. My gut tells me that the Z carriage should be run up and down rather than the router... perhaps you moved from a plan to build a router with lots of Z to an engrave only machine after you built the Z?

    It's a real nice looking machine so I'm trying to learn from it.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    I updated my post. It should have read "but I really think this will NOT limit my z travel."

    I have it setup for a short router bit in the picture. If my router bit is only 2 inches long then the deepest cut I can make is 2 inches and the current setup is fine. If I get a 6 inch long router bit then I'll loosen 4 bolts, slide the z axis up 4 inches and tighten the bolts. Then I'll be setup for this 6 inch bit. It's a little extra setup when changing to longer router bits, but like I said, that shouldn't happen often.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    90

    Seems You're giving Up a Lot

    Please don't mistake this for rudeness or such, it's not meant to be at all, I'm very impressed with the quality of your work, however:

    I'm thinking that you don't actually have any Z travel to speak of. Adding longer bits will not give you any more clearance under the fixed Z column and I'm not aware of there being such a thing as long router bits, especially anywhere near 6". As it stands, I can't see that you will even be able to use it at all as most "common" router bits aren't going to get you close enough to the table to either engrave or route anything that's not raised or very thick.

    I see that your X axis moves and your Y axis moves but it seems that you've got your router rather than your Z axis under CNC control negating any benefit other than perhaps a tiny bit of useable working range. Have you actually tried it yet.

    But, maybe I'm missing something here so perhaps someone with more experience and knowledge could jump in here.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    35538
    The issue is that you have a lot of Z travel, but most of the upper end is unuseable because the lower bearing block will limit material thickness. You could have gotten away with a much shorter Z axis and still had the exact same functionality.
    Gerry

    UCCNC 2017 Screenset
    http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html

    Mach3 2010 Screenset
    http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

    JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
    http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html

    (Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    8082
    gerryv

    Long woodworking router bits are available but expensive and hard to find.

    Long end mills are available and will work in many routers if the shank is 1/4" or 1/2". They aren't as good in wood as in steel and aluminum due to being the wrong geometry in the flute and cutting edges. They do useful work in a pinch though. They will have chatter problems running at 20k+ rpm if there is any run-out in the chuck at all.

    Side load flexing and chatter is common in all long cutters of any type.

    In the photo, Ahren's roller trucks appear to have about 6" travel (to me) since they roll on the edges of the dark gray steel plate. Behind the vertical extrusion is the edge of a small aluminum plate (Y axis leadnut mount?) that gives the appearance of blocking vertical travel of the trucks but it doesn't do so.

    Many cnc routers I have investigated have moved the router instead of moving the whole z carriage and router as one unit. The stepper or servo needs to move less dead weight that way.

    With the router at the lowest position, the bottom end of the lead screw protrudes about the same amount as the router's chuck with no cutter installed. This will limit how deep into a mould the cutter can reach without interference. If the router mount is modified to physically lower the router to get more depth of reach below the lead screw the z travel is still the same as it is now.

    CarveOne
    CarveOne
    http://www.carveonecncwoodcraft.com

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    CarveOne, thanks for that explanation. That's exactly what I've been trying to say, but you put it in better words. If people are still confused I might try to draw a picture to show what we're talking about.

    The z travel is 5 3/4" so your 6" guess was very good. I do plan to trim the lead screw a little because it actually goes 1/2" past the lowest router chuck position.

    I hope to get some real tests run with this machine during the next week, but I've been busy with work so it's slow going. I did get the electronics wired. The next step is figuring out the software. I installed Mach 3 and was completely confused. I need to read a Mach 3 getting started tutorial. Google gave me a bunch of different tutorials to choose from, but if anyone here has a recommendation on a way to get introduced to Mach 3 I'd appreciate it.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    35538
    Quote Originally Posted by GlacialWanderer View Post
    but if anyone here has a recommendation on a way to get introduced to Mach 3 I'd appreciate it.
    Watch the videos.

    http://www.machsupport.com/videos/
    Gerry

    UCCNC 2017 Screenset
    http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html

    Mach3 2010 Screenset
    http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

    JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
    http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html

    (Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    8082
    After getting some time to look at the photo some more, I see that gerryv is correct in that the whole y axis needs to be lowered on the upright extrusions. Otherwise, anything being cut needs to have a spacer block under it to raise it up to the level that the cutter can cut or engrave the target material.

    The photo shows the router near the lowest point of travel. The y axis needs to be lowered until a normal v cutter bitcan at least touch the surface of the waste board material. Otherwise, something like 1/8" or 1/4" birch plywood or Depron foam can't be cut at all with a normal cutter.

    Place the base board material on the frame, then add a 1/4" waste material on top of the base board. Then with the router at the lowest point of travel, measure the gap between the shortest cutter you will use and the top of the waste material. This measurement is the amount that the gantry should be lowered. Subtract another 1/8" to insure that the cutter can reach through any material that is being routed. The router bit tip can still be raised 5-3/4" due to the z axis travel.

    If you need to cut 5" deep into pockets smaller than the bottom of the z axis will fit into then you will need a 6" cutter and about 8" of z axis travel in order to use both long and short cutters with the same z axis assembly.

    It seems that I could get rich making routers and spindles with 6" or 8" long tapered noses for use with short router bits ......

    CarveOne
    CarveOne
    http://www.carveonecncwoodcraft.com

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    Here's a short update on my build.

    I ran into a bad switch with my electronics that I had to tune out some minor binding issues, but everything is working fine now. I have jogged my router around and now am working on understanding enough about Mach 3 to make my first real cuts.

    Once I have a video of a real cut I'll post an update with pictures and the video. The z axis is working fine the way I have it, but I may shorten it up if the existing method has too much deflection (I'll determine this from experimentation). I see no reason to do the work of changing things around if everything works fine the way it is.

    Thanks everyone for your help! I'll keep you guys posted.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37

    Added a sound proof box

    My engraver has been working great. The latest addition I did was the creation of a sound proofing box for my machine. I really like how it turned out.

    Read about the sound proof box here.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    19

    Did you ever get any video of this beauty in operation? Very nicely done - thanks for sharing!

    Scott

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    323

    z axis mod

    GLACIALWANDERER:
    you have a great looking router there ! extruded aluminum makes for a nice neat clean looking build ,great job and nice use of ahren's cncrouterparts !


    sorry for my poor skills at using copy and paste ,but i think what every one is talking about is that your z axis is all the way down in the picture and if you move the z axis up the bottom of the z axis rail will still be "hanging down" so if you could drop the router down by using a plate mounted to the z axis rails then attach the router mounts to this plate it will drop the whole axis down where you can reach the part you are trying to cut. with out having to shorten the supports for the "y" axis.this way when the cutter in the router is all the way down to the table ,the axis will be able to travel up and get to use all that avalible z axis space


    hope these pictures explain it a lil bit better...and again sorry for my poor skills as copying and trying to edit the photo to what could be changed
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails z axis original.JPG   z axis modified.JPG  
    "witty comment"

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    Thanks .xXACEXx.

    I understand what you are saying. This solution is a little more complicated and I may do it someday, but for now my existing solution is fine. One reason this doesn't matter much to me is because I only have 2 inch router bits so there is no need for me to have more than 2 inches of z travel. If I ever buy expensive 6 inch router bits then I could either adjust my z axis manually or implement the plate method you suggested.

    I'm going to try and get a movie of my router in action sometime, but it might take me a few weeks. I'm crazy busy with work and will need to figure out this video stuff.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    37
    I posted an article about the software I'm using with my engraver. It also has a video of my CNC engraver in action.
    http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=48

    Here's the youtube video if that's all you want to see.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYa0GVQI41Y"]My CNC Engraver[/ame]

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