[ger21]

Now, I don't have a way to do the flat-bottom bore in aluminum

If you have a router, then sure you do. Make a template out of your plexiglass, and drill your aluminum just a little bit undersize. Then, use a short pattern bit and route out the remainder of the hole. Here's a link to some pattern bits. http://www.eagleamerica.com/product....pn_E_102-0552B

If you find that the holes too tight for the bearing, make the template from MDF. It will give a little, and give you a slightly bigger hole.

[JRoque]

Very nice thread with lots of pics; keep them coming. Dude, it might not come out perfect but if I can help you cutting out any part you need while doing the build, by all means. In a pinch, I use a compound vise on the drillpress to do rough milling. It helps while the mill is down for repairs.

JR

[JavaDog]

If you have a router, then sure you do. Make a template out of your plexiglass, and drill your aluminum just a little bit undersize. Then, use a short pattern bit and route out the remainder of the hole. Here's a link to some pattern bits. http://www.eagleamerica.com/product....pn_E_102-0552B

If you find that the holes too tight for the bearing, make the template from MDF. It will give a little, and give you a slightly bigger hole.

Yeah, I guess that is true. (chair) Let me admit something embarrassing here though, I haven't ever used a router by hand (well, a tiny bit with wood). Yeah, I know, probably not the best idea that my first real router use is going to be with it bolted to servos on a CNC platform. I'm actually thinking of taking the router class at the local Rockler's. Anyone ever taken any of their classes? Worth it?

[JavaDog]

Ok, got a ton more done this week but I have been slow to go through the photos and post an update - so here is a quick one with more to come later.

Drilling the plate that will be the bottom of the gantry. This mounts the the slides on the rails:



Now, I ordered a 21" piece of bar-stock (2" x 3/4") which I need to cut down to two equal pieces ~10" in length. These will form the gantry uprights...

Marked and ready for cutting:



Cut, now I will take a very thin cut off of the ends while they are clamped together. This should give me a pretty square and even surface for both parts.

Cut done, and a perfect finish. I love this saw...



Now to square-up the gantry sides:



Again, super smooth - did I mention I love this saw?

I decided to take a notch out of the gantry sides (what will be the 'front' and top of the plates when mounted) for purely cosmetic reasons.



Now to square-up the two plates that make the bottom of the gantry:



Yes, two bottom plates. I modified my design to give it some added rigidity - there should be almost no flex side-to-side in the gantry...

[JavaDog]

Ok, now that I have all the metal cut and squared for the gantry it's time to get it drilled and put together.

First to drill is the rear-support bars:



Next, I had to drill holes (that will be tapped) in the gantry sides to mount the support bars. A little bit of a PITA since they need to be drilled on edge, but I managed to get my drill-press set-up to be pretty repeatable without much adjustment.



Little closer showing the actual holes:



Coming along good, gantry sides with the support-bars bolted on:



Now I need to drill the holes in the gantry sides to mount them to the lower gantry cross-members:



...and here is what the gantry looks like (minus the Y-Axis assm. and Z-Axis):




(You can see I got excited and mocked it up before drilling the rest of the holes in the sides...)

Just have to get the Y-Axis assembly mounted up, then I can start on the fun task of making the Z-Axis!

[10bulls]

Arr hole drilling...yup...remember that part. Can't see much swarf about, you must be pretty tidy!

This is really coming together Javadog. I'm enjoying this thread immensely. This should be a beast when done; great for aluminium and maybe even steel. Just don't drop it on yer foot. Looks bloody heavy!!

Always impressed with your photos...Aluminium is a bugger to photo.

I love the schedule in the background...
"Buy Wire, Assm. Control Box, Test Electrical, Put Hair Out, etc..."
Nearly there!! :banana: Best part is, seeing what you've made without CNC and thinking what your going to get up to with that monster at your disposal. Promises to be entertaining!!!

[JavaDog]

Just want to let you all know, my ISP is having a problem with the personal storage space I use for hosting pictures. My FTP access has been down for the last week+, but it is supposed to be fixed soon. As soon as it is, MASSIVE update time.

No need to offer alternate storage space, I bought a domain and I am going to get a good hosting package soon. I don't think my ISP's "free storage" is going to cut it much longer, especially since I am 160mb over their 10mb "limit"!

[Stevie]

I don't visit the Dark Side of the forums (wood routers)
But i must say JavaDog

"nice build"

keep up the good work

[JavaDog]

I don't visit the Dark Side of the forums (wood routers)
But i must say JavaDog

"nice build"

keep up the good work

Thanks, and you're right - this should be in the metal routers section (which didn't exist when I started the build!).

Time for an update!

Marking where the upper gantry-plate meets the gantry sides. You can see that I have drilled and tapped the holes into the lower gantry-plate:



Mounting holes drilled for the upper gantry-plate:



Now to drill and tap the holes in the upper gantry-plate:



Drilling holes on the ends of these long plates was a PITA with my little drill-press. I needed to undo the base and reverse it so that I had the clearence.

Gantry plates mounted up (not all the bolts are installed in this picture) and the Y-Axis plate clamped up to make where to drill:



Y-Axis plate drilled, tapped, and mounted to the gantry supports (I need to get shorter bolts):



Y-Axis ballscrew/slide assembly clamped up to the plate:



MDF top (not cut to size yet) to get a good idea of what she is going to look like. There is 5.5" of clearence between the bottom of the Y-Axis plate and the MDF top:

[ThEstablishment]

I thought I would de-lurk for a bit and congratulate you on your progress.

Looks like you are getting awfully close...

I followed you here from the Bit-tech forums almost a year ago, and I guess I have you to thank for getting me started on this hobby. I have been working on my own table, and I am reminded that I need to post my own build log.

Also, looks like you were mentioned on hackaday.com, congrats. :cheers:

[JavaDog]

Ok, bolted the Y-Axis Ballscrew to the Crossplate.

Now to make the Z-Axis!

Here is how the Ballscrew and Linear Slide will be laid out (more or less) for the Z-Axis:





Have to drill the holes to mount the Z-Axis plate to the Y-Axis Slides:



...and counter-sink them:



Here is what it looks like bolted to the Y-Axis:





You can see that I need to make a bearing-block for the end of the ballscrew, and finish up the Z-Axis...

[JavaDog]

Making the Z-Axis Ballscrew bearing-plate. For ease, I decided to make it out of polycarbonate. I will make a new one out of aluminium down the road...

Forstner Bit, Poly-carb and the top OEM bearing-block:



Drilled with the bearing mounted:



Mounting holes drilled and tapped:



Re-Tapping the end of the ballscrew:



All done and mounted:





Now to mount the linear slide...

[JavaDog]

Dual row of holes drilled for the linear slide:



Tapped:



Mounted:



Now I wanted to add some physical stops so I didn't lose the slides off the end of the rails (big PITA):





That will do it, not going anywhere now.

Ok, now I needed to add a 1" thick block to get the mounting height for the ballscrew and linear-slide even:



Marking the holes:



Drilled and mounted:





Then I drilled and tapped four mounting holes for the plated that will hold the router to the Z-Axis assembly:



On to the Servo mounting!!

[JavaDog]

Laying out the cut-lines for the Servo mounting plates:



All cut:



Now, where they mount to the machine itself, I wanted it adjustable - that way I can get the belts on and tensioned correctly.

First, drill a bunch of holes:



Then, file like the Dickens:



Now to drill the holes to mount the servos to the plate:



Then using two different step-drills I enlarge the center-hole to fit the little lip on the servos. That way they will sit flush against the plates:



Perfect:



This is the Z-Axis Servo Mount, but you can see how the Servos fits like a glove:

[JavaDog]

Of course, I need to mount the Servo to the front plate for the X-Axis!

Here you can see where the spindle for the X-Axis ballscrew come through the front frame-plate:



The Servo-Mount all finished:



Then I had to enlarge the hole for the X-Axis ballscrew to fit the hub of the Pulley. Since I have a small drill-press that couldn't reach, I used my cordless drill (worked like a champ):



Back to the Y-Axis plate and the Servo Mount. I needed to notch the spot where the plate mounts to the Y-Axis cross-plate:





Perfect!



Except for...

[JavaDog]

This big glaring mistake...er rather, just something I didn't think of:



With the servo mounted this way for the Y-Axis, the Z-Axis servo would hit it when it still had almost five inches of travel left:



So, to re-work the mount and swing the Servo to the other side. I decided I would just use a second plate and make some stand-offs.

Cutting the stand-offs:



So, it would make the mount work like so:



Of course, I broke my nice 4mm tap:



Now I will leave you with a teaser of the finished machine:

[JavaDog]

So, the Y-Axis Servo Mount had to be re-designed. Turned out I made the standoffs too tall and there was too much side-to-side mis-alignment between the pulleys.

So, just turned the standoffs on their side. Took the spacing from 1.5" to 3/4" - which turned out to be perfect!





Pretty easy fix. Next I am going to post pictures of the electronics and control box - all finished. Then, final pictures of the machine (high-res) and VIDEOS!

[Miata2k]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but Javadog's last post was just over a month ago so I'm wondering if this project finished?

Did Javadog ever post any finished work or videos?

Maybe he is just on vacation..

[margni74]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but Javadog's last post was just over a month ago so I'm wondering if this project finished?

Did Javadog ever post any finished work or videos?

Maybe he is just on vacation..

Was this machine ever finished. I read the whole thread to find out that it is a mystery whether this machine was finished....