Modding Project: DIY CNC - V3 Reinforced Z Axis

Many thanks and sincere appreciation

Hello Lenne,

Just signed up to the forum to thank you for your great contributions and insight into this build. I have been a lurker, learning so much from all the information you have posted. As a machinist with 50 years in the trade, I know and understand the difficulties and hard work you have endured; not to mention the financial investment in time, resources and money. I believe there are countless individuals like me who appreciate all your have done to inspire the timid and expand our horizons.

Cheers from California,

Norm

 

Cheers norton

I didnt update this for a long time because the conversion to driven ball nuts took quiet a long time ( longer than i did expect atleast ) and i had some major problems with it, which are fixed now mostly.

im still far from the speeds i did want to achieve and as it looks like i really need bigger steppers for the driven ball nuts.

anyway there are some nice improvements: speed is up from 2200mm m to 3000mm m but now the more important factor: acceleration is way up from 80 to over 350 and thereby 3d code runs alot faster.

some pics:

 

And heres a video of me explaining how to setup stock on my cnc, have fun

BTW: excuse my german accent, its just very german

 

And another vid routing Aluminium, now with a proper clamping setup ( and awesome music from Pulsar )



Btw is anyone watching this at all ?

 

Yes! Looking and learning. Thanks.

 

Most certainly

 

Whilst it seems so many people have access to million pound cnc machines now, i still have to do most old school and manual milling and drilling etc.

However i still am always facinated in watching cnc machines running and love these sort of videos, so i always watch them.

 

Watching with envy

 

Yea, tons of envy... Still trying to talk the other half into letting me build a smallish cnc in the garage.

 

Awesome machine have wanted a cnc router or laser cutter for years. Very nice looking build

 

Thanks guys, was just wondering cuz general lack of comments

Back on topic; yesterday i reinforced the z axis, im doing a lot of aluminium lately and the rigidity of the z assembly was more than lacking...

Got two 7075 5mm aluminium plates which are the same length as the moving part of the z axis.
Drilled and routed them to support the spindle holder



finished them and taped them to the old z part



Filled the whole thing with foam ( this is far from ideal, but better than nothing )



And put it all back on









I couldn really test it yesterday but it already felt a lot stiffer, bit exited to do some tests today

If ure wondering what all this cnc building has led to, have a look @ TD Longboards

 

Great job yet again Lenne! and also great to see the Longboard store! are you milling all of the "ULYSSES - CNC HANGER" still?

See that Suhner spindles still working like a charm too!

 

Yes i do, started just yesterday with a new batch ( and it was a day and night difference to the old z assembly )

The suhner is still going strong, i had to repair it once though, i bend the whole collet assembly with an overlength 12mm bit ( 150mm long ) that was damn loud but its easy to get hold of replacement parts for it.

I think im going to replace the whole z assembly with new aluminium plates over time, the profiles on their own are good enough, but for routing aluminium theyre not really precise enough.

 

Just waiting for you to go 5 axis.

 

Thought alot about that but i think it doesnt really make sense at this point, i would need a completely rebuild x - z assembly and 80% of the 5D stuff is possible with a 2,5 D aswell as long as one thinks a lot about stock setup etc.

I might have the opportunity to build an carbon rear diffusor for an aston martin vanquish s, got to show some of that stuff here

 

Hey dude. Probably be a good idea to seal the ends of your new z plate. That foam will wick your coolant like a som'bitch. We use it all over the place in AK as house insulation, and after a while the shell it forms will break down and then it's like a freaking sponge.

 

I've lost track of this thread but have come back because I really want to build a CNC router that's big enough to rout most case panels. However, I don't think I can fund it. I'd like it to rout alumuinum but I've heard cheaper CNCs made of MDF isn't a viable options. All in all, I'd like to rout aluminum and wood and have it be pretty precise. Mostly be able to rout a cross, 0.047" and have it be very repeatable (for a keyboard key cap).


Lenne, would you buy a cheap CNC and upgrade or buy more expensive parts over a longer period of time?

 

You could buy a cheap China base cnc and converse it to ball nuts and reinforce the structure over time, maybe that would be the best option if you find one thats big enough for your application.

 

May be askin lots of questions soon! Im starting plans for something similar!

 

Go for eet i didnt post any updates here because right now im quite satisfied with how the machine runs on a daily basis, only thin im gonna change in the near future is the main power supply, i do need the orange box im using now back in my workshop, so i saved a fully outfitted fusebox from the bin...

Oh wow, just noticed that were closing in on 100k hits, Cheers guys, cheers Bit-Tech ( Still my favourite modding forum ! )