was building an RC airplane from scratch with my dad. We made the same part 4 times because we screwed up and made 3 right sides in a row.
Lol, if nothing else, I'll do that for you guys. Believe me, I'm as anxious as anyone to see this thing running. I thought it was bad enough waiting for it to arrive. Now having it sit in the shop is pure torture! I've still got no mill bits, although they've shipped. I really hope I don't do that. The only parts that are similar would be the carbon fiber/Kevlar side panels... I don't want to screw those up!
We used to use wax when we were setting up jobs when I was in college. So if you make a mistake with the speed or feed rates you aren't breaking a bit (as well as not dulling the edge either). plus if you gather up all the chips you can remelt it and reuse.
That's a really good idea, and it makes sense. I've heard people recommend foam sheet as well, but what a mess that would be!
Was isn't that much less messy, main advantage over foam is that it doesn't stick to everything in sight. (as well as being able to reuse it) As a side note my work just purchased 2 Haas Gantry style Mills ( seen here: http://www.haascnc.com/details.asp?ID=GR-712&webid=VMC_GANTRY#VMCTreeModel ) These beasts come with the option of being belt driven. So its not uncommon for that type of drive in a CNC, you just won't be able to hold +/- .0002" (+/- .005 mm) that some mills and/or lathes can.
For some reason I'm imagining Craig sitting at his desk, using the cursors to move the cnc's gantry back and forth, giggling like a school girl.
Now that's a nice looking mill! After playing with the machine this weekend, I'm not concerned about the belt drives at this point either. They are steel reinforced, and they aren't supposed to stretch. That's something that only lots of use will determine, and I intend to find out. The update is only slightly delayed... I ended up helping my dad do some plumbing over the weekend. Before I helped him however, I was doing some plumbing of my own. I've got a pretty cool mister setup I'm implementing using a complete airbrush set and compact compressor. I've got a custom adjustable bracket fabbed for holding the airbrush, and will finish it tonight. I just have to finish adding the reservoir for holding the liquid used when misting. I did manage to cycle the machine through an air cut, and all went well. I've got a webcam setup on the machine so I can live stream, but it seems to be really sensitive to the light colored table, and the picture is a little overexposed. I'll see if I can sort that out yet. (Lol, so what if I was giggling... )
While I know everyone is anxiously waiting to see the CNC running, I needed to take care of a few small details first. One of those details involved a custom misting solution for cutting aluminum. Why mist? Well, for the work I have to do it can be just as effective as flood, yet it's so much easier. I should say it's easier, only if you can find a workable and convenient way to implement it. I have been doing some research into CNC misting techniques, and most of the options are geared towards commercial applications, and are quite expensive. I wasn't really willing to spend $300 on something I was convinced I could do myself. Since I'm a modder, it only made sense to mod a homebrew solution. Many hours were spent Googling anything that misted, before I came across the mention of using an airbrush as an option. I tried to find where someone had actually followed through using this method, and came up with nothing. So, I figured I might as well be the first. Even if I'm not, I'm hoping my methods and documentation will make it easier for others to find and implement themselves. Now, before any fabrication could begin, I needed an airbrush and dedicated on-demand compressor. Amazon came through with this nicely outfitted kit. Okay, well, now that I've got the airbrush, I need to find a way to get it mounted to the Romaxx machine. Since the mister needs to follow the mill bits as they cut through the material, it was obvious that it needed to be attached to some location near the spindle. It just so happens that there were some unused spindle mounting locations that would be perfect. So, I just needed to come up with a workable bracket of some kind. Not only did the bracket have to hold the airbrush securely, but it couldn't interfere with any machine operation whatsoever. I needed full X, Y, and Z operation with no limits or restrictions. I broke out the cardboard and started experimenting. This got me in the ballpark... Since I was satisfied I had a workable idea, I committed it to metal... I love bending things, so the newly cut bracket received some attention. With the cutting of a few well placed slots, and the help of some rubber o-rings, the brush and it's coolant reservoir were attached to the bracket. I used a simple mounting method for two reasons. Ease of maintenance, the ability to have flexible mount points should some unforeseen interference occur. So, let's get this bracket mounted! You can see how cleanly it sits in it's location. It's also easily adjustable for height. There is plenty of room for travel with no interference. Now finally, here are a few pics of the machine as assembled and ready to run. All that I've got left to do is make sure I'm set for live streaming, and I'm ready to cut. If I can find a good material hold down solution, I'll give it a go tonight. (Yes, I'll likely be getting the aluminum top w/ mounting holes soon.)
Hold down solution: Have you been looking into my recent threads? Blue tape, glue, and MDF sacrifice boards are working wonders for me. Looking at the rig, I'd say they didn't leave you much for clamping. Even a little overlap would have been nice...
Lol, that sounds messy. Thanks man. I'll find out soon. I'll get the sacrificial MDF on the machine tonight, and then I think I'm ready to cut. I just have a few Mach3 issues to sort out. Mostly to do with the table size and homing points. Yeah, I'll likely be using some of your methods. This machine is really in need of the aluminum top, but I'm not ready to spend the cash on it yet. There's really no room at all for clamping as shipped...
I'm watching this intently because I have been put in a serious mood to buy or build a CNC lately. If i was going to buy something like this it would have to be their WD-1 machine to allow my minimum of 2'x2' table area for side panels. With a £3200 base price, it's a mighty expensive machine... but it would be a lot less time consuming than building my own and would probably pay for itself in no time at all. Please keep us up to date on your progress and experiences with this because you may just have gotten Romaxx another customer, provided the mill works out well for you! Very slick solution with the airbrush by the way I assume you're going to be misting soluble oil when cutting the aluminium?
It may be a little pricey, but it's a very solid machine. Especially so when you look at other small CNC's. There may be machines that sell for cheaper, but you won't get this kind of strength. If you are making an investment of several thousand dollars, it's not always a good idea to save a few hundred and then have build quality suffer. That's one of the biggest reasons I went to Romaxx in the first place. I'd been researching CNC machines for about 2 years, and kept coming back to them. Don't hesitate to send them an email if you have any questions. Ron is a pretty helpful guy. I'll also definitely keep everyone updated on my own CNC exploits. I'd probably be hunted down if I didn't. There are several options when it comes to misting fluid. A light oil is one of them, but I'm doing more research before I commit to something. Sleepstreamer actually recommended a denatured alcohol, but I'm concerned about it's flammability. I don't really want to explode myself...
Yeah, after looking around online for similarly sized machines, I've actually found that the Romaxx isn't as expensive as some of it's competitors, and if it actually is as reliable as you say (and I admit, it looks to be) then it'll be a sound investment. I'd really love to see some video footage of yours running - from your previous comments I assume you intend on recording it in action?
Well, if build quality is any indication of reliability, then I don't think I'll have much for issues. I was hoping to take some video of it running last night, but was having problems with my webcam. I couldn't get it to initialize no matter what I tried. After way too long trying to figure it out, I just did a system restore to the last time I know it worked. That took care of the problem, so I'm going to blame it on a Windows update. That's the only that had changed between then and now. So, with that out of the way, I plan on live streaming the cutting, as well as archiving everything I stream.
