Thread: New South Aussie Machine - Build Log 2010

About time you got cracking on this. Well done on the console

Keep the pictures coming

Hi Noel,
Console looks flash.
Look forward to seeing your build progress. I think six months part time work is reasonably for a large machine.

Hi Noel,

Awesome work on the console and i too look forward to seeing your progress. Just don't go deciding to build a house halfway through...lol. It will throw your build time out a little bit.

Daniel

Thanks for the support guys - well, here goes with the next instalment.
Started off by power-wire brishing the main beams and applyinh a coat of cold-galv.
next step was mating the slide rails to the top of the two beams, and this nis where the effort first came in.
I purchased rail and trucks from a company here in Sa called ''ABBA''. The rail is 20mm and the trucks to suit. The price was quite good when compared with a couple of other suppliers - but being a bit of a cynic I was prepared for issues, and I was not disappointed. The rail and trucks all duly arrived well packed in grease-proof paper and in sturdy cardboard containers, and I was really eager to get going, so I carefully aligned the rails with the tops of the beams, and started to drill and tap 28 x 6mm holes in each steel beam - a boring and time consuming total of 56 holes to be drilled and tapped by hand.
Somehow i managed to get through all the drilling and tapping without breaking the tap - "'a blooming miracle'.
Then - the fun really started. The rails from ABBA come drilled to take a 6mm cap-screw. However - 6mm cap-screws are 6mm on the thread, and 10mm diam on the cap head. Guess what? - ABBA rails are drilled through at 6mm - so far so good - but the counter-hole size for the head of the bolt is only drilled to 9mm.
#^%^&(&*^*(&_)()*_)+_ etc, etc, etc.

After much sweating and swearing, I contacted ABBA, who suggested that I fix the rails down with 5mm cap-screws. Dumb suggestion, the slop was incredible and there was no way I could get a firm seating for the rails.

At this stage I was starting to get a little annoyed, so - I tried turning the heads of the 6mm cap-screws down in my wood-lathe, using a file. After ten minutes and three screws, I gave up and sought help from a friend who has a metal-working lathe, and he was good enough to skim each bolt head down to 9mm. While he was at it, I really imposed on him and got him to do another 100 so that I would have enough for the x-axis mountings as well, and a few to spare. I still owe him heaps.

Anyway, eventually got all the holes drilled and tapped, and all the screws turned down to fit, and the mounting proceeded without any further dramas. It is really fun to slide the trucks back and forth along the rails - makes me feel as though I am getting somewhere.
Well that's enough for the moment, and I will post again when I have completed a bit more.
Cheers
Noel

Keep them posts coming - it is great to see your setups.
Your shed is pretty impressive from the few angles in the photos. Nice view looking out those doors.

Hi Rod
Yeah - I just recently built the shed because our double garage was full of my 'toys', and there was no room for my car - needless to say, SWMBO got to park her car undercover.I will put a couple of pics up of the shed at some later date when it is a bit cleaner - amazing how quickly sheds get grotty.
The door in the picture is one of two (matching double doors). I wanted to be able to get large items into and out of the shed and didn't want to opt for a roller door, so I went for double glassed doors. I think that was a good move as they let in a large amount of light, and provide good access.
Unfortunately, the shed is already pretty crowded - I guess that you simply can't ever have a large enough shed - and there's the rub!
Cheers
Noel

Hi Guys - back again.
Well I finally managed to drill and tap all the holes for the rails, and got them mounted on the beams, then proceeded to build the frame for the machine. I was a bit undecided at first as to whether I would weld the frame or bolt all connections so that I could adjust if necessary. Anyway, I decided that my welding hasn't deteriorated that much, so I opted to mig-weld the frame.

I guess that my thinking was that if I measured everything well enough, the build should be pretty close to the tolerances which I considered good enough.

Anyway - nothing ventured, nothing gained - or so they say, so I tack-welded the frame and multiple-measured everything and adjusted until I got it to the stage I wanted. After mounting the two main rails and final-welding everything, I ended up with less than 1mm difference across both rails from end to end, and the same for height across both. i don't know what sort of tolerances most people use, but I am very happy with the end result, and think that I will have very little adjustment to do with the table itself.

I also made adjustable feet for the base. I considered putting large metal castors on the machine, but reckoned that once built and in place, I will not be moving it much after that, and solid feet will give a more stable basis to everything.

For the cross-beam, I was lucky enough to acquire a length of 180 x 90 aluminium extrusion, 1.2m long, and for the 'right price'. At first I thought that this might be too heavy, but after mounting it I think it will be perfect. - looks pretty impressive, even at this stage.

I have also cut put the side plates for the cross-beam. these are made from 12mm ali plate, and look substatial enough to hang the gear-boxes from.

I have taken Greg's advice (in one of his recent posts) about where to place the pivot point for the gearboxes, in relation to the frame (ie: keep the angle less than 45 degrees) and consequently, have designed this part a little differently from others, in as much as I have opted to mount the pivot point between the two gearbox sides, instead of at one side. This allows me to elevate the pivot point far more, and the consequence is that the pull from the tensioning springs will be almost straight up and down, with out any great amount of angulation. I am hoping that this will assist in keeping the pinions at a constant pressure on the rack, thereby hopefully minimising any chance of the gear jumping.

Well that's about all for now - February and early March is not a really good time to be spending large amounts of time in the shed building, as it is Festival time in Adelaide, and there are lots of things to grab your attention. We actually have nearly a whole month of festivals, with the Adelaide festival and the Fringe - which is much more fun - and to top it off, this coming week-end is Clipsal. (For those who live under mushrooms - Clipsal is 'THE motor racing event of the year, and Adelaide really goes wild for the whole four days of racing.

Anyway, cheers to all, and I will get back to work next week.
Noel

Looking awesome, your making amazing progress. Took me ages to get to that point. lol.

Keep it up.

Very nice. you make it look so simple to build.

Great find on that extrusion it looks like it will be more than up to the task.

Curious, where did you get your gantry sides cut? I am looking to re-do mine and change my design to suit some new nema 34 motors now that my shed is up and i might actually get some time to work on it.

Daniel
P.S Just read about the events you guys are lucky enough to have atm... too bad its your years worth of events over a short period of time...lol.

Daniel
I cut them myself. It's really very easy if you have a bandsaw, as aluminium plate cuts with an ordinary wood-saw blade. I have been using a 6tooth to the inch blade, but for heavier aluminium (over 16mm thick) I am using a 2tooth to the inch blade.
I know that when you first look at even the 6tooth blade, your first thought is probably that you would simply destroy the blade, but this is not so.

With a new blade it cuts very cleanly. I didn't even have to use any kerosine, although I did have it handy in case.

The other way - of course - is to just cut it out on your earlier CNc machine - this is how I am cutting the side plates for my gearboxes, and so far, they are coming out pretty good.

I will post a couple of photos of the gearbox sides later.
Cheers
Noel

Noel,

Great job, your progressing very well indeed. Looking forward to the gear reduction your making.
Did you find the ABBA rails slide well? I have those on my machine and they always seemed a little stiff to slide, even with weight applied. I know greg has these units too as I pinched the model from him.

Do you think you will need some cross bracing on the frame to stop it rocking while taking cuts. This is one item i still need to do on my unit.

/Michael

Hi Guys
Well, just to fill in some of the slack time, I thought that some of you might be interested to see the console which I am building at the same time as my new machine.

Like most of us, I relied very heavily on Rod for the électriccy bits'', and have used the Pokeys option. As I am somewhat electronically challenged, I figured this would be easier for me to get my head around than the Modbus method.

Anyway, after getting help from Rod with the coding for the 'pots'controlling feed-rate and spindle speed, I have finally managed to get the thing running, and I am very happy with the result.

As you can see in the photos, I have elected to run all my ancillary mechanisms from the one power supply, which is installed in the left side of the console, and isolated from the dc side by perspex(?) shielding. I wanted some form of isolation between the 240 volts and the DC, as I guess I am a bit paranoid when it comes to electricity

I used two joysticks for the X, Y, and Z axis movement controls, and these work exceptionally well (relatively cheap too - only about $14.00 each).

The momentary switches that I used were very cheap and from china. Unfortunately, the build quality was much the same, and I intend to replace them sooner rather than later, but this will probably mean that I have to cut another front plate for the console.

I cut and bent the 3mm aluminium plate myself, and had a local fabricator tig-weld the sides. I was tempted to try and mig-weld it myself, but that would have meant more messing around changing wire and tips. The local guy only charged me $15.00 to do the welding, so it was much cheaper to go that way.

I have mounted a 15inch monitor on top of the console case instead of fitted into the case itself, and this way, I figure that I can more easily replace the monitor should it ever die or get damaged.
The éngraving'of the faceplate was done on my old CNC machine, and apart from making a huge mess with kerosine and aluminium swarf, it went quite well.

Well that's about all for now, so Cheers
Noel

Mike
So far, the ABBA trucks and rails seem to be OK, but of course I haven't actually used it yet, but am hoping that they are alright.
I had some difficulties with the cap-screws to hold the ABBA rail down, as you might have noticed in my previous post. I am curious as to whether you or Greg had same issues, and if so, how did you get around the problem?
Not sure whether I will need more cros-bracing at this stage, but I have several attachment points prepared on the frame so adding extra óomph'shouldn't be too difficult if needed.
Thanks to all you guys who are reading and responding to this post - it's good to know that others are interested.
Cheers
Noel