CNC TTU Build

[John H]

John,

If your design is following Morphy, then let my ramblings about load and bending moments go through to the keeper!!

Did you get your air pump off ebay or somewhere else. That I think is the last item I have to buy, except maybe for a better solution to my vacuum pump for the vacuum table ... my vacuum pump that I am using on my Widgitmaster sends off an enormous oil plume, which I currently have piped out of a window, but my new Alpha Zoot machine is going to be well away from walls etc, so no option of ducting it out of the window! Got a price for an oil plume filter in excess of $200 which seemed somewhat over the top for a cheap vacuum pump.

Cheers,

Alan

Feel free to ramble on any day Alan, it's all good info to consider.

I've been keeping an eye out for one of the air pumps on ebay for a while, but alas, nothing worthwhile was discovered. I ended up ordering one from here:

http://www.bexleyaquarium.com.au/sto...&cat=29&page=1

It was a little expensive, but it was the best price I could find. The transaction and delivery was problem free, so that was a bonus.

Oh, I got some more goodies in the mail today. One day I'll get off my bum and learn how to make these pulleys myself.

[John H]

Has anyone used the C11G from CNC4PC?

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/prod...products_id=46

It says it can control a VFD spindle and is suited for the Gecko drives. It looks like it might fit in with my build just nicely.

I'm still tossing up between the Smoothstepper and running something via parallel port.

[John H]

I just had another thought on the design. Instead of mounting the X axis rails on a length of angle, perhaps I could just mount them to the sides? Or will the weight of the gantry have a negative impact of their operation?

[rodm]

HI John,
I have made machines mounting the rail like that but you are placing the full load of the gantry on half the bearing. It is probably OK as these bearing are over rated for our purposes.

I used the angle because you can move the rails in or out to suit the gantry width. Much easier to set up and mine run fine in that configuration. I have used 10mm thick 76mm ally angle and I am not seeing any flex or it affecting the jobs I run. The design also allows the ballscrew to be mounted in the gap beween the side beam and the gantry sides.

As Zoot showed you can run the bearing on top of that beam as well.

[John H]

Thanks Rod,

I might stick with the original plan with the angle.

[John H]

Not much to report, but I have ordered the Rails, Ballscrews and 1.5kw Spindle + VFD from our friend in China.

I mate from work gave me a Dell P4 PC for free as he reckoned it was stuffed. As it turned out, It was just years of installing/uninstalling stuff on XP that had slowed the thing to a crawl (20 minutes to boot up). A clean install of XP + Mach 3, added a Wifi card plus an extra PCI parallel port and it now runs like grease lightning.

[John H]

No construction yet, but I have collected a few more parts for the build.

It's a crappy photo from my phone but I have

Rails
Ballscrews
KR33 Actuator for the Z
1.5kw air cooled spindle
Stepper motors
Powersupply
Energy Chain

I have the ITEM extrusion on order which may arrive later this week or early next week.

The only major item I haven't been able to source yet is some aluminum plate for the table top. The local Carpal Aluminum branch closed it's doors here in Canberra, which means I will need to get it delivered from Sydney. I was talking to the owner of a local Engineering Shop where I got some offcuts for the other parts, and he is not happy about Carpal closing as he will need to pay freight now too.

As you can see by the second photo (another crappy phone job), I need to make some room for this build. The wife has donated the end of her studio out the back where I am going to move my metal work to. It will be good to get it all away from the woodwork dust.

[Zoot]

John,
I found the best place for alum plate was a company called Ullich or Urlich or something similar at Wetherell Park. They were good to deal with and their price was good. If you can't find them by my odd names, let me know and I will look up my invoices from the pile!!

Cheers,

Alan

[John H]

Thanks Allan. Found em http://www.ullrich.com.au/

EDIT: I remember this company. When I was at the Engineering shop, the owner called them up for me and they would only sell a full sheet 1200x 2400.

[Zoot]

John,
Yes that is the right place ... I got 3 pieces from them and they cut them to size etc. If I recall the pieces were in the order of 900 x 600 and 600 x 600.

Cheers,

Alan

[John H]

Yowch, I think a full sheet is gunna hurt.

[Ch4iS]

John,
I found the best place for alum plate was a company called Ullich or Urlich or something similar at Wetherell Park. They were good to deal with and their price was good. If you can't find them by my odd names, let me know and I will look up my invoices from the pile!!

Cheers,

Alan

I was thinking the name was familiar, looked at the site and its the one which is in the same block of factories, but I always thought they only had aluminium for their ladders as they have a ladder business (custom made?) right next to it.

Cant want to see some progress

[John H]

I got lucky today and a local security door company was able to supply the aluminum plate for the router top, cut to size. They still have to get it from Sydney, but it's cheaper than me ordering it myself.

[John H]

Just had a call re the ITEM extrusions for my frame, They are just going over all the parts to make sure it has all been machined correctly and hopefully get it to me for the weekend.

[John H]

All my ITEM frame stuff arrived today. Man, it is a lot heavier than I thought. I cheated a bit and got them to supply the 80x80x10 Angle plus counter bore the holes ready bolt into the T Slots.

The only problem is, I am short 14 of the special connectors to assemble it all. I doubt if they can get them to me tomorrow from Sydney, so it will be next week before I can get the frame together.