Well i bought Joe's second router. and since it would be to heavy to ship the whole thing we just sent the gantry. I got it a few days ago. Joe cut me out new end peices. Since i could not find long enough angle iron today i changed the design alittle bit. I found this big bench that my grandpa used to use reloading. and i decided it looked sturdy enough. Cut small peices of angle iron and just mounted the end peices to the bench. All in all im satified with the results. Im noticeing alot of sway in the pipes so i am going to support them afew places along them. Turns out i used smaller pipes than joe originaly did. So i went back and bought a new set of pipes. I will install them in the morning hopefuly. well its late and i tired.

Hope you enjoy.

.....

....

.....

Well i put in the new bigger 1" rails and got the gantry on it. And i noticed one of my bearing blocks had cracked. So i took that bearing block out and installed a new one. And all and all im not satified with the fit of the gantry. So i went back to the Drawing board. Decided to support the rails all the way down. I got some U steel supports and bolted it to the pipe. Now im in the process of designing a holder for the bearing blocks that holds 2 bearing blocks. One on each side of the pipe. This would fix the issue of the gantry bowling the pipes toward each other. Hopefuly i will have it finish on monday and post some pics. I so far happy with the design.

Supported Rail.

......

do you think the pipe rail will role on the top of the support without an indention or channel?

Joe

I took one of the nuts from behind the bearing on the bottom so it did not hit on the rail support. the bearing dont hit the pipe in the middle anymore but id think it would still works fine. and from what i can tell there is enough angle to hold the gantry from coming off. im just not sure how im going to be able to make adjustments. That is the tricky part.

Well got alittle more done. I took the both x axis bearing blocks and combine them into 1. taking the pressure that used to push the pipes together and canceling it out. I also supported the rails with a U channel under it. Making it so it dont bow. I also used 6' pipes which gives me something like 60" of travel. But atm i cant find enough angle iron to do both sides so i will half to wait till friday when i can buy somemore to finish it.

The results conclude a Non bowling / Swaying / no play shaft.

Here are some pics of the result.

Here it is with it on the rail.

Well after time work here is the progress. Eventualy i will build a larger table to put this on so it dont hang off the ends and so i can get the full lenght of the travel. But this will work for now.

This picture is with the gantry just sitting on top of the bearing blocks

And this is after i attached the gantry to the bearing blocks. I am satified with my results. I do not think it would be much better w/o using ground shafts. Which i plan on eventualy getting. But for now this is a start. It runs no plan the entire lenght w/o any sage at all.

Its abit hacked away at where the rails go threw. I used hand tools and i dont have much skill with hand tools. Anyways when it gets running ill just cut out a new one.

Well its late and im tired. Here is some final pics of tonights progress. I got the Y and Z totaly together. And all i gotta do to finish the entire thing is the X lead screw and the cutting Table. Great progress today. Here some pics.

I also ordered Hardened shafts for the Y and Z axis today. Still looking for hardened / drilled shafts for the X.

........

...

Well got more angle iron and put in the cutting bed and the x axis drive screw. I gotta buy some mdf to put in the cutting bed still though. Cutting bed ended up being 28"X66" but the travel is like 24"X55"

pics inc.

...

Thats a 10" gain of travel from what i had.

Well with joes help i got the software all tuned in for the machine. it was moving around last night which makes me very happy since i have spent alot of time on it and havent seen any movement. fought for afew hours with this computer im going to use as my cad/cam computer. but i finally found the problem and fixed it. and now im installing windows on it and then i will transfer over mach3 off my other computer to this one.

On a side note i ordered some shafts for my X axis. when they get here i am going to test them out. i only ordened short 36" shafts for the test run. I am hoping that my new idea for supported ground shafts will be good and sturdy. But i do not know yet. If it is good and sturdy i will buy some 6' ones and do the same with them.

I am also looking at a alternative for my x axis drive. the 5/16X18 just bows to much. it whips the whole gantry around. I might look for some 5/8" to replace it with.

Did afew test cuts today. And i can tell a world of diffrence in the smoothness of the X and the Y and Z axis. Y and Z have ground shaft and they are very smooth on the cuts. But the X is rough. It almost seems to me that it moves then hangs up then moves again. Like its catching then jumping. I think the only way to get any good quality of a cut im going to half to get some soft of ground shafts.

well i found a limit switch and wanted to wire it up and make sure it works b4 i go and buy more. After looking around i have no idea how to wire it. In mach3 it shows 1 pin for home. well how would that work !

well i figured it out. wasnt that hard. just had to think alittle.

Well i think there is something wrong with my x axis. i run a program. and the parts end up right size in Y. But the X is .04" small. Then when the program goes to cut a slot in a section spot on the part. it ends up .08" short of where it needs to be in the x.

check the axis with a 10" ruler with jog to eliminate the machine or program error. sometimes the 5/16" threaded rod may not be a true 18tpi, you may have to do a ratio in the software.

I will try that joe. i think its either backlash or the thread aint exactly 18tpi. i need to change over to 1/2" X 10 acme but hooking those steppers to such large acme might be a pain. i realy need to align the machine. the y axis is slightly tilted i can tell. i tried to face off a peice off 3/8" wood into 1/4" wood and it looks like stepes. i used a big 3/4" bit and it cut nice but as the y axis moved it kept getting higher.

Well while tring to fix my x axis problem one of my psu went bad. i was cutting out a part to see if it cut the right width and it just stoped. now nothing will move. the one psu is acting weird...it works if you run it by its self but if you run it with the other 2 it shuts off. not sure whats up atm.

you should have a floating ground. make sure nothing is grounded except the 1st psu in series.

Looks pretty good. Makes me jealous because I live in an apartment.

i also live in a apartment. its just a very large apartment.

Where did you get your motors and controller board?

He has the Hobbycnc 3 axis board and the HP Laserjet III motors, 100oz/in