It's new to me

[ddmckee54]

This time I remembered to export the new CNC assembly as a JPG file.

The magenta colored bits are the parts that will be 3D printed.  I added all the spacers to the 3D model that will be used to bolt the main frame to the base, and the spacers that will turn the two Y extrusions into a sort of truss.  Coincidently, all those spacers also got printed today, and the center-points for the holes in the base got laid out.  I've got to get the holes drilled in the X and Y rails so I can verify that the locations are correct before I drill the base.

[ddmckee54]

Well...  It's one step forward and two steps back time again.  I got the machine mostly disassembled, the Y rail extrusions have been removed, marked, drilled, and bolted back together into a single truss.  (Had to run out and get some longer bolts, the bolts I had were too short, or too long.)  I also added the grease zerks to the Y axis linear bearings, two straight zerks on the two top bearing blocks, and two 90 degree zerks on the bottom blocks to make greasing them easier. 

I had taken one of the X axis rails off and as long as I has the kit of zerks fittings out I figured that I'd add the zerks to those bearing blocks as well.  All of the set screws in the Y axis bearing blocks were black oxide, the set screws in the X axis blocks were SS.   I didn't pay too much attention to that at the time.  Not, until I discovered that the Allen wrench that fit the black oxide screws would not fit the SS screws - too big.  That's when I discovered that the black oxide screws were M6 - which I knew, but the SS screws were M5.  I ain't got no stinkin' M5 grease zerks, M6, M8, M10, 1/8" BSP, and 1/4" BSP I've got - but no M5's.  They are now on order.  The X rail that is out has been marked and drilled, tomorrow I'll remove the other rail and get it marked and drilled too.  I center punched the mounting hole location that was closest to the edge of the base, when I used a transfer punch to mark the other mounting hole in that rail it was about 10mm off from my layout.  I remember that when I added the mounting holes to the base, one of the mounting holes at the RH end of the machine was 10mm off - so I corrected it on the base.  I then made the 2D drawing of the base that I used to lay out the mounting hole locations on the base.  I think I moved the wrong hole in the model, so that's why the RH mounting hole locations were wrong.  Good thing I decided to do a sanity check before drilling the holes in the base.

[ddmckee54]

Picture time...


This is what things look like now, doesn't look a whole lot different than this one does it?


If you answered no to that question you'd be absolutely right.  But there is one MAJOR difference, the frame is now bolted to the base and living in its' new, and permanent, home.

Next step?  Get the bed mounting brackets designed/fabricated, and get the bed mounted to the X axis bearing blocks.  If you look closely at the base below the second mounting bolt for the X axis linear rail on the far side you'll see the access hole for greasing the X axis bearing blocks. (There's a similar access hole on the near side that's hidden in the view.)  Once the bed is mounted I can get to work on the X axis lead-nut mount.  I really need to find mt ToDo list and get it updated, this should check off at least a couple more items.

[vtsteam]

Is the base from a table leaf? Just guessing!

I'm kinda interested in the MKS DLC32 that you mentioned earlier. I'm pretty unaware of the current CNC circuitboard stuff going on in the maker world other than a failed attempt I made at implementing a working GRBL Arduino system for my older CNC router/mill.

Luckily in that case I was able to get an old laptop working with LinuxCNC again which does work fine with the mill via ancient parallel cable drive. So I dropped GRBL. But I am always curious about what's going on in low cost CNC driver options in case I want to make a custom specialized tool some day, neither lathe nor mill.

I think I understand how that one is programmed, separately from the mill, and then the program is loaded and run either by thumbdrive or wifi etc. I do have a tiny extremely low end 3D printer that accepts a thumbdrive program and then runs it, so I get the concept.

[ddmckee54]

vtsteam:

The base is a 470x550x30mm piece of laminated phenolic plastic, with a kraft paper core and what, if I'm remembering correctly, were known as canary covers.  On my bathroom scales that chunk weighs in at about 25 lbs.  In the mid to late 70's I was working in a plant that produced them, in the maintenance department.  Every once in a while a sheet would get rejected, this one has about a 0.010-0.015" high spot about 200mm from the LH side, I suspect that was one the reasons for it's rejection.  I'd keep my eyes open for any rejects that I thought might be usable in the future.  Since they were bound for the landfill anyway, I'd get permission from the production supervisor to take them. 

The only ones I wouldn't take were the epoxy/fiberglass sheets, those you can't cut with carbide blades.  You have to use a diamond saw on them and basically grind through them.  At that time, carbide saw blades for home use were EXPENSIVE, a diamond blade was the stuff of dreams.  We had one guy in maintenance whose sole job was to sharpen and repair the carbide saw blades.

[vtsteam]

Wow, that's a pretty impressive piece of phenolic! I remember it used to be used in low cost PC boards, but not in 30mm thickness! What were those boards used for?