Supporting > My Workshop

Gerrit's workshop and machines

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gerritv:
In my Rudy Kouhoupt build thread, Admiral_dk/per expressed a desire to see my CNC build. I will start off my 'This is my Workshop' thread with a few photos of that.

I spent a lot of doodle paper on various designs over the years, mostly constrained by what tools I had to build a CNC router/mill. When I was able to buy 3 motors and a breakout board for CA$100 in 2019 I finally got a move on. Some more doodling/3d CAD and I committed.

The main frame is 2x4, 2x2 and 1x2 .125" wall tubing. The joints are all shop-made t-bolts, aka furniture bolts using 5/16-16 into .5" rod. Everyone of those is reinforced with a .25" backing plate.
The X axis channel is from a 1958 Uniservo II tape drive, one of those you-never-know-when-you-might-need-it items. The bed is from the same tape drive, .5" cast plate. All drilling was done with careful layout, punch pricks and a drill press.

There were a few iterations of swarf containment, from shower curtain to aluminum.

Control is via PathPilot on an HP SFF computer and Mesa 7i92 ethernet interface. Rock solid and well supported by updates from Tormach as well as a good post processor from Fusion360. An example run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V04TWEVuOek

Gerrit

Admiral_dk:
I like the Layout of you CNC Mill  :ThumbsUp:

Looks very solid for it's size - do you have any chatter on any of the axises ?

The Controller and the rest of the Electronic System is a lot more complicated (more parts) than I anticipated and one I haven't seen before- Do you have a link ?

Thank you very much for showing  :praise2:

Per     :cheers:

scc:
To an old school thicky like me,  brought up on counting handle revolutions, etc.   this looks like the work of N.A.S.A. :headscratch:   I can't imagine setting one up let alone building it :o      You have my complete admiration.
            Terry

gerritv:
Per, the driver board is a PMDX-132, no longer made. It has 4 drivers. The control started out very simple, a minimalistic power supply and the board. But then I realized I needed a contactor for the VFD, and some relays for motor coolant and air. And then another contactor for the whole machine to implement an e-stop, and and and and :-). Those items needed power as well so along came 5, 12 and 24 DIN mounted supplies. I mounted it all on aluminum plates on a plywood base that is releatively easy to remove from the machine. I keep looking at those lovely metal enclosures with doors and after seeing the price, and having to redo all my wiring I conculde that this setup is working just fine.
There was initially a bunch of resonance but most of that went away after doubling up on ball nuts. There is still an issue with drilling, esp. for M6 holes but milling is ok. I have potentiometers for feed and spindle overrides so it is easy to play while cutting to get things to 'sound right'. Surface finish on aluminum and steel has been excellent. Once I find a happy feed/speed setting for material x I write it down and make it part of the tool library on Fusion360 so it sticks for future use.
The machine overall is patterned after Stefan Gotteswinter's Stepmores cnc.

Terry, it all starts and ends with drilling a whole lot of holes and bolting stuff together. It kind of designed itself as I went along after the initial rough drawings.

gerrit

Alex:
Hi Gerrit; the air is an interesting one - is it described elsewhere here?

I've got 2 mills running LinuxCNC with MESA hardware. Built them before Tormach moved away from the bandaid software, to LinuxCNC based PathPilot. I haven't updated them much, because they simply just work! Fantastic software. You chose well! ;-)

Very nice build, by the way; building from scratch adds 10 points to get you to a mark of 110 out of 100. (smile) JohnS.

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