Nice job. I was working towards this same thing, but without already having the complete machine. I had bought the plates before reading more (mostly hytech and your builds), and deciding that I wanted a stronger Ox. I didn't want to chuck the plates or lose money reselling them, and figured that there were others in the same situation(having an ox, and wanting to upgrade it), so I was looking into ways to adapt the stock ox plates. You beat me to the punch, and I like what you have done, but i have to be different; so you have now made up my mind to move forward with my latest plan of scrapping the plates and creating a heavily modified system.
Thank you, Larry & SatMike. It's so easy to think "well" I will just re-design original plates & replace them. It's more of a fun design challenge to adapt the original plates and you save some money. SatMike building a much stronger CNC machine from the ground up is much easier than trying to adapt the current OX, if you have access to 3D modeling software. In my experience you modify the X axis beam to a larger size & stiffer, then the standard plates don't fit, then you modify the X carriage to fit the beam, then you start looking at the Z axis, then you look at the Y extrusion and think this should really be stronger, then you start thinking about changing the wheels... etc. "May as well, design process"... VS being happy with the good little OX
I have ordered the parts for this upgrade from my local laser cutting company. Below is the pricing for anyone interested in doing this upgrade. Two x axis End Frames cut from our 1/8 mild steel @ $22.00 Each Four Gantry Mounting plates, 1/8 mild steel @ $6.40 Each One X-Axis Carriage Plate, 1/4" Alum 6061 @ $9.00 Each Two Y-Axis Mounting Plates, 1/4" Alum 6061 @ $13.00 Each I will post some photographs when complete...
As many of you know, building a machine is often slow workshop progress because you think everything is ordered and then you wait until it arrives only to find your missing something else. Four bearings arrived for the leadscrews but they are the wrong size. 12mm NOT 1/2" so now waiting again... I thought I would have a little fun and design a new complete OX plate set which is ready to mount 1/2" acme leadscrews. I'm curious if anyone might be interested in buying 1/4" laser cut aluminium plates or G10 versions? I think Gerald will cut the G10 & I can have the aluminium versions laser cut. The rear of the X axis has two 40 * 20 beams are add extra strength, the lead screw runs between these & the original twin 60 * 20 beams. Above shows the Y axis acme leadscrew detailing. Above shows the extra two 40 * 20 X axis beams.
For anybody that's interested, I renamed AluminumOx.zip to MainFrame.zip and was able to import into OnShape.com I then shared it publicly, and you can find it here: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a...83d91f4ca686202040/e/5feace9d79274fb19bc0d24d
Excellent Dave, thank you for sharing. Note the top Z axis carriage plates use the version 80 Dwg files, which the bolt pattern on the top wheels are 1.5mm too small. I originally thought this was my cutting error, but since learned other people observed the same issue with rev 80 drawings.
Man i love your x axis lead screw design i have been looking for some ideas just like that. i am going to adapt lead screw to my machines x as i get alot of backlash from mine. Nice job!