I would like to put together some tutorial videos at some point, just trying to find the time.

If your speaking of the Vcarve Pro software, yes it does. Vectric makes some pretty solid design software.

And thanks, I try hard to be a bit more fun than Google.

 

Sorry about the website being down, I have shut it down until I complete some upgrades to my existing sign business. I am not sharing my files at this time due to they are proprietary to my design. You might want to do a bit more research on different drive systems, the current belt drive will not provide you accurate cuts and repeat ability over time. Your better off looking into Steves build if you want to mill aluminum on a regular basis:

http://www.openbuilds.com/builds/linear-rail-cnc-machines.1771/

This design once finished should have no issues at all milling aluminum, brass, copper and other non ferrous materials...

Thanks

Gerald

 

Yes the website has been put on the back burner for a bit.... Sorry about that...

Gerald

 

Glad to hear everything went together well and your up and running !!!

You should be fine with the M5 stuff, every 6 inches should keep it nice and tight. If you have photos feel free to post away !! I'd love to see how it came out.

Thanks for the props and if you have any questions feel free to ask !

Gerald

 

Sorry but the website will be down for a bit longer, we're revamping our business now and making room for it in the near future. I can cut you a set of plates though, i'm only cutting the Black phenolic XX plates ate the moment though. Let me know if you would like a set, I have about a 2 week lead time on cutting them...


Thanks

Gerald

 

It has, I was planning on growing a CNC supply website in the "slow time" but it hasn't let off. We are still moving in that direction and are making some improvements/upgrades on the F-117 CNC such as being able to add a 2-3 watt laser to do gray scale laser engravings on the same machine. We're also developing a 3.5 ' x 2 ' stand alone laser engraver using the same 2-3 watt laser and driver setup using C Beam for the X and Y. We are working out trying to find the best control method for the machine right now. Either Arduino or something compatible with Mach 3. Busy busy...

Gerald

 

UPDATE 6/19/2015
It's been quite some time since i've posted an update and i apologize for that, my sign business has never let up. The F-117 CNC has been running and cutting 6-7 days a week averaging 8 hours a day since the last update. Everything has been working great, the new spindle is awesome, love it !! I really haven't had to do much of anything to the machine since March until now... I have been noticing the quality of the cut being a little off over the past few days, then I had a issue with the stepper on the left side skipped a tooth on the rack while jogging, that's when I noticed things where not quite right. All of the wheels on the top of the Y plates were split in half as well as 2 on the bottom. 14 wheels total split in 2. I'm surprised I never noticed before but they split and just ride on the bearings, really not too noticeable till you look close. My stepper drive tensioners took up the slack and kept everything riding as smooth as possible.. I am not sure what caused the catastrophic failure of all those wheels, I am very care when adjusting the tension on the stepper drives to just enough to make sure they don't skip, and I only tighten the eccentrics on the lower wheels till the wheel makes contact and is resistant to spinning freely... I was using all Xtreme wheels and with 12 wheels on each Y plate I can't the weight of the gantry being a problem. The only thing I can think of is maybe the Polycarb wheels are pretty brittle, other then that i'm just not sure.

I'm exploring what other options I have, I hate to go to the steel V wheels due to the rapid wear on the aluminum V rails. Here are a few photos of the carnage....



You can see the stress fractures in these last 2 pretty well, looks like they were getting ready to fail... I will admit I push my machines a lot harder then most hobbyist, and probably not the best wheels for a small commercial operation, and as far as I know i'm the only one with a cartesian style gantry cnc running on Openrail.

 

Yeah let me know what you find out, i'm rather bummed this happened but i'm looking for alternatives now. I ordered some delrin wheels to keep me running in the mean time...

 

No, I understand completely, the V rail is always trying to split the wheel, the forces are concentrated on the very thin part in the center of the wheel... I figured with 6 wheels on top of each plate that should be more than enough to distribute the load.. What i'm concerned about is the stress fractures, maybe the Poly is to brittle for this application.

 

All the wheels are running on Openrail, the wheels on the X are in good shape but they carry a fraction of the load that the Y rail ones do....

Gerald

 

Can't without making spacers due to the design and using a R&P system, plus then I go back to the whole debris getting under the wheels again issue.... I thought I saw a announcement on here one time about someone selling aluminum V wheels, I just can find it now...

I found a fellow selling hardened anodized aluminum V rail as well as hardened steel V rail, I might have to change out to harden steel V rails for the tops of the extrusions and go with hardened V wheels... The gantry probably weighs in at between 30-40 lbs so i'm sure that may have played a part..

 

You might be right but steel pre drilled hardened V rail is expensive, i'd rather take that chance and save quite a bit of $$ and if the problem shows again on the lower wheels then bite the bullet and change out all the rails... I'm building a laser cutter/engraver at the moment and trying to conserve $$ where and when I can..

I thought about making a air manifold at one time to blow compressed air in front and behind the wheels to keep debris out of the track, but as much as I cut that wasn't really feasible.

 

LOL your right about that, good thing is though I can take the whole gantry off in one piece in about 15-20 minutes, and replace the lower wheels, plus I just put in a order for some spares so hopefully i'll be in good shape for a bit, but I understand where your coming from, been in that position a couple times and it's not fun but i'm lucky enough to have a 2nd machine to back me up when one goes down.

I'm also weighing out converting the Y axis to linear rails and being done with the whole V wheel issue...

 

I was also thinking you could T off the existing vacuum hose for the shoe and run a 1 in hose to either side to a mount that would run along the same track as the wheels, then when the vacuum is on it will pull all the dust out of the track and dispose of it...

Alot of ideas and options to try out....