Hey folks, I'm a newbie here as well as in CNC routers, however I was captivated by the C-Beam machine and I'm getting an order ready. My use for this machine is to cut aluminum (plastics as well) to a max size of 12"x12". I see the machine specs mentioned travel sizes in 13.5" x 11"; However I saw this U-Tube video "" (bad audio) which seems to suggest that with some re-alignment of the Y axis you can get a 12"x12" cut. Can someone set me straight on this before I put in an order for more parts than I need Thanks.......
mine isn't the plate maker but it is built out of the c-beams, my spoil board is 24x24 but the travel of the router is about 32x32
Well the author of the YouTube video posted this reply to my query there... I was not able to get that much travel on the kit. it maxed out the mechanical travel at 10.400" on the Y axis. The X axis does however, travel the full 12". It has to do with the button head screws on the bottom of the mounting plate for the table. The shaft collars that go on the acme thread interfere with the travel. you could pick up another .375" or around 10mm of travel on the y is you go with low profile screws. This still won't get you to 12" though. My advice would be to but you a copy of this machine with 750mm axis beams to keep it small or just get the full 1m c beams and go all out. The machine does hold tolerances of around.005" taking full depth cuts .500" at 20" a minute with a step over of .125". not bad for such a light weight machine. if you go light shallow passes like .040 as people do with the belt driven gantry's in red oak I cut 60-80" a minute no problems. I guess I'll have to go with the 1k railings and screw (more $'s) and customize my dimensions.
The Universal Build Plate is 216mm long sliding along a Y-axis rail that is 500mm. That leaves 11.18" of travel. When you lose 3/8" each end due to the lock collars, that leaves 10.4" (as noted above). The X-axis however has an 88mm plate running on a 500mm rail which leaves 16.22" of travel and when accounting for lock collars, 15.5" of travel. If you need to get this to a 12x12 cutting area and do it without adding any additional $$, start with a 1m piece of CBeam, (2) 1m pieces of the 20x60 bottom and side rails, and a 1m piece of lead screw and have them all cut 450/550. This will revise your system to a 450mm x 550mm format which should give you what you seek in each direction (unless I've missed something somewhere). The easier solution however would be to pick up a couple pieces of aluminum bar roughly 8x20x160mm and 4 longer screws for the main wheels and jack the build plate up 8mm where it can simply ride an inch or so out over the end plates. While this will cost you 8mm of throat depth, by eliminating the 6mm spacers that go between the build plate and the sacrificial work board the net loss will only be about 2mm which should be acceptable.
Rick, I understand your first option (which is what I'm currently planing) is to buy the pieces from the OB store rather than a bundle, to change the dimensions of the X or Y axis as well as using parts I already own. However your "easier solution" sounds easy enough to do. So a couple of questions... 1) Will this get me to 12x12. 2) When i see the word "travel" I assume that means how far the plate moves before it's stopped by the lock ring in the actuator. How does that relate to the actual travel of the cutting bit on the router.
1) Yes, it should give you roughly 12.25" of Y-axis movement. A bit more if you are willing to sculpt out some of the support board to clear the stepper (see below). 2) Yes, travel is basically movement over a distance. Same idea as when you get off a train in another city or country and someone asks "how far did you travel?" Quick sketches attached. Spacer blocks should actually be 10mm thick. (I noticed a screw conflict and had to adjust a bit thicker.) Another 10mm spacer block will need to be added above the threaded nut block. Existing stops at edge of metal plate hits lock collar: Revised allows metal plate to extend over lock collar and end plate but stops where spacer block hits lock collar: Stops at motor on far end (unless you wish to carve out the lower board a bit). Basic spacer block layout
