I appreciate the support too Tracy. I spent quite a while on designing & building this machine. At least it felt like it was a long time.

 

Probably thr biggest benefit to an OpenBuilds machine is that you can buy everything you need for an affordable, running CNC. No need to manufacter anything. You get experience from building it and then you start to learn CAD & CAM. When you feel like upgrading, you can reuse many of the parts on your next machine.

 

Thanks buddy. I'm just going to have to enclose this machine so I can run an air nozzle wide open. Previously I was trying hard not to make a huge mess so I opened the nozzle just enough to remove some chips.

 

Awesome dude! I have a second one also that I plan to use.

 

Yeah this is definitely a concern. I have actually seen bellows designed for linear rails or I could install shielding. The linear carriages do have rubber wipers but I don't want to chew those up.

 

I'm sure these aren't cheap though

 

They're heavy duty but you still want to avoid contamination. Chips could cause the bearing balls to jam up and stop circulating which would be very bad.

 

This machine uses the exact extrusions that I had on my Sphinx and even though the Y axis cbeams are tall, I still ended up with chips all over the top.

 

Linear guide HG Series 15,THK / HIWIN flexible accodion protective bellows dustproof covers-in Tool Parts from Tools on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

 

Maybe they're just showing different models. It looks like they can do custom orders.

 

Oh that's awesome! I was wondering if this could be done. Thank you Mark.

 

Thank you! I found a huge block of delrin on eBay for a really great price. The motor standoffs are 55mm on my machine so the standard aluminum standoffs wouldn't work. Plus this stuff is incredibly tough and machines nicely with little effort. Maybe it will dampen some vibration too.

 

Some of these parts on this machine called for a pretty decent sized chunk of material to start with whether it be aluminum or plastic. I designed the entire machine first then wrote down overall measurements of required materials. Ebay was the first place I looked for cutoffs or drop cuts. The block of delrin I found measured 2"x3" and I think it was 2' long so it covered most of the thicker parts I needed. Plus I had never machined anything like this so I didn't want to waste expensive aluminum if they didn't work out. The only delrin parts I'm not 100% confident about are the Y axis ball nut blocks. They are rigid and machined to a tight fit but I wonder if there would be any compression under load.

 

Looking back, I realize a few parts could be downsized and machined from smaller stock and I would actually like to design the plates to work with the pre made ball nut blocks in the future. Some of the plates could also be machined from thinner stock.

 

Just as a heads up. If anyone is wanting to use the common 1605 ballscrews with thd cbeams like I did, you have to completely dissasemble the ball nut and grind the flanges. While grinding, you have to constantly quenching the nut in water otherwise you risk deformation of the ball tracks inside. Also, it can be a pain to repack the ballnut. If anyone needs help, I learned a few tricks along the way. I also had to straighten my longer ballscrews with a set of V-blocks and a dial indicator which would work for any bent leadscrew. I didn't even know they had a slight bend until I was in the final assembling stage.