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Plywood Built CNC Router

Discussion in 'CNC Mills/Routers' started by Project Hopeless, Aug 19, 2019.

Plywood Built CNC Router

Plywood Built CNC Router

Discussion in 'CNC Mills/Routers' started by Project Hopeless, Aug 19, 2019.

This is my first build attempt, a large form (4x4ft.) 3 axis 4-motor CNC router table, . The build components are Baltic birch plywood, stepper motors, SBR linear bearings, and ball screws, LinuxCNC, Mesa controller.

plywood build Baltic birch gantry
  1. Project Hopeless

    Project Hopeless New
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    Project Hopeless published a new build:

    Read more about this build...
     
    #1 Project Hopeless, Aug 19, 2019
  2. Gary Caruso

    Gary Caruso OpenBuilds Volunteer
    Staff Member Moderator Builder

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    Great work! going to be awesome
    Matthias would dislike it ;)
    Cheers
    Gary
     
    #2 Gary Caruso, Aug 19, 2019
  3. Tom Mckinney

    Tom Mckinney New
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    Love the build. Especially the care in making it accurate. Need to pick up some of those skills myself.

    In the photo it looks like the gauge is indicating off the rail support. Wouldn't you want to align off the rail? I have used round rails and the supports are beat up and don't reflect the condition of the rail itself.
     
    #3 Tom Mckinney, Apr 17, 2020
  4. Project Hopeless

    Project Hopeless New
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    Yes, you are probably right, off the rail would be best. My extrusion supports were clean so I thought why not. I should check against the rail though.
     
    #4 Project Hopeless, Apr 19, 2020
    Peter Van Der Walt likes this.
  5. maguru

    maguru New
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    Pretty similar to what I'm working on to rebuild my machine. One thing I don't understand: how does the gantry attaches to the ballscrew?
     
    #5 maguru, Sep 17, 2020
  6. Project Hopeless

    Project Hopeless New
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    It's a little crude but very stiff.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/7KGiSExkbKGWEnQG9

    I don't have access to a lot of metal working tools so I relied on basic extruded shapes cut at the supplier. The gantry sits on 3x3" angle bolted to the bearing blocks. The ball screw connects with 5x3" angle bolted to the bottom of the 3x3
     
    #6 Project Hopeless, Sep 17, 2020
  7. Neild321

    Neild321 New
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    Nice build so far. I'm all for using what you have lying around whenever you can as well.
    I'm upgrading my home built CNC to a larger bed and love your design for the X rails to be simply bolted straight to the torsion box bed.
    qq- do you have access holes in the base of the bed to get to the bolts holding the ballscrew supports on?
     
    #7 Neild321, Sep 30, 2020
  8. Project Hopeless

    Project Hopeless New
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    Not exactly. All rails and ball screws bolt into threaded metal inserts in the 3/4" plywood. The M6-25mm insets are epoxied in the plywood for maximum pull out resistance.

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/S4hLZLvNZRCrQeon9

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/gvrKYvGuuiBWGGon7
     
    #8 Project Hopeless, Oct 2, 2020
  9. JustinTime

    JustinTime Veteran
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    I was not so thorough. I just used #8 wood screws to mount the rails in the plywood. I figured that with so many screws per rail they would hold without getting loose. I hope I will not regret it. :)

    I did use these inserts to mount the spindle, though. In my mind there are much more vibrations that affect it than there are on the rail and it's much more critical to be solid since if one or two screws get loose the spindle may shift a little.
     
    #9 JustinTime, Oct 3, 2020

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