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Stargeezer Vertimill

Discussion in 'CNC Mills/Routers' started by stargeezer, Sep 3, 2017.

  1. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    stargeezer published a new build:

    Read more about this build...
     
  2. Tracy Ranson

    Tracy Ranson Well-Known
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    Now this is a mini mill...Would you mind sharing your files or offer to make the parts? Would love a machine like this one.
     
  3. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    Hi Tracy. I'm having issues loading files so I'll try a couple attachments.
     

    Attached Files:

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  4. Julius

    Julius Well-Known
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    Wicked. I was always wondering how you could strongly offset the spindle head from the table. This is a good call. When will it be done?
     
  5. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    I'll start the electronics soon, maybe tomorrow. My real question is what operating system I want to use. Mach 3 is easy enough, but I've been wanting to try Mach 4. Or perhaps CNCPC?
     
  6. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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    Really nice strong build @stargeezer ! Lots of great ideas being put into use here, not doubt that this will be a great machine. Keep up the great work and thank you for the share my my friend.
     
  7. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    Thanks Mark. I couldn't have built it without all your hard work laying a foundation for it. The entire build was based on your concepts and parts. I just expanded on them.

    Larry
     
  8. Mark Carew

    Mark Carew OpenBuilds Team
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    Thanks Larry! and after all thats the idea of the OpenBuilds V-Slot system, a community driven modular building block that can only keep getting better. :thumbsup:
     
  9. Beto Arango

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    Beautiful design .. great job..
     
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  10. Pismodrifter

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    This is the best one yet..... so I need to ask for a parts list, please :)
     
  11. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    Please keep in mind that all the parts used so far were from my used parts bins. I've been building and reviewing 3d printer kits for a while and if the printer was a winner, it got passed to a school kid. If it was a loser, it was disassembled and ended up in my parts bins. A couple small CNC routers have gone that way too.

    The major parts are 3 - 500mm C-Beam Linear Actuator and 1-250mm C-Beam Linear Actuator like - C-Beam® Linear Actuator Bundle

    The column consist of 4 - 20x80 V-slot, 2 - 500mm & 2 - 360 connected together with plates I cut. The reason for the 2 shorter V-slot was to make room for the OB emblem I cut into the sides and filled with white PVC and will backlight with LEDs. If you aren't going to do something like that, make all 4 20x80 V-slot 500mm long. It will be a little bit stronger that way, but not much.

    The plates were all 1/4" aluminum plate except the large end-plates which are cut from 1/2" plate.

    Lots of 5mm x 10mm and 5mm x 12mm flat head cap screws and tee nuts.

    All the rest of the parts were Open Builds Parts that can be found in the parts store.

    Now the hard part, the electronics. I don't mean that putting it all together is hard, it's not. I mean that deciding what to use is hard, and then there the firmware and software that's hard. :)
     
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  12. Julius

    Julius Well-Known
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    Pshhh that's easy. 3 machines in and never changed.
    Arduino uno
    Tb6600 drivers
    36V supply
    universal Gcode Sender
     
  13. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    Thank you for the kind words. More to come.....

    Larry :)
     
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  14. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    That's true my friend, except I always seem to need more ports than a uno can offer. Such as full spindle control, all functions of the VFD, coolant pump and fan controls, max temp. control, limit switches on both +&- movements, and so on. I always run out before getting the motors powered up! That's the main reason I started using the Warp9 ESS board that can split up to three parallel ports that can be routed to three BOBs.

    And the fun goes on.... :)

    Larry
     
  15. JWhitten

    JWhitten Well-Known
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    This is a seriously nice machine. I really like it a lot. You're giving me lots of good ideas...
     
  16. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    Awesome! That's why I built it, hoping to inspire others to to take my simple mods to the great OB machine and add some of their great ideas to it too. Then it gets better each time it's copied.

    A current change I'm playing with is flipping the X axis over and screwing the X plates to the Y plates. This offers a couple improvements to the design. First it keeps the plates and joints under the cutter for more support. Secondly it helps to keep sawdust out of the screw and provides a wider area to screw the cutting table to. The more support for the table, the less cutting errors will exist.

    Have fun and please show us what you do with it!

    Larry
     
  17. JWhitten

    JWhitten Well-Known
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    I'm currently in the middle of building a new machine now. When I'm done building, I'll be giving my old machine "that look" (to which it will be doing its best to slink off and hide in the corner...) and wondering what I can (re)make using its various parts and pieces. I have been mulling over the idea of cutting it down to a smaller size and making a plate cutter out of it. But I like your "bridge mill" design idea and that would definitely add some structural support in a very useful place... Thanks for showing it off!
     
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  18. stargeezer

    stargeezer Journeyman
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    As I mentioned a few days ago, I really wanted to flip the X axis over so that chips can't build up in the screw. After I flipped it I discovered that there was interference that kept it from sliding all the way, limiting the x travel to 10". In order to recover as movement as possible I needed to mill off about 1/4" of material from the C-Beam end-plates.

    I had a couple salvaged red plates that had some bad nicks on top that could be cut off so I switched to those. A few minutes on the mill and they were ready to be reinstalled. I'm adding some pics of the process and as you can see, I now have 13" of movement. This makes my total movements X=13" Y=9" and Z=5.5".
     

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