I had been thinking about buying/building a cnc router for about a year. I was eye'ing the x-carve and was waiting for either a used one in my area to come up for sale or for a project that would justify buying/building one. I found Openbuilds while building a cnc back gauge for my press break. Though I didnt end up using Openbuild parts for it, I was impressed with the company and the community here.
I now have a project that would be a lot easier with a cnc router and as luck would have it, Openbuilds had a Fathers day sale on their new version of the Workbee. I took it as a sign and bought the 1510.
I've started building the machine, but am in a holding pattern due to missing parts. Openbuilds has been great dealing with the parts issues, so no complaints there. In the meantime, I've started designing a base and enclosure for it. I'm still not sold on the idea of an enclosure, so that will be built after I have some hours on the machine and see how well the dust boot works.
[UPDATE 7/23/18]
Two weekends ago I built the workbench. Its not complete as I'm not sure where everything it going to go yet. But it was complete enough to get the machine frame built this weekend.
I built the machine before attaching the top so I could figure out where to add supports and where to cut access holes for the vacuum and for the vertical stock support.
[UPDATE: 9/1/2018]
From the beginning I knew I didnt want the 20x80 mounted on their sides, but I wasnt sure how low I wanted to them to go. Thanks to @Metalguru for posting their suggested improvements. After seeing that I knew I wanted to do something similar. I ordered 3 additional pieces of 20x40 and mounted them perpendicular to the 20x80s. I had about 5" left over from each piece so I cut them down to 2" and mounted them underneath the ends of the 20x80s for a bit more support.
I also implemented his suggestion to swap out the end caps for 3 hole brackets as to connect the C-Beam to the ends.
I used the left over 3 hole brackets to attach the frame to the table.
Since I dont want to have to unmount the frame when I have to change the wasteboard, I opted to weld nuts to the wasteboard brackets.
Before making these changes, I had about .017" of play when pushing down on the 20x80. After I have about .004".
I've been doing a bunch of 3D printing for this build. Here's just a few things I've designed an printed.
Drag chain mounts for wires and the vacuum hose:
A double elbow to route the hose from the side of the machine to above the dust collector located under the table.
A dust shoe that I found on Thingiverse. Still need to attached the brush. Also need to design the brackets to get the hose from the drag chain to the shoe.
[Update: 1/17/19]
After using the machine for a bit, I decided I hated the wheels and belts, especially on the Y axis. I could never get it set right. After seeing @Jacob Lotter Modified Workbee build (1510 Workbee Modified) I set out to do the same.
Jacob was kind enough to post the drawings for the linear bearing blocks, so I milled the Y axis blocks using my Tormach.
Install was pretty straight forward. I propped up my X axis, removed the Y axis end plates and removed the Y axis C beams. Then I removed the inner Y axis plates, wheels and motor. The only thing to watch out for is making sure the oil fittings on the bearings are facing out.
With the machine back together, I set out to add the lead screws. This took several days of tweaking, but in the end I was able to run them with the OG motors and xpro. I plan on upgrading the motors switching to a arduino/driver setup, I just havent ordered them yet.
Like @Giarc (build link), I used 1/2"-10 5 start screws from McMaster (link). I also found nut blocks that fit within the C-beam (eBay link). I used Dayton flange bearings (ebay link). Here's some details on how I did this.
First thing I did was made some spacers on the lathe that would center the screw within the end plate holes. This would allow me to figure out where I needed to make the new holes for the nut blocks.
Once I figured that out, I milled out a drill guide that fit within the c-beam and over the X plates. I drilled two holes for both top and bottom. I removed the extra material with a end mill attached to the drill. This allowed me to make slots so I have some adjustability when the nut blocks start wearing down.
Instead of drilling mounting holes for the bearings, I decided to modify them to make them work with 2 of the existing motor mount holes.
First I made the hole spacing wider, then I milled a bit off the back in one corner so it would clear the head of one of the cbeam screws. Sits nice and flat now.
Since the bearing sits outside of the end plates, it was a bit of pain to line up the screws with the motors attached. So, I cut one of my spacers that I made in half and used that to keep everything lined up while I screwed the motor/bearing into the plate.
And here it is all back together.
Now its time to work on the X and Z upgrades.
Shawn's Workbee 1510
Build in 'Cartesian Style CNC' published by sharmstr, Jan 21, 2019.
Shawn's adventure in assembling and customizing the Openbuild's version of the 1500x1000 Workbee.
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- Build Progress:
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- Build in Progress...
Attached Files:
Ehask71, Pedro Ferreira, Robert White and 19 others like this. -
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Build Author sharmstr, Find all builds by sharmstr
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Build Details
- Build License:
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- GNU (GPL3+) General Public Licence
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Attached Files:
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