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Sphinx XL

Discussion in 'CNC Mills/Routers' started by beardyblair, Nov 18, 2016.

  1. GJO1605

    GJO1605 New
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    Hi BeardyBlair

    Nice machine. I was looking at building a Sphinx machine myself but also on a bigger scale. Luckily I saw Kyo's link to your XL machine. I will keep you guys in the loop on my machine as I will only start to order in the near future and have the items delivered to my in South Africa.

    From what I can pick up from the original description is that your have increased the base frame extrusions and also the C-Beams. Apart from that do you have any other alterations from the original Sphinx?
    I know you are still in the building process, but is there any changes that you would make to the Sphinx XL.

    I need to be 100% sure of my shopping list as I only want to do one shipment.

    I was thinking of running it with a xPro V3 when it comes out early this year.

    Cheers
    GJO1605
     
  2. J. J. Planters

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    Very cool design, thanks for sharing. I am catching the build bug as well and have been wanting to build something practical like yours. I will definitely be following your build/s.
     
  3. Gary Monroe

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    Hey BeardyBlair, Very nice build. I have been looking for a sturdy Y gantry design that I believe will stand up to machining aluminum. I really like your design. I'm hoping to build my Y gantry 1500mm wide, but I may decide like you did and stay within what is available in the OpenBuilds store. I'm drafting my design up using Fusion360, and hope to share here on OpenBuilds very soon. Thank you for sharing your build.
     
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  4. daisosasen01

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    How can I get my hands on the plates? I have everything excluding that. any ideas? [email protected]
    Quick check yielded $180 - $200 for the plates only on cheat-bay (ebay). Anyone can provide??? I can paypal.
     
  5. Kevon Ritter

    Kevon Ritter Veteran
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    We talked about the plates in the main Sphinx thread. The fleabay offering is 3mm 304 stainless steel. The stiffness doesn't compare to the 1/4" aluminum that Chris offers.
    C-Beam cnc
     
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  6. daisosasen01

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    Th

    Thanks
    I was able to communicate with Chris. Being that I have a tight budget, I rebuilt my c-beam back to the original small c-beam kit offered by openbuilds. Now I am stuck with the Dewalt DWP611 router. The collet is too big and looking for an economical way to replace the 1/4 collet. It's too big for my endmill bits. Can't seem to take out the collet ( I tried the 3/8 hole in wood to press it out but no dice.) Looking for another replacement.
     
  7. Kyo

    Kyo Veteran
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    @daisosasen01 You can pick up new collets for the Dewlat 611 from a couple places such as precisebits or Elair. The cheapest option would probably be a simple reducer like this one Here.
     
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  8. daisosasen01

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    Thank you for your very quick reply. Yes I have been looking at all those options plus more. precisebits would have been great but $80+ is more then what I can afford at the moment. So ordered your amazon option.
    Thank you for the help! :)
     
  9. daisosasen01

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  10. Andrea79

    Andrea79 New
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    Hi Beardyblair,

    What about the stiffness of your gantry? I honestly think you can easily will find yourself bending the gantry having only a c-beam rail for such a long distance... if you can check this before ordering the plates....

    Ciao
     
  11. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    am
    Sorry for the late replies everyone, been manic here at work. The good news is that the machine is now up and running and is performing beyond my expectations. I too had issues with the collet size of the Dewalt router and so bought a reducer in the end to take it down to 6mm. I May also purchase a 3mm one soon.

    The custom enclosure for the wiring is now complete minus the lid, I awaiting carbon for another job so will use a piece of that.


    Thanks for your comment. Hopefully not too late for you but in short, no, I would not change anything at this time. All I did is extend the axis, add additional supports to the base, make some custom cable chain guides/mounts and purchase a taller set of side plates and work from Kyo's plans. For this build and what I needed it for it is working perfectly. It has opened up more options for my in-house fabrication possibilities and has drastically reduced project and prototyping cost, this has really helped my profit margins and project times.

    I do think that it will be upgraded and probably changed over time to fit my needs though. Probably an improved spindle and side plates with holes to adjust the anti-backlash nuts. I am working on a laser attachment for it at the moment. More on that soon.

    Thanks! My advice would be planning your build and if you are in no rush take time sourcing parts early on. This way you can get reduce your build cost and you won't be waiting on parts to arrive when you get into the build. Take lots of pics and get involved on here, so many people willing to help!

    No worries Gary, thanks for your comments. 1500mm, in my opinion, should not be an issue when scaling up this build. There is some torsional flex in the gantry when the carriage is in the centre but its nothing I would not have expected. If anything its way less. There are ways that have been discussed that will reduce this. My initial thoughts are to use two cross pieces with a carriage that sits between them, you would lose some Y travel though. Everything is a trade off. Good tooling and slower cutting speeds are key, let the bit do the work.

    Hi Andrea, As mentioned above it really is not an issue for me. I mainly cut Carbon Fibre and Aluminium. From my tests I believe I had to put over 10kg of torsional force on the bit holder before I would get deflection, the size of bits I use would fail way before then. It comes down to the right tool for the job, build a machine to fit your needs.
     
  12. Andrea79

    Andrea79 New
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    Hi,

    What parameters do you use when cutting aluminum? Cause I'm really interested in... i have a smaller machine not ready yet but would like to cut aluminum too
     
  13. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    On a 2 flute 4mm flat end mill I use around 16k rpm - (as slow as my dewalt will go), I mist with lube and go slow.

    Ideally you want as much cooling as possible, for me this is not a reality at the moment.
    I use 1 or 2 flute bits to help with chip size and make sure I clear them out as I cut.
    I cut at 40 IPM, I believe others cut much faster.

    Some good articles for reference:
    CNC Routing Basics: Toolpaths and Feeds 'n Speeds | Make:
    Understanding CNC Cutting Tool Speeds & Feeds

    And a calculator to help work out IPM:
    Milling Speed and Feed Calculator
     
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  14. Andrea79

    Andrea79 New
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    Thanks for sharing your parameters, what about the depth of cut?
     
  15. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    Just logged into work server to check.

    Single flute Carbide 3mm end mill
    0.5mm depth of cut
    600mm min speed
    50mm min plunge speed
    16,000 rpm

    If you have a double flute you would need to try to run at 8,000 rpm etc.......
    I burnt up heaps of bits when learning.
     
  16. DavidCNC2017

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    Hi,

    What parameters do you use when cutting CF sheets? For example for 2mm and 2.5mm thickness

    Thank You
     
  17. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    Been experimenting with lots of different settings lately. A lot comes down to the tool paths you use, the size of bits and what you are cutting.

    I use Fusion 360 to generate tool paths, here is my advice for cutting right up to 4mm carbon. I will update once I cut some thicker stock.

    Holes up to 5mm

    Fusion 360 function: 2D bore
    Tool:
    2.5mm bullnose carbide PCB endmill (like this 5 Pcs Tungsten Carbide PCB End Mill 3.175mm Shank 2.5mm Cutting Dia: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools)
    Spindle speed:
    18,000
    Feedrate:
    500 mm/min
    Vertical plunge: 150mm/min
    Settings:
    bottom height -1mm (less if you can get away with it), repeat passes (thin bit seems to deflect slightly so the second pass really helps)

    Full depth contour cuts
    Fusion 360 function: 2D contour
    Tool:
    2.5mm bullnose carbide PCB endmill (like this 5 Pcs Tungsten Carbide PCB End Mill 3.175mm Shank 2.5mm Cutting Dia: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools)
    Spindle speed:
    18,000
    Feedrate:
    500 mm/min
    Vertical plunge:
    150mm/min
    Settings:
    bottom height -1mm (less if you can get away with it), single pass.

    Remove material but not to full depth
    Fusion 360 function: 2D adaptive clearing
    Tool:
    2.5-6mm bullnose carbide PCB endmill (like this 5 Pcs Tungsten Carbide PCB End Mill 3.175mm Shank 2.5mm Cutting Dia: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools)
    Spindle speed:
    18,000-14,000
    Feedrate:
    500 mm/min
    Vertical plunge:
    150mm/min
    Settings:
    leave 0.5mm radial stock, single pass.

    then

    Fusion 360 function: 2D contour
    Tool:
    2.5mm bullnose carbide PCB endmill (like this 5 Pcs Tungsten Carbide PCB End Mill 3.175mm Shank 2.5mm Cutting Dia: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools)
    Spindle speed:
    18,000
    Feedrate:
    500 mm/min
    Vertical plunge:
    150mm/min
    Settings:
    bottom height -1mm (less if you can get away with it), single pass.
     
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  18. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    When I first started cutting carbon I was going too fast with the spindle and too slow with the feed speed and was doing multiple passes. This just created dust and burnt up a lot of bits! Every day is a school day!
     
  19. DavidCNC2017

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    Thanks a lot for Your advise.
    Regards
     
  20. Paulo Diniz

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    Hi Beardyblair,

    I am very fan of your work, I have a doubt about the picture bellow, how many wheels did you have used to assembly the Z-carriage on the V-Slot profile? I can not see in any other picture this detail.

    [​IMG]
     
  21. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    Thanks Paulo! Design kudos go to @Kyo however - I just modified and enlarged it. V2 will all be my own however :)

    All axis that have wheels use 8 wheels on each carriage.
     
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  22. Rosenwasser Benny

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    Hi Beardyblair,

    I’m looking to build also a CNC machine with +/- 1000 x 1000 dimensions.
    At the moment I’m drawing in Sketchup the same setup like Kyo, just scaling up all the axes like your build.

    Maybe I’m missing something, but are the dimension of the 5 x base-frame V-slot profiles of 874mm not a little bit too short?
    For both Y sides I’m missing 6 mm to fit the 1000mm C-beam profile.

    Regards,
    Benny
     
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  23. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    The "short" answer is yes. I found this out when putting it all together. I thought I had updated the spec on my post.
    I used a "custom" 3mm spacer to space out the end plates, its late now and I am not near the machine (and I am full of whisky) but will have a look on monday and update the BOM.
     
  24. Rosenwasser Benny

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    Thanks a lot, now I'm sure I'm on the right track :)
    Benny
     
  25. Rosenwasser Benny

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    Hi BeardyBlair,

    I have another question, would it be possible to share the drawings of the extra large gantry plates?
    (dxf / .f3d / .stl files)

    Thanks in advance !

    Greetings,
    Benny
     
  26. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    Hi Benny,
    I did not design these, I simply purchased them from @Chris Laidlaw via ebay:

    Openbuilds Kyo Sphinx C-Beam CNC Router Plates Stainless Steel Extra LARGE | eBay

    Dealing with Chris was a breeze and he was happy to help in any way. Parts arrived in under a week, can't recommend him enough!

    I have designed my own version that I will make available once complete and tested, these will be a different size and include cable routeing and a drag chain mount.
     
  27. Rosenwasser Benny

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    Hi BeardyBlair,

    Thanks for your reply, no problem at all..
    I saw this eBay-link before, showing 3mm Stainless Steel plates. (coming from the UK)
    I am not sure that they are as strong and stiff enough like the 6,35mm aluminum plates like in your build.

    Because I live in Belgium and want to avoid as much as possible high costs for transport and customs (like from the US), I had the idea to buy them at a locally shop.
    This was the reason I asked about the possibility of sharing the .dxf files of the XL plates.

    I understand you have the same design as Kyo, did you have experienced any disadvantages by up-scaling his setup, or have you other recommendations?

    Thanks again for your time.
    Regards, Benny
     
  28. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    In my opinion 3mm would not be suitable, especially on the scaled up version. There is just not enough meat for the v-slot wheel mounts to go into. I think they would be fine on the Y axis however so maybe you could adapt them in some way? buy two sets?

    @Kyo has supplied the files on his build page so you could import them into your CAD program of choice and make them taller yourself.

    In my case it was cheaper for me to buy them from Chris than it was to have them fabricated locally.

    No disadvantages to scaling up but now that its in daily use I do have a list of things I want to add or change. Off the top of my head:
    • add angled guards to the Y axis to keep debris out of the v-slot wheel tracks
    • change Z axis direct drive to belt driven with reduction. This will give better resolution and reduce overall height of machine.
    • add an enclosure with dust extraction and suction that will allow me to connect a hose to the spindle assembly with different options for dust/debris extraction/removal.
    • replace wooden(MDF) "spoiler board" with a thick stainless steel or cast surface that will include threaded mount points.
    • replace router with spindle now that they are so cheap on ebay :)
    • redesign driver / control box and add external controls
     
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  29. Rosenwasser Benny

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    Wow, thank you for sharing this with us, I will keep this in mind.
    Can you please explain a little bit more about the "Z axis direct drive to belt driven with reduction".
    Do you mean something like on the picture?
     

    Attached Files:

  30. beardyblair

    beardyblair Well-Known
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    Yes, exactly that. When I built the machine openbuilds had stopped making them. Now I can just make my own and include a tensioner :)

    Now they even offer a kit!
    NEMA 23 Reduction / Stand Off Plate Set

    and UK supplier so I may just order one!
    V-Slot Mounts : C-Beam Belt Reduction Plate

    and while I am at it Belgium!
    NEMA 23 Reduction / Stand Off Plate - TronixMaker
     
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