By chance are you going to have a CAD model of the assembly sometime soon? Years ago I worked on a design for a part transfer system using linear rails and ball screws and now that I'm building a machine for myself my first one will be based on wheels and extruded aluminum rails and gantry plate assemblies and as we all know ball screws and linear rails will work better. After I get my first machine built my next endeavor will be similar to yours.
The best I am going to be able to do is post models of the plates that will be used. I am not going to CAD model the machine assembly. The plates are almost completed, however untested, so when I post I will caution everyone on that.
Perhaps I will model the assembly in my spare time...I’m trying to plan for the linear rails in my head. To me it seems if the design incorporated the linear rails mounted to the extruded aluminum rails the design will be very rigid but maybe kind of big. But if you saw a real CNC machine it would maybe help make it understandable as to why industrial machines are relatively accurate.
Looking very nice. I'm currently building a very similar Z axis. Those bearing blocks look like a mucher nicer fit than the ones I crammed onto my machine
Thank you! I'm trying hard to make this happen. Really a great learning experience. Appreciate the feedback!
As an update, great progress over the weekend. Got the Y Axis Extrusions Cut, Tapped and the linear rail added to both of them. The first set of Y Bearing Plates have been cut, and the next move will be to assemble one side of the Y Axis in full. Also designed the plate that rides on top of the ballscrew nut housing and will be what attaches the ballscrew to the gantry plate for Y axis motion.
Did you have to flatten your Al plates? I bought a 100x200x10mm chunk of aluminum - but when I went to use it, I found out it was warped.... Is it possible to buy aluminum that isn't all bent up?
Cast Plates. Cast Plates are completely flat, they have a flatness tolerance of </=0.500” = .015” or better, and that's best you can get. What you want is MIC-6, or ATP-5. I am using cast plates from a German manufacturer.
Okay, thanks for the heads up - this is a hobby for me, I definitely don't have that level of experience and knowledge to know whats what when I'm shopping/looking around at materials.
If you buy your aluminum plate from a reputable supplier, even the 6061 or other extruded aluminum should be flat. It's not tooling plate but it still shouldn't be warped or bent up. There's also a couple ebay sellers that offer smaller cutoffs that I have found to be fairly decent. Maybe your aluminum plate was damaged during shipping....
Hi @CNCMD , great build - I am really interested in getting a copy of the cad files for your gantry plates if at all possible - its because I plan on using a 1610 ballscrew and wanted to see your ball screw placement. Ps any cad files you could provide would be greatly appreciated. many thanks Mike
Great looking machine! Did you mill all your metal work or have it made? What did the ball screws and linear guides run you? What do you do to make your parts look so bright and shiny?
All plates were milled on my previous machine, a Sphinx. The ballscrews were I think $300, and the Rails were about $500, give or take. The plates all had a protective film on them, They are cast plates. I milled with the film on, and then peeled it off.
This is awesome. I really like your Z-axis design. What has been your experience with the Z-axis being mounted perpendicular to the ball nut housing? Do those nuts make the machine rigid enough?
Machine really has been great so far. I've made updates from this build but overall no real changes to the design. Everything had been very solid. Repeatability is excellent.
Some recent changes that I need to get more pics of are as follows: 1) Adding 2nd air nozzle 2) Replacing the wasteboard setup with Misumi extruded plates The next part is going to be to add plexi-glass on all 4 sides to hopefully contain some of the mess.
Great build! @CNCMD will you please share the link of the source where you got the Hiwin linear rails from. Thank you!