CNC Router Build

S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
#1
Hey all -

As promised, I am going to do a build log for a CNC Router. I have been wanting to do this for many years and finally came up with the time and resources. The end result will be a 50" x 102" router that can be used on anything from wood to soft metals (aluminum) to, of course, acrylic :).

For those interested, the plans are from Kronos Robotics - an engineer that made this machine back in 2012. Great instructions and materials list. Site can be found here: http://www.kronosrobotics.com/krmx02-products

So far, I have purchased everything I need to complete the build. Total build cost will be somewhere around $6000 and should take me about a week to complete. In order to make sure that this is not just another half finished project, I took the week off work next week to give me a full 9 days to build it. So, look forward to a lot of updates....

Shawn
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
Router vs. Spindle.

The plans call for using a standard 3hp Router. Routers have a few drawbacks -

1. They are super loud
2. They are not designed for long running operation
3. The speeds are not easily controllable
4. They have excessive runout (e.g. the bit "wobbles" at the end, removing precision)

The speed and runout issues can be handled by throwing some money at the router and applying 3rd party upgrades. The first two issues are not fixable.

Enter the spindle. A spindle is designed to do just this - long run engraving / routing. Most spindles are paired with a VFD inverter that takes 220v single phase source and converts it to (I believe) a 3 phase output for the spindle. I opted to get a Hitachi WJ200 paired with a cheap eBay 2.2kw water cooled spindle. http://www.ebay.com/itm/252000514024?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

It is almost silent and has much less run out, although I am still going to upgrade the collet and nut to increase precision.
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
#3
Y-Beams

The Y-Axis beams are the hardest to assemble and most important to get right as they set the tone for the accuracy of the rest of the machine. They consist of 111" x 3" x 3" x 1/4" steel angle pieces. Wedged in between these are 8 - 6" x 3" pieces of extruded aluminum that will support the Y-axis rails.

I began using my bench press, but the stroke of the press (3.25") was not enough to go through all three pieces.




I could have had drilled the last of it, but I opted to just get a better / bigger drill press that had a 4.75" stroke to speed up the job and increase accuracy. I still needed to get a super long bit to do the job.




All said and done, each rail will need 80 holes drilled. It took me a full day to do one side.

A side note, steel is heavy, lol. One of my support stand gave out and the assmbly rolled off of the press on onto my foot. Ouch...

 
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S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
#10
Yea - I would love to have plasma as well, but it really requires a dedicated table. Just wood and acrylic for now :).
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
#11
More Y-Axis work

Spent Saturday drilling out the 2nd Y-axis, painting it and assembling. I finally figured out how to embed pics!!





 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
#12
Temporary stand

I figured that I need to build a stand until I can figure out another solution for housing the machine. The stand was based on the plans of the CNC Router's engineer. I have to admit I was not prepared for the size of this thing. I will definitely need to re-visit the final resting place...

While I was constructing the stand, I disassembled and painted the other Y-Axis.

This is just half of the stand!




and the full monty. The extruded aluminum on the stands will be the CNC's foundation.


 
M

mortimersnerd

Cleaner Shrimp
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
#13
szavoda;361701 said:
Yea - I would love to have plasma as well, but it really requires a dedicated table. Just wood and acrylic for now :).
Click to expand...
I don't do enough woodworking to justify one for wood, but would love to have a small one of these for small parts like keyholed flanges and the like. I've got a '71 Bronco that I'm building into a rockcrawler, so the ability to make custom brackets would be really handy. I've thought about branching out into steel aquarium stands and things like that, but I don't really want the liability. It looks like you've got some nice welding hardware sitting on the workbench.
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
#14
Yea - welding is great - did my aquarium stand as well. I have the Mig and Plasma Cutter as well as a TIG, but I yet to learn how to use the TIG effectively...
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#15
#15
Y-Axis mounted

This was the part I was dreading - it meant my hole measurements had to be pretty spot on. But, with the 5/16th bolts into 3/8th holes, I had a little play and everything worked out.

The Y-Axis beams are attached to 8 extruded aluminum cross posts. On that sits a full sheet of 3/4" MDF that will need a bit of another sheet if I want to finish out the bed. On top of that, I will attach some MDF slatwall that will allow me to clamp the work items down. Tomorrow I have to square everything up and then start on the Y-axis guides.





 
H

Highway66

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
#16
I started a cnc plasma table build a few years back, but life got in the way so it got put on the permanent backburner. Not sure your location but if you need anything powder coated for this build let me know I'll slip it in free of charge. I also have resources for getting parts made if you need any help.
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#18
#18
Highway66;361887 said:
I started a cnc plasma table build a few years back, but life got in the way so it got put on the permanent backburner. Not sure your location but if you need anything powder coated for this build let me know I'll slip it in free of charge. I also have resources for getting parts made if you need any help.
Click to expand...
Thanks! - I appreciate it. I was going to powder coat the items, but I was too impatient :)
 
S

szavoda

Butterfly Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#19
#19
Cutting the rails

Time came to cut, drill and paint the rails. The rails are what the X-Axis will ride on along the Y-Axis. They are made of 1/4" x 4" cold rolled steel. The place I bought them from wanted $60 per cut, so I decided to purchase this nice little metal cutting band saw from Harbor Freight. Cost about $250 and does a decent job...





After cutting came drilling. If I never drill another hole, it would be fine with me!! I spent about 4 hours just drilling yesterday.



I was also able to get the rails painted which I will post pics of later...
 
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