CnC construction

[savagecreature]

I was talking with Rhyno45 the other day. When he asked me what I was up to I explained that I was building another CnC and sorta just filled him in on some of my progress. At the time I had only completed a single roller block and I shared a photo of it with him.

Rhyno felt that I would be remiss if I didn't share the entire build process, not only with him, but with the larger community. So this is my build thread for this CnC.

I'll state right out of the gate that it's pretty much just the Mostly Printed CnC.  I tend to modify things, change them up a little in ways that I think will work better, but so far I'm following pretty darn closely to the original design.

This is the original image that I shared with Rhyno and Pakrat in that initial conversation:

Here's the current state of affairs, parts wise:

I've got all four of the roller block assemblies printed and assembled and I'm working on the center spindle assembly, which are the parts that can be seen on the left. 

Really the only issue worth mentioning so far is that it's been difficult to get some of the bolts in the correct length at my local hardware store outlets. They have bolts either a quarter inch too short or a quarter inch too long as the bolts the design specification calls for are one and a quarter and one and three quarters.  I mention this only because, though I would normally just go with the longer size and not worry about it, the design doesn't leave room for longer bolts in most cases, so you have to find the correct size or it simply doesn't work.

Otherwise everything is going pretty much as predicted and I'm thoroughly enjoying the process.

[Rhyno45]

I was talking with Rhyno45 the other day. When he asked me what I was up to I explained that I was building another CnC and sorta just filled him in on some of my progress. At the time I had only completed a single roller block and I shared a photo of it with him.

Rhyno felt that I would be remiss if I didn't share the entire build process, not only with him, but with the larger community. So this is my build thread for this CnC.

I'll state right out of the gate that it's pretty much just the Mostly Printed CnC.  I tend to modify things, change them up a little in ways that I think will work better, but so far I'm following pretty darn closely to the original design.

This is the original image that I shared with Rhyno and Pakrat in that initial conversation:

Here's the current state of affairs, parts wise:

I've got all four of the roller block assemblies printed and assembled and I'm working on the center spindle assembly, which are the parts that can be seen on the left. 

Really the only issue worth mentioning so far is that it's been difficult to get some of the bolts in the correct length at my local hardware store outlets. They have bolts either a quarter inch too short or a quarter inch too long as the bolts the design specification calls for are one and a quarter and one and three quarters.  I mention this only because, though I would normally just go with the longer size and not worry about it, the design doesn't leave room for longer bolts in most cases, so you have to find the correct size or it simply doesn't work.

Otherwise everything is going pretty much as predicted and I'm thoroughly enjoying the process.

That is so cool!!!

[kresty]

Is there a link to the plans?

[savagecreature]

Is there a link to the plans?

In the first post. The blue text that looks like it might be a link.

Mostly Printed CnC

[savagecreature]

another batch of parts. On the right, fully assembled spindle bearing assembly, on the left, four corner blocks for the frame, bottom center, Z axis motor mount.

[kresty]

Is there a link to the plans?

In the first post. The blue text that looks like it might be a link.

Mostly Printed CnC

Oh, I can't get away with reading the pictures?  Duh.

[savagecreature]

I'm almost done with all the printed parts. I got to printing the legs and discovered that when I print the files provided the conduit won't fit where it's supposed to. I tried everything. Ultimately my efforts ended up destroying the part. Instead of just printing yet another and destroying that one, too, I fired up Solidworks and created a new model for the part.



The provided models are .stl, which aren't editable, so creating a new one from scratch was pretty much my only choice. I tried to make the new one as much like the old one as I could, just with properly sized holes and fittings so everything would go together like it was supposed to.

Once all four of those were printed that left only the feet to be done. I printed one and discovered that it, too, had the same fitting issues that the top of the legs did, so I'll have to rebuild that model as well.

I wasn't wildly excited to do that right away, so I cut all the conduit lengths instead. Then I took all the parts I currently have and put them together to see what it looked like.

This is what I've got so far:

Currently it has a 36 x 36 in cutting area and a foot print of 47 x47 in.  Now that it's put together that's a lot bigger than seemed in my head, so I don't know if I'll leave it that size or trim it down later.

[kresty]

? I've imported STL into blender and other programs - granted it's not always great, but they import (sometimes). Looking good! What're you going to make with it?

Lemme guess: you're building CnC's with a 3D printer - so you'll build a 3D printer with your CnC?