T-slot comes home
I've been planning a 4-axis machine in my head for more than a decade now.
Every time I go to put it on paper, I get another idea and end up trashing all my notes.
I have a pretty good idea what I want and the materials I can acquire on the cheap will dictate most of what ends up becoming my completed machine.
I want to be able to do 3 axis machining on a small basis, but also a 4th rotary axis for doing and carving on turnings and 3-D objects.
I've found a lot of good componants and they've come down in price even since last year.
This T-slot is from an old test bench that my Father had gotten and wasn't using. He gave it to me as a birthday gift. What he really gave me, was the birth of my new machine. I figure I've got just enough here to make up the framework of a decent hobby machine.
There's no real budget sitting around for this project, so I'll have to acquire peices out of my monthly budget.
This will be a slow going project. If I finish it within the next two years, I'll be pretty satisfied. For now, this is what I've got.
I spent a couple hours last night stripping this down and cleaning it up. It sat outside for some time and a lot of the bolts and nuts were rusted. They're all now soaking in oil in a #10 can to clean them up.
T-slot is like the grown man's erector set. This stuff is cool. This 2" X 2" stuff is way more rigid than I thought it would be. I've decided to do a double rail framework to make it even more rigid. It should work fairly well I think.
That's it for now. Stay tuned. Take notes. Thanks for reading along!
I've been planning a 4-axis machine in my head for more than a decade now.
Every time I go to put it on paper, I get another idea and end up trashing all my notes.
I have a pretty good idea what I want and the materials I can acquire on the cheap will dictate most of what ends up becoming my completed machine.
I want to be able to do 3 axis machining on a small basis, but also a 4th rotary axis for doing and carving on turnings and 3-D objects.
I've found a lot of good componants and they've come down in price even since last year.
This T-slot is from an old test bench that my Father had gotten and wasn't using. He gave it to me as a birthday gift. What he really gave me, was the birth of my new machine. I figure I've got just enough here to make up the framework of a decent hobby machine.
There's no real budget sitting around for this project, so I'll have to acquire peices out of my monthly budget.
This will be a slow going project. If I finish it within the next two years, I'll be pretty satisfied. For now, this is what I've got.
I spent a couple hours last night stripping this down and cleaning it up. It sat outside for some time and a lot of the bolts and nuts were rusted. They're all now soaking in oil in a #10 can to clean them up.
T-slot is like the grown man's erector set. This stuff is cool. This 2" X 2" stuff is way more rigid than I thought it would be. I've decided to do a double rail framework to make it even more rigid. It should work fairly well I think.
That's it for now. Stay tuned. Take notes. Thanks for reading along!