# Homebuilt CNC Router



## SPalm

*A Journey*

After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.

Do you need one? No.
Should you build one? Probably not.
Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
Is it cool? Oh yeah.



In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.



This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.



I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.



You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.



Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.

This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.

First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.



I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.



I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.



The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:



I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.



I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.



Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.



It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!



But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.

So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.



And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.



Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.



I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.

To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.

The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.



So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.



She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.



For her big brother.



So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.

I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.

LionClaw's


JoesCNCmodel2006's


----------------
Next post, machine # 3
Steve


----------



## dennis

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Heck! I amaze myself when I construct a simple jig. That is just awesome.


----------



## Karson

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


A great looking machine.

Now we want to see a dovetailed box made from the machine. With inlays in the top.


----------



## brad

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


When i saw this masterpiece I started to question my own skills (or the lack thereof). I wonder how I would be at needlepoint?
This is amazing. Great job.


----------



## woodtimes

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


This is amazing. It's one thing to make a workbench, then another to make shop made tools like a lathe or drum sander. This is by far the most complex homemade machine I've ever seen. Well done, and congratulations on a fantastic accomplishment.


----------



## Sawdust2

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Ya';; remember "The Peter Principal"? The idea is to stop at the point where you have reached the limits of your own ability.

I'm stopping where I'm at.

This is just great. But I recognize the wisdom of the four questions.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Thanks guys.

I just didn't know when to quit. I had always cobbled together any jig that I made before. For some reason, this just kept me going. It was such a puzzle.

Karson, why do woodworkers always want to make boxes? My wife constantly asks me that. She has no desire for one. I think they are fun, like little pieces of furniture that don't cost too much to make. There is a technique for overlays in where you use a V-bit to cut the positive and the negative parts, glue them together, and then plane smooth. I need to try that, but SHMBO has me laying floor and baseboard for the next couple of weeks.

Steve


----------



## ww_kayak

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Yup… that CNCZone forum is even more dangerous than this one


----------



## jm82435

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Amen ww_kayak. That is awesome. I am building one too.


----------



## jm82435

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


You are an inspiration and a pioneer. thanks for your work in the home cnc technology. It is nice to have all the software available to make these "DIY". I downloaded your spiro program yesterday off the cnczone forum. I haven't cut anything yet. i am still setting mine up. but i think it will be one of my first projects.


----------



## jem

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Wow great job.


----------



## prez

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Your CNC is so much like the one I bought!!!! I played with it for about a year and produced…"not much", like you said. I decided it was taking too much space in my workshop and sold it….now, 6 months later….I kinda miss the table….the old saying…."shoulda, shoulda kept it" seems appropriate…..I'm coming across projects where the CNC would have worked just great!! Oh well…........


----------



## a1Jim

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool?  Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


The absolute coolest unbelievable


----------



## cwdance1

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Great looking machine. I built one a couple years ago and use it all the time. Took some time to learn the software end of it. Your second machine is a real piece of work. Maybe someday the better half will let me spend money again so I can update to a 4×4 hybrid.


----------



## BritBoxmaker

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Dare I?


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Don't do it, Man. It'll consume you. It is the coolest and hardest thing I have ever built.

It still works great. I just don't know what to do with it. But I love it.
Steve


----------



## bigike

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


nice but I'd rather still buy one when I get the dough to.


----------



## BritBoxmaker

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Steve, I still find myself mumbling into my beard over this and saying crazy things like 'How hard can it be?' to myself. One day I am going to enter the next level of acquisition with this one and then I'll be on the road of no return. Where you either end up bruised, battered and bloodied with a working CNC routing rig or you end up bruised, battered and bloodied without one. Either way with a lot less money and a tale to tell !


----------



## JoeLyddon

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Steve!

Golly, you make me want to try it! But, where would I put it?! The problem… 

Let's see what could you do with one of those…

1. Cut out wooden gears for wooden clocks.
2. Carving Signs and plaques.
3. Inlay parts…
4. Dovetails?
5. Miters?
6. Cribbage boards.
7. Puzzle box parts.
8. Various Designs… flowers, pictures, etc.
9. Scroll saw jobs?
10.
11.
12.
13.
(?)

How much does the software run?
Those stepper motors aren't cheap either… are they?
... as you can tell… I'm cheap.

Thank you.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Hey guys,

Martyn: You got skills. You could do it. It is a very interesting project. Lots of fun to putter with the build. I still love thinking about how I would build the next one.

Joe: Cheap won't get you there. The way I did it is through poor bookkeeping. There are so many ways to build it that the price can zoom all over. I would recommend keeping it really strong and sort of small. Else the costs will rise exponentially: compare this to owning a boat. Software costs can run all over the place. My set of Vcarve and Mach III run about $750. My electronics and motors are about $300. Linear bearings, and anti-backlash nuts, and good multi-start screws, and bearings, and couplings, ....

Now what do you do with it? There are several projects that you mentioned above. These are good. Also things that a pin router can do. Or a surfacing machine for cutting boards that would level and also route in the handles and a blood groove, stuff like that. Repetitive cuts are where they excel, so if you are in production mode…. I've always said that I had more fun designing and building it: compare it to restoring an old car, the journey is a big part of the reason.

It can be really messy. Picture a flying router chomping into its workpiece. Even with a good vacuum dust seems to go everywhere. I would maybe like to enclose it better, possibly in Plexiglas.

Steve


----------



## JoelK

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Well Steve its too late…. I have purchased the Angle Iron and I am in the process of finding the least expensive lead screws and possibly V-Rails I am looking into the cost for the Y and Z axis. I find it interesting that none of the companies that sell this equipment want to post the prices. Makes one wonder if there is a little collusion going on, since they are getting the stuff from China can it really cost that much to have it made and shipped here? I don't think so, oh well that's my 2 cents worth. If it was made in the USA then I could understand the cost. 
Wish me luck ….
I am going to need it.


----------



## DinoWalk

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Wow this is an awesome build! I love how you used machine 1 to build and refine machine 2.


----------



## Jim Jakosh

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Steve. My hat is off to you!!!!!!!! What an accomplishment and without a mill or lathe to machine special parts!! That is a great design and I'm glad to see it working so well. I was very interested to see what you did for back lash. I have never heard of anti back last nuts but in CNC work with all the changes in direction, it is imperative that there is no backlash. I have a mill and metal lathe so if you ever need special parts made for this machine, drop me a PM.
I don't know much about computers and got out of tool making when CNC was just coming in but I did build a duplicator with no CNC needed. I found some 1" ground steel rod and recirculating ball bearings for the travel and it is so smooth . They would be just the trick for a CNC machine. They are very expensive, but I was able to buy them at scrap steel prices .

Very nice job. You can sure be proud of that machine and now you can make anything you can dream up!!
............Jim


----------



## azsawdusty

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


I beg to disagree with the usefullness of a cnc. With my homebuilt machine, my second, a 40 inch table,I have made several blanket chests for family and friends. Each is made with panels with cnc cut figures which added a personalized touch. For my son's, I cut wolves into the panels, For my wife..hummingbirds, for my inlaws..horses,,for my daughter, unicorns.

I cut photos into maple to sell. I cut wooden clock parts.

The cnc is just a machine tool, your imagination is the most important tool.


----------



## routertablehq

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Spalm it turned out great! Looks like it took sometime to put that together and make it work properly but i bet it is totally worth.


----------



## helluvawreck

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


I would love to build one but I probably never will get around to it. Congratulations on your achievement.

helluvawreck
https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


----------



## MichiganJim

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


Don't do it, Man. It'll consume you. It is the coolest and hardest thing I have ever built.

It still works great. I just don't know what to do with it. But I love it.
Steve

Ummmm, use it to cut parts to sell to us!


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


MJim, you have looked into my soul. Be careful of what you might find there 

And all these years later, I still love it.

Steve


----------



## asdfasdfasdfasdf

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


good job


----------



## NikkiBarros

SPalm said:


> *A Journey*
> 
> After posting my Woodworker's CNC Router in the projects section, I received several requests to show how I made it. I debated whether to post something here or just send them off via a bunch of links. I decided to show you the journey that I took over several years and ended up with the machine that was posted. So here goes.
> 
> Do you need one? No.
> Should you build one? Probably not.
> Have I done anything useful with it? Not really.
> Is it cool? Oh yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> In 2004 I stumbled on an Internet advertisement marketing a book "Make your own CNC". I did not realize this was possible. It got me googling and I found a free set of plans call JGRO and a bunch of guys building them. I ordered some stepper motors and a controller board kit, and hit Home Depot. This is what resulted.
> 
> 
> 
> This is called a gantry style machine because of the overhead structure, as compared to a moving table type machine. It is a three axis machine, X is the long one that the gantry moves along, Y is going across the gantry, and Z is up and down. It uses roller skate bearings running on black gas pipe. These bearings were mounted in aluminum angle to form a V. The pipes were suspended with adjustable bolts at the ends. It used threaded rod for the leadscrews and homemade leadnuts made out of delrin plastic. I built it in one mammoth weekend.
> 
> 
> 
> I bought Mach3 (it was really Mach2 back then) as the controller software to take XYZ commands called G-code and turn them into step and direction pulses. I cobbled up an old PC and dedicated it to this purpose.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see the picture of what is being cut; a new router holder for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer.
> 
> 
> 
> Machine #1 was terrible, but I was one proud puppy. The machine flexed like crazy, it was amazing how much gas pipe will flex over a four foot unsupported span. It was incredibly slow and the leadscrew whipped like a jump rope. The backlash, or the amount of slop in reversing directions, was unacceptable.
> 
> This was quite early in the home CNC game and I could not find much on the subject, so I decided to attack each of these problems; flex, whip, speed, and backlash and come up with my own solutions. Enter the prototype for machine #2.
> 
> First attack the flex. The pipes had to be supported and some better construction techniques used. I turned the machine inside out, and supported the pipes with torsion boxes.
> 
> 
> 
> I used machine #1 to cut some struts for the Y torsion box.
> 
> 
> 
> I needed a way to keep the bearings riding on the pipe. So I came up with an adjustable plate that would press the bearings against the pipe by tightening screws captured with T-nuts to move the plate.
> 
> 
> 
> The assembled gantry with the Y carriage:
> 
> 
> 
> I added the same adjustable plate assembly to the inside of the gantry to ride on the X axis.
> 
> 
> 
> I mounted the gantry and the X pipes and checked for a smooth ride and that everything was parallel. A huge success. I could skim the clamped ruler to every corner of the table without an issue.
> 
> 
> 
> Now for some stress testing. To just add all kinds of weight I found a rather large motor and clamped it to the Y carriage, then repeated the skim testing.
> 
> 
> 
> It bound up. By adjusting the pressure plate on the bottom of the gantry, I was able to bring it all back to parallel and complete my testing. Yeah!
> 
> 
> 
> But the gantry was under a lot of pressure and the walls were bowing outwards. I would add stiffeners to the gantry walls later and pull them back vertical. The plate assembly was buckling a bit. It kind of wanted to rip itself apart, but it held. All in all, life was good.
> 
> So on to the Y carriage. I had noticed that it was falling apart with my stress testing. I needed the carriage to wrap around the Y beam and still be strong. I made several attempts at it and came up with gluing thin plywood to the sides of the structure and then using a laminate trimming bit to route out the inside, leaving a one piece skin. Strong.
> 
> 
> 
> And back to stress testing the new carriage. Success. Note the consistent vertical gap between the carriage and the beam. Yeah.
> 
> 
> 
> Now on to the Z axis. I chose to make it removable so I could play with it if needed. CNC guys love to play with their Z. I used polished steel rods with bronze bearings for the vertical rails to make the Z more compact and keep the router from cantilevering out too far. The picture is looking inside the Z from the back as it laying down. The two small blocks of wood have the bronze bearings in them, these are also attached to the face plate and the lead nut. So they go up and down.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to point out here what I did for leadscrews. Three problems need to be addressed; speed of the machine, the whip of the screw, and backlash. Backlash is a bad thing that occurs when you reverse the direction of the motors, which happens a lot. The leadnut must not have any slop in it or bind. I solved this by buying, you guessed it, anti-backlash nuts. They show up in several of these pictures. It is a plastic nut with a flange for mounting. They have slots cut in them, a spring, and a collar that form a very tight nut with just the right resistance.
> 
> To get the speed of the machine up, and the whip down, I went with fewer turns per inch on the leadscrews. Fewer rpms for the screws mean less whipping while kicking up the machine speed. This is a little harder than it sounds. These are ACME double start screws, which actually have two sets of threads. They are 8 tpi, but since the are two start, for every 4 turns of the screw the leadnut moves one inch. Why not just buy 4 tpi screws? Cause they don't make them. Since you want about 6 to 8 threads for a nut to grab on to it would make the nut really long and unstable.
> 
> The next problem for the leadscrews in the hobby arena back then was mounting them and attaching them to the motors. What you want to do is 'fix' them to the frame of the router. A screw can spin upwards of 5 times faster without whipping if it is 'fixed' instead of just spinning in a bearing. The big boys have all kinds of tricks they do with turning down the ends of the screws, but I don't have a metal lathe. So I mimicked their set up and came up with a method of using two bearings pressed into recesses either side of a plate that is firmly attached to the frame. Next on each side is a spacer and then locking collars. Then come Love-Joy motor couplers that have a piece of hard rubber in the center to allow a slight misalignment to affect things. These couplers also allow a transition from 1/2" screw to 1/4" motor shaft. This is then attached to the firmly self-supported motor. This is what those motor 'towers' are all about. Whew.
> 
> 
> 
> So here is Machine #2. Note the stiffeners glued to the gantry walls.
> 
> 
> 
> She then had the job of cutting out some larger router mounts.
> 
> 
> 
> For her big brother.
> 
> 
> 
> So how did it work? Not bad, not bad at all. A pretty tight machine. There are some things that I just wasn't happy with. The gantry could rack or twist. I could hold the left side and push and pull the right side and it would move. The Y carriage could tilt backwards a little bit if I drove the router down quickly (I know, don't do that). The whole machine was held together with tension and that just seemed wrong to me. It used radial skate bearings at a 45 degree angle and that also just seemed wrong. And my version was butt ugly.
> 
> I was posting this on another blog as I built it and quite a few people were watching and helping. Actually this has become a very popular design with at least two people selling kits of pretty similar machines. They will give the plans out for free. There are users groups now. It makes a Daddy proud. Here are CAD renderings of their kits. Google these names if you want to persue. See if you can spot any similarities.
> 
> LionClaw's
> 
> 
> JoesCNCmodel2006's
> 
> 
> ----------------
> Next post, machine # 3
> Steve


It is relay great. Now the question is that, can I use any wood router in this CNC machine or I need a special type of wood router?


----------



## SPalm

*Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*

The next and final version.

I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.



I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.



They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.



I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.


My gantry now looked like this:



I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.



The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.



I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.



I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.



And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.



It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.





And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.



To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.







Take care,
Steve


----------



## Dadoo

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Man, you really impress the hell out of me. Wow. I am humbled. Keep it up.


----------



## woodgizmo

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


What an incredible design.


----------



## GaryK

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Great project!

Looks like you are using steppers and not servos. Do you have encoders on them?

What are you using for a controller?

Gary


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thanks guys.

Gary, they are stepper motors so there is no feedback or encoders. Servos are a bit too much for me to handle. The machine is not allowed to miss a step, and it doesn't. Those motors are really strong. I can barely hold back the gantry when it is moving. They have about 300 oz/inch of torque and 200 steps per revolution. I am micro-stepping them with 16 pulses per step. Each revolution is 1/4 inch (4 tpi), so that is 12,800 pulses per inch. I am still amazed that it all works. The controller is a kit from HobbyCNC.com.

Steve


----------



## gbvinc

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Nice! With this setup, how many inches per minute is the cutter moving? (avg)


----------



## Tangle

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Good heavens this is fasinating. I just wish I wasn't so old, I try to figure it all out. But I'm paying attention and learning.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thanks,

My rapids are set at 150 ipm, or 2.5 inches per second. This is the rate that I can move the router around when I'm not cutting anything. The cutting rate is set by the CAM software depending on what conditions are; depth of cut, type of wood, bit RPM, diameter of the bit, etc. Just like hand routing. I am pretty chicken about pushing it, but I could take it up to the rapid rate if I wanted. Doing something like a mortise at 60 ipm or 1 inch/sec is still impressive to watch, for me. I cut something like that with successive cuts, dropping the Z about 3/8 inch per pass. So the simple answer is about as fast as you would cut it by hand.

Steve


----------



## gbvinc

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thanks for the quick answer! 
What is the max travel on the X/Y and Z axis? 
(Can't wait to start in building mine… it has been on my list for a year now)


----------



## GaryK

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Steve,

Great website. Thanks for the link. Seriously thinking about this. A few questions.

1. Are you plugging this into your parallel port on your PC, or a USB port with a parallel adapter?
2. Does the CAM software just output g-code and then you use a different program to send the code to the controller?
3. Do you know of any software that can take a dwg or dxf file and use that to create g-code?

Too bad about no encoders. If they were being used by the controller it would allow the steppers to skip and not lose their position. I worked with servos in the automation industry and I guess I an kind of spoiled.

Gary


----------



## Sawdust2

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


"...on my list for a year now" Hmmmmm.

Careful. On an earlier post Steve said he built one version in a weekend.

He's got the whole thing planned out. You ought to be able to make if before breakfast on Saturday.

I, on the other hand, am going to sit back, pop a root beer and watch 'cause this is too good to miss.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


"...on my list for a year now"

Don't do it man.
PUT THAT THOUGHT DOWN AND BACK AWAY FROM THE DOOR.

You really have to ask yourself why. What do you want to do with it and how much do you want to spend in dollars and time. For me, I just wanted to do it, and fell into it. I had no expectations or real cost targets. That is probably not a good way to go for most people. I saw it more like the guys who restore an old car. You can't ask them why or how much. They just want to do it. They spend a bundle and only drive it on Sundays, but I admire them for it. Building it drove my uber practical Dad and my artsy Sister crazy. The first argued that I didn't need it, and the second argued that anything that it produced would be just look machine made anyway. I am tired of those arguments.

What is the cutting envelope? I haven't really measured it. The basic size is about 2' x 4' because that is what fit in my shop. It can get kind of expensive to keep increasing the size, just like a boat. A lot of newbies want to cut 4×8 sheets, and they soon find out that will cost a lot of money. Remember flex and whip?

My stepper driver card and controller (Mach3) combination uses Windows XP and a parallel port on a PC of at least 1Ghz. I guess that rules out a lot of modern PCs, or you just buy a cheap PCI to parallel port adapter. USB is talked about a lot, but for the DIY it is not there yet. I am pretty sure that a USB to parallel dongle won't cut it.

The main purpose of a CAM program is to convert DXF, EPS, and other line art type files (for 2D) to a G-code file. The fancier ones also help you pick feeds and speeds along with a simulation. I do this upstairs, copy the G-code file to a flash stick, carry it downstairs and feed it into the machine. A .dwg file is more like a .doc file. It is a design file that contains much more info than is needed. So you export it to DXF from your CAD program. For 3D (think carving) the CAM input file is more like a mesh file. The output is still G-code. Go to Vectric.com and download their demo. It was originally a sign making CAM, but it has a user friendly look and feel and you can get a better idea how this all works.

Steve


----------



## gene

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I had just sent you a PM in regards to another forum question, when I saw this. This is truly fantastic. Great Craftsmanship and detail.
God bless


----------



## bbrooks

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Great job Steve. Keep it up and we will see a new CNC router on the market!


----------



## Alexon

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hi, I am Brazilian and living in Brazil! His CNC was fantastica, would pass the measures of CNC (X, Y, Z)


----------



## Karson

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift.  So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Great job. Nice design.


----------



## Russel

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Wow. A most impressive piece of equipment.


----------



## rikkor

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Holy cow! What a project.


----------



## webatxcent

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I love what you have done and would love to build one myself.

This certainly brings back memories for me as many years ago I was contracted by an electronic equipment fabrication firm to write the software to control/program their printed circuit board scoring machine. The firm used a PCDSP card from Motion Engineering so we didn't have to write PID algorithms we did have to tune them. Unfortunately the boards ME had were in the 1000's of dollars so not necessarily suitable for the hobbiest.

I am not familar with G-code. Does the kit you purchased support this out of the box?


----------



## sbryan55

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Steve,

It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of this site. This is absolutely wonderful and I look forward to seeing you put it into action.

Wow!!!!!!!!!


----------



## roman

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


People climb mountains because they can, because the mountain is there and I admire those who do.

Most people talk the walk, few walk the talk…........my hat is off to you!

Wheres the vacumn to hold the workpiece down?......how do you hold the work piece down?


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thanks guys. I need to find time to get back to using it. I am in the middle of a complete shop re-do right now. The shop that is in the pictures now is over twice the size, with new tools (Yea!), and is taking more time than I want just putting it in order. So many things to do, so little time.

Bill, 
G-Code is *the *language that most CNCs use. It is analogous to Postscript or PCL. It is the intermediate command language between a CAD system and the hardware controller. For most systems it is a three step process. So the workflow is kind of like this:

1) Draw something in a CAD system, and save it in DXF format.

2) Take this DXF file and read it into a CAM program. The CAM program will let you pick the size of router bits, determine the feed speed, and figure out the XYZ commands to follow to cut out or carve your part. Many allow simulation to allow you to see if it will all work out. This is all saved in a G-Code file.

3) Take this G-Code file and feed it into the controller. In my case this was another PC running a special program that would control the stepper motors to move around and route out the design. A simple driver board connected this PC to the motors.

As far as I know, the CompuCarve contains all of this in one box. It does not use G-Code but instead its own proprietary version. Many CNC people think this is one of it's big down falls.

Roman,
Building it was quite a ride. I was obsessed with it, maybe not a good thing  A Vacuum press hold-down system would be nice. Someday. Right now I have T-tracks mounted in the table. I also have the front vise. I am pretty excited about this vise for mortising and dovetail type stuff. It is pretty unique as far as CNCs go. This use interests me more than 'CNC carving' uses.

Steve


----------



## North40

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I used to work on a CNC high-def plasma machine, so I can appreciate how much effort went into building this - lots and lots of effort! Your straightforward design and explanations make it seem much simpler than it is.


----------



## DannyBoy

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


That's pretty cool, man.


----------



## jm82435

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


The outboard vise is brilliant, I haven't seen that before but what a great Idea! That is the most beautiful cnc I have ever seen.


----------



## decoustudio

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


It's been said above before, but this is really a nice blog. Good work, and the machine is impressive. I'm a bit confused over the software side of this project, but the rest of it makes sense to me. Maybe I'm just so out of date that the computer action is overwhelming to me.

M


----------



## Billp

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Ive read you blog about your adventure building the cnc machine. I love your tanasity and creativeness, it does not matter if you will you it that much or not it was just something that had to be done. Congrats!!!


----------



## a1Jim

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


This an amazing CNC I can't imagine making such a great tool, fantastic job


----------



## jhatcher

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


brings me back to when I made my cnc, looked pretty much the same, except aluminum plate for the Z. I was using the motors and such from hobbycnc which were nice since they came in a bundle. My only drawback was that I was using 2 screws on the Y with only 1 motor and a toothed belt. Worked great for small setups, but then I got big headed and tried a 6' version and that's where the problems started.

If you plan on cutting through at any time, I took a sacrificial board and made a g-code to route on all the area with a 3/4 bit to "plane" it, then you have a perfectly parallel surface and can set the depth just a bit below the bottom of the workpiece.


----------



## darl

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Great machine! How hard is it to learn the computer aspect of setting up and running one of these? I won't have trouble with the mechinical aspect of it. Darl


----------



## davidf

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


This machine looks very well designed and built, great job!

A while back I worked on a machine that a company was trying to sell that looks almost exactly like this except made out of metal:









I think you might find it interesting. The metal design uses the same concept for v-bearings, leadscrew, and anti-backlash nuts and how they are all mounted and put together. I think the version in my picture was built around 2006. I ended up using LinuxCNC (EMC2) to control the machine and we could mill/surface 6061 aluminum and abs plastic as well as wood, although feedrate in metal and plastic was fairly low (around 0.5-8 ipm depending on depth of cut). Rapid was around 180ipm.


----------



## Evelinda

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


GREAT JOB, ever since these cnc bots came out I have been interested in purchasing one but they are really out of my league financially, my hat is off to you. As a female I consider all the time and effort that went into the project and am in awe of such a feat. I enjoy the talent of those that can attempt such projects and follow through from the concept and the finished model. You are very blessed and I enjoyed your postings.
Good Luck with this.


----------



## hondaman900

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Will you be providing your design for others/sale? I was looking at a new design that launched recently as a project on kickstarter.com (search for "CNC").


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hey Honda,
I don't have any plans. I built it as it went along. These posts, I think, show that.

The design that you pointed to seems really flimsy, and I don't think it ever got off the ground, past the prototype stage. After playing with my first two attempts, I realized that *strong *was one of the main goals, and I put a lot of effort into that. A flimsy or flexing machine is really really bad, in my humble opinion.

You have to ask yourself why you want one. They are extremely cool, but watching the hobby CNC world for many years, there is not a lot of practical use other than sign making (which it is really good at). I keep looking for applications.

Also good software is expensive.

Update: I was using it just last week and it still works absolutly fantastic. And it still creates a lot of dust.
Steve


----------



## toledo1156

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Great design. I am really impressed! However, I do have two simple questions;
1. What type of laminate did you use to strengthen the gantry sides?
2. Did you simply wire the two Z-axis stepper motors in parallel, or was a separate driver required for the second motor?

Thumbs up on your design. It seems to be the best one yet.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hey Toledo,
Thanks for the kind words.

The gantry walls were made from MDF with Formica laminated on both sides using Tightbond III glue. This seemed to result in a very strong panel. I edged it with iron-on birch to make it look cool and keep out the moisture. Years later I am still really impressed with the rigidity of this type of panel.

I used a separate hardware driver for each of the motors on the long axis. I then 'paired' them in the Mach III software driver program.

Steve


----------



## Spede18

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hello Steve,
Your machine is awesome!
Simple and to the point while staying rigid.

I am wondering how you attached the rails that the X axis rides on.
I assume it is screwed in below the deck?

Also are you using regular bearings on the bottom of the X axis to run along the angle?


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hey Spede,

You got it. The large angle iron is attached to the bottom of the torsion box and yes I used regular skate bearings on the bottom of that iron.

If I was to do it again (I built this a long time ago) I would use two small angle iron beams on each side with Vbearings running on top and bottom of it - like I did on the Y axis. But hey, this does seem to still work after all these years.

Thanks for the compliment,
Steve


----------



## Spede18

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thanks for the confirmation.

Your CNC is my platform for a design I am working on.
A few modification I will be making but the machine will be similar in size and design.

I will most likely be using a V rail instead of the angled iron.
A little more expensive but I think easier to setup and install.

~Jeff


----------



## Spede18

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


If I do choose to use angle iron how did you mount the rails on the Y axis?
Can't see the back side so not sure what you did there.

Also wondering do you think your machine could mill aluminum?


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hey,

The rails on the Y are angle iron with the V pointing up or down. They are resting and screwed to 3/4" plywood strips that are bolted through the Y torsion box. There are long bolts that have nuts on the back of the box holding these strips. (T-nuts located inside the box would work too, but I did not plan for this) This allows the two rails to be adjusted individually.

I have not tried aluminum. I suppose it would work, but real messy. Aluminum is softer than some hardwoods.

Steve


----------



## brussel

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I have gotta build me one of these!


----------



## squeeze

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Love the machine! One question though: what do you mean by "yellow glue"?? PVC cement is the only glue I know of that is yellow.

Thanks!

J


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Hey squeeze,

Thanks.
I always used the term yellow glue to mean just plain old wood glue. Like Titebond.

Steve


----------



## squeeze

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve





> Hey squeeze,
> 
> Thanks.
> I always used the term yellow glue to mean just plain old wood glue. Like Titebond.
> 
> Steve
> 
> - SPalm


Cool! Thanks for the info Steve! Following your design, I too laminated the gantry legs on mine. Still need to finish the rest though!! My career is interfering with my hobbies, totally unacceptable!!


----------



## DavidWon11

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I have been loking at and for some really good CNC plans. I like the bench to your first set of plans and I really like the plans for the updated gantry, is there a way that you could send a copy of those plans. Do you have any measurements and any notes on how you built the gantry. I have been studyng the photos, I have worked through some of it but there is some parts that I am struggleing with. Any help would be appreciated. My E-mail is: [email protected]


----------



## DavidWon11

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I was wondering if you had the measurements that you used for this ganty that I could get, it would help in trying build this rather than trying to reinvent the whole project.


----------



## DavidWon11

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I am trying to figure out how did you attach the two motors to the long drive screws the photos only give so much information?


----------



## DavidWon11

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


I do have a question how did you attach the step motor to the lead screws? It looks like you have a good bit of hardwear in there. So far that is the part that I am having difficulty figuring out.


----------



## SPalm

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


David, you need to join a cnc group like cnczone.com
This was built a long time ago and I had no plans. I just winged it.

The motors are attached as following 
Motor
Lovejoy coupling
Lock coupler 
Spacer
Thrust bearing
Wood
Thrust bearing
Spacer
Lock collar 
....
Anti backlash nut attrached to the gantry 
....
Wood
Thrust bearing
Spacer
Lock collar

The concept it to hold the screw rod in tension so it will not whip around when turned.

Steve


----------



## DavidWon11

SPalm said:


> *Simpler, Stronger, Prettier*
> 
> The next and final version.
> 
> I needed to address some of the problems that I noticed from before. Complexity needed to be reduced. Some of the racking and shifting needed to be addressed. I wanted to remove the concept of keeping all the skate bearings so tightly pressed against the rails. And it needed a face lift. So I came up with a new (is anything new?) design.
> 
> 
> 
> I kept the leadscrew and motor combination along with the torsion boxes. I got rid of the box below the gantry to let the bed lay flat on the table top. The sides were to lose the stiffeners by using a different strengthening technique. The wrap-around Y carriage was to turn into a flat plate. And I went with V-bearings for the linear rails. These bearings are actually fancier than they look. They have two rows of ball-bearings to be able to take both lateral and radial pressure.
> 
> 
> 
> They were to ride on angle iron as the official V-rails were beyond my pocket book.
> 
> 
> 
> I spent a fair amount of time trying to find a way to make the gantry wall stronger. I actually tested various plys and MDF combinations. I found out that 3/4 inch MDF skinned with laminate on both sides yielded a very strong panel. I also found that yellow glue was better than contact cement at holding it all tight. This combination actually makes a small torsion box, which is a substrate tightly coupled to skins on both sides. I edge banded them in maple to keep out moisture.
> 
> 
> My gantry now looked like this:
> 
> 
> 
> I went with dual motors on the long axis to virtually eliminate any racking and more tightly couple the drive mechanism to the bearings. I used wooden standoffs to attach the motors.
> 
> 
> 
> The leadscrews where coupled to the anti-backlash nuts with wooden holders on each side of the gantry.
> 
> 
> 
> I attached the Y leadscrew to the carriage underneath the Y torsion box to get it out of the way.
> 
> 
> 
> I used the removable Z from the last machine and mounted it on this one.
> 
> 
> 
> And then added dust collection. A must needed addition.
> 
> 
> 
> It was all working pretty darn alright. But there were a few things that I decided to upgrade. The V-bearings for the Y carriage were digging into the edge of the angle iron. I solved this by adding a few wooden strips and mounted the angle iron with the angle facing up. This vastly improved its ride. I had also noticed that sometimes the steel rods and brass bushings for the Z were sticking, so I switched them over to V-bearings as well.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And finally I cut the plate across the front of the machine and added an end vise for vertical board routing.
> 
> 
> 
> To those who are still hanging in there: On a different note, before I had the money to buy a CAM program, I needed something to use for test cutting. So I wrote SpiroCNC. I think alcohol was also involved. It would generate G-code for spirographs and other geometric designs. It was kind of stupid fun and is still used a bit by people in that same situation. I did also use it to generate some rosettes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Take care,
> Steve


Thank you steve dor the information you gave me. This gives me something to work with, also thanks for the web address.


----------



## SPalm

*Routing Large Mortises*

OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.



















I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.

So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.

This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
























Steve


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## gator9t9

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
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> Steve


Pretty Darn neat …..oh yes ….
Mike Bonney Lake


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## GaryK

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
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> Steve


Very cool!


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## motthunter

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
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> Steve


extremely cool


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## damianpenney

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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 Cool


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## Max

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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That is really slick…..


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## teenagewoodworker

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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> Steve


wow that is amazing. fantastic job!!!!


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## sbryan55

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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Steve,

This is great. You have done well with this.

Thanks for sharing.


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## jm82435

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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> Steve


Like staring into a fire, there is something mesmerizing about watching a CNC run. You have two motors driving your Y axis. Is this for rigidity? Does each require its own stepper controller? Where did you get your leadscrews and ant-backlash nuts? You are obviously a Vcarve Pro user now, have you used other Cam Software? Bobcad for example? We use EdgeCam at work ($$$), my buddy uses Bobcad. I am just getting my feet wet with my router (the 3 axis are moving- no spindle yet (I have a sharpie road runner ha ha)(still working up to a spiro-graph speaking of cool software)). For the capability and price points Vectric looks like a great deal. I can't wait to try them out (the different Vectric flavors - Photo looks really cool). I love your design, I especially like the vertical vise on the end.


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## Karson

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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Great job. Cool video.


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## greener

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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I knew that I recognized that name (spalm) from the cnczone. Great machine, thanks for sharing. I got mine finished and I've been playing with alot of the same sort of things. I'll have to add some blog post of things that I've been playing with.

Nice to know that your here as well.

Brian


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## jm540

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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I have been watching a guy I found googling build your own cnc router is this the same machine


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## JMatt

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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I imagine he's using 2 steppers on the Y-axis to avoid racking. My machine has belt drives and two motors on the Y. Fast, fast. Good job. Want to trade notes some time? I'm still a rookie at the CNC.


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## LoneTreeCreations

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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> Steve


He uses two motors on the "X" axis, the long one. You don't need dual motors on the Y. It's is a very nice machine for sure. Working on my second now.


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## JoeLyddon

SPalm said:


> *Routing Large Mortises*
> 
> OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
> 
> So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2"x2.5"x2" mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
> 
> This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
> 
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> Steve


I just noticed…

This all happened about 11 years ago!

A lot has changed in that time…

I am seriously studying an economical CNC system… I think it's very possible NOW!

A HUGE amount in Software Cost will be taken to ZERO by using Fusion 360… which will handle the Product Design (CAD) as well as developing the G-Code for the CNC machine (CAM) ... including tool changes, etc. Feeds the G-code to Control board and Stepper Drivers feeding the stepper motors.

Major costs will now be The Main Carriage / Gantry and Hardware…
The electronic handling boards processing the G-code…
Stepper motors; 4 Nema23 425 oz. and 4 driver boards…
Power supplies; 1-3 of them.
Hook-up wire, solder, etc.

I have some 8020 aluminum parts that may be used for X & Z axis's… Perfect for this use.

I am still studying various things… and trying to learn my FREE Fusion360 design software (CAD)...

It may endup to be TOO MUCH $$$... BUT, it sure looks more possible NOW than it did 11 years ago!


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