AshOnMyTomatoes wrote:
Dread Lörd Kaolian wrote:
This:
arrived today. This being a 15" x 24" x 5" travel 3 axis (for now) milling machine. With which I will make things. And stuff. This is the larger model in action: mine is smaller than this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRmZG1RXfQ
Eventually, once I get all the parts hooked up, I'll be able to make things similar, though somewhat less elaborate, to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmiIeAkE-o out of anything up to aluminum in hardness. won't be fully operational until the end of the year given the need to purchase several key parts.
Hope you didn't pay too much for it. I have no doubts as to its performance or anything, but its built out of some pretty standard parts that anyone can buy.
In all seriousness, though, that's a fairly neat setup. I assume those holes on each axis are for actuators? Is this thing going to be manual or programmable?
Edited, Jun 25th 2010 7:29pm by AshOnMyTomatoes I got a really, relly good deal on it. If I had access to the machine tools, I possibly could have built one cheaper, but not much. Especially not with the powder coated frame, etc. Origionally I was going to do that, building one similar to the 5bears cnc bench mill ( http://www.5bears.com/cnc.htm ), but in the end, I figured a couple hundred dollars over parts cost for a very well put together frame that I know for a fact is in allignment was going to be a better idea than my trying to build one and possibly having to redo things because of mistakes. Ball screws and linear rails are fairly expensive, even for the "cheap" ones. I am missing one crossmember at the moment. Apperently they forgot to attach it. but so far thats the only thing i've ran across that was an issue, and they are sending me that along with the router mount.
I am planning on making a few improvements on the basic design. Swarf Shrouds for the rails so they don't get gummed up, home and limit switch mounts, a 4th axis on the base frame once the table top is aquired, etc. Maybe a tool changer someday.
The holes are the axis actuators. the machine takes NEMA 23 stepper motors or servo motors using the same mount pattern. It is a belt drive unit as opposed to direct drive, but given that the motors should just be positioning the unit, and not trying to torque it into place by force, that shouldn't be an issue. I'll probably make up some belt guards just in case though too.
I'll have the whole thing hooked up to a gecko G540 4 axis controller, most likely the black unit at the bottom of this page: http://www.kelinginc.net/ControlSystem.html . Given the amount of electrical work and the cost, i'm definitly going to hire that bit out. I'm ok with a soldering iron, but i'd rather get that part right and get a properly wired setup than botch it and fry something. The controller will be attached to an older laptop which I already have. Haven't decided on the router i'll end up using. Probably a repurposed porter cable or bosch unit for now, maybe something a bit more robust later.
My design background is a mix of hobby, some 2d professional experiance (drafting survey plans and house plan changes, etc.), and a bunch of 3D work when I was in college still on the aerospace engineering path. I'm mainly familiar with Autocad, though I do have access to Microstation as well through the home use program offered by the Other Job. So essentially enough to get by, though i'm sure I have some glaring ommisions in proper design. I got to use a milling machine for about a year in high school, been wanting to get my own ever since.
I'll definitly keep you in mind though. May be able to work out some design / machine time trades or something if you had someting you wanted made that was within the capabilities of the machine.
My initial plans for it once it is fully operational, aside from the requisite death rays, are to focus on low volume, high return thingies. One of my areas of expertise is in flying radio controll things. Mainly helicopters. There is a huge market for aftermarket carbon fiber parts for helicopters and whatnot. My little brother also plays the viola, and apperently there are next to no electronic violas out there. something like that would be easy to make. Or high end billet computer parts (fan grilles, etc). Maybe even high detail part sets for plastic models (high detail resin aftermarket engine or cockpit sets for WW-II aircraft for example)
I'm sure future generations will look back at this post and wonder, but attaching a robot capable of making other robots and weapons to a microsoft operating system computer seemed like a good idea at the time. Honest!
Edit: link fix
Edited, Jun 25th 2010 6:33pm by Kaolian