Matthew,
It's nice to see you finally paying attention to us little people in florida.
I have made allowances for the z-slide. For one, I am using alum flat bar with the machined rails for the vertical. Baby e-chain is already sitting on the bench for the air line and spindle power cord. I have also come up with a machined billet of aluminum for the back ribbing instead of 1x2 box for weight and rigidity. Additionally, I have given serious thought to a multistaged telescoping balanced cylinder for the z-stroke balance. I found a really affordable one at Skycraft the other day!

On another note, I don't intend on cutting anything but foam with this long z-slide....so, the moment arm of the z-slide "should" relatively stay in plane (I hope :) )
Neon....what color do you want? Blue or Green? :)

So, Alan. I haven't modeled the spider yet. Did I get it right?

I would maybe dump the back ribbing in favour of front ribbing, if I knew I could get a good connection at A. . . . which is easy with a spindle:

send me the dxf file and I will check it out...

dxf file
 

Can you send me a copy of the dxf file? I will model it probably from plywood. I have a free gear reducer coming that I want to test. I want 9" of travel which is more than any gas shock I can find and the gear reducer is a 20:1 which is extreme but it is free and I am hoping that with it I won't need the gas schock.

Here are two images of the re-worked tall slide, every thing seems to be OK. I can see why you had a hard time getting the file size down, lurking in your file is a 3d version of a motor, not visible in the dxf file but appears when I import it into sketchup :confused:


You might want to check a small detail on the drawing as shown in the image below, the arcs and vert line dont line up properly and there is an extra arc where the two meet.

That extra arc must be from when I stretch it! I knew there was something in the file but I couldn't find it. I even try to reset all layers to 0, and purge. Heck, the file should only be about 50k at most. Thanks for the quick review Alan. I will be cutting a quick sintra PVC mockup this week to double check everything before the final laser part is cut.

Thanks again.
Sean

The cutout for the motor is rather severe. I would be tempted to improve the bracing of the top rollers....back to the furthest corners of the y-car.

Snapper

Why don't you just rotate the z motor 90degrees and mount the rack on the side of the 1x2, that way you don't need the big cut out for the motor and the left side could look just like the right?

Plus wouldn't it be better to have the motor forces pushing against the vee roller axis instead of perpendicular to it?

The "sideways" motor is to leave space in the y-car for a dust hose, or for a second similar z-axis back-to-back with the first one. Motor force direction is not really a factor - this is much less than the cutting forces.

Good bracing would be something like this:

Snapper....hmmm (old college humor for you in the cheap seats)

Matthew,
I did consider it...then forgot everything I was doing because I am do darn busy to think clearly lately. You do have one good point to rotate the motor. I could keep the sides intact and still add the "kickers" Gerald suggested. All these ideas and little time this week to do anything about it!
Everyone Thank Alan for doing the quick sketchup model. :)

Sean,
Any new developments on the new spider design? How did your laser cutout come out? :)

...nothing new. Still trying to push the 3" of water out of my shop at the moment. I really don't like hurricane season.

Sean,
Hope your water problem goes away soon! :)

status ?
 

Hi,
I am new to the forum and I am also interested in cutting foam only and a long z axis.

We are still waiting anxiously for Seans update on the Super Spider long Z. :)

Heath.
Should be this week. Trying to fit the MM upgrades in the the production schedule, Santa and other projects (okay - honey do list). :)

Banter on domestics moved here.

. . . .

This may be off topic, but if two Z carriers were used, what would be an appropriate way to hook up dust hoses? Over the side of the car around the Y axis frame?

. . . . . .

Jack, dust hoses for twin Z's are a major headache - they have to fight for space with the y-motor or with the y-cable chain. (They cannot pass outside the y-car. between the gantry tubes without reducing the y-travel)

Extending Z
 

I have never been really happy with the Z axis. For flat work it is great but most of my work is in lathe mode and ocasionaly it can be driven down a tooth or 2 on the rack. Think of a 14" square by 10' piece of fir running at 100 RPM and being cut slightly off TDC. Not what Gerald designed for. Also had problems with the A axis when running at 4.5:1 but since I installed the 10:1 gear box it is doing fine. I am working on a Z with 10" of travel using a lead screw with 10 TPI Acme thread. It is being prototyped from plywood and will post prictures once I get it running.

Current discussion at ShopBot forum:
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/mes...312/37276.html

Sean,
Any update on the super spider project? Was wondering if you got it together yet? :)

getting closer to reality
 

Attachment 3489

Attachment 3490

Closer....maybe next week I'll be done with upgrades

That's got my attention!

Sean,
Wow that looks interesting, cant wait to see the end results! :) Sorry for the push. :o I know others are intereseted, as I had one cut for someone on the forum. :eek:

Sean,

Wow, I like it. When you get it done I will be at the shop.

Sweet!

How much Z-travel are you planning?

Regards,
John

Usable travel is about 36". Mechanically able to stroke 42", but we will see what I get actually.

I love it!:) Really looking forward to your progress.

Looks like that aluminium (UK spelling) I-Beam should be stiff enough. Are you beefing up the Y-Car/Gantry in some way to keep them from tilting?

Regards,
John