Your on the right track now! :)

Some more progress
 

Heath.

Thank you!. I needed somebody to shine a little light into the situation.

Attached are some of the pictures of the progress of the table. Not quite as nice as SurfCnc's machine yet but pictures of his machine have helped me tremendously. I decided to put 6 legs on the machine instead of 4 since my machine is a little longer and wanted to machine sure it was as sturdy as possible.

I will be cutting and mounting the rails this weekend.

So I have one more question. After putting the whole table together it seems that I am about 1/16" off on on my Y axle. My Y1 distance is EXACTLY 71" and my Y2 distance is 71 1/16". Before I go any further, what can I do? Or should I not even sorry and just worry about getting the X rails within the 1mm variance?

ANy help would be appreciated.

What do you mean when you refer to Y1/Y2? If it is the length of the tubes, then clamp them together, line up and square two ends and belt sand the other two ends square and to the same length. http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2750 and see post #12

If you are referring to the distance between the X-beams at each end of the table, 1/16" is not worth worrying about, when you fix the x-rails down to the top of the beams there is enough wiggle room on the bolt holes to correct that minor discrepancy.

Alan

Great.. Thanks.. I was referring to the distance between the X-beams.

To recap on my machine how I did the X-rails. I fixed the first rail in place. On the other X-rail I added one bolt at the start. The other end more or less in the correct place held down with a clamp....or between two blocks of wood...so it cannot fall off the beam.
Then I added my Gantry on the rail. As I roll it along I added more and more bolts to the X-rail.,,no measuring needed.

If your "error" after welding is only 1/16" then you are doing darn well! Some guys were about 3/8" out and still got their systems to work without too much pain.

One of the next steps is to clamp the rails down parallel and then through drill them to the beams. And then we give more wiggle room by enlarging the holes in the rails for final adjustment. So you still have 2 more chances to get it right on.

Kobus: I like your idea. I think I am going to use that.

Gerald: Thanks. I remember reading somewhere measure "2X cut once", well I thought the X was in roman numerals so I measured 20 times and cut once.

With regards to clamping down the rails, because I have to account for the 1/16 variant at the one end of the table, obviously my "M" measurement at the one end of the table is going to be 1/16 smaller than at the other end since I have to keep the table square right?

On another note, I just burned through my first angle grinder today. Brand new Ryobi 5.5Amp 4.5". It gave up half way through the first X rail. I went back to the hardware store and they quickly replaced it with another one. Hopefully I will have better luck with this new one or I may be looking at a different brand or maybe even something with more amps.

With regards to cutting down the rails, I should make a few passes with the grinder/cutter instead of trying to cut it all in one pass, right?

All start at the end of your post....MAKE A LOT OF PASSES. You It should take about 10-20 light passes to bisect the rail section. If the grinder head is too hot to touch - then your trying to hard. Patience is important here.

Also, cutting with a VERY narrow kerf metal cutting disk will do the job quicker too. Don't cheap out on the Harbor Freight or discount abrasive cutting disk. Many, including myself, have had great success with the Stainless Steel type.

You don't necessarily have to have the table Square - the relationship of Rail to Rail is what is really important.

Just pay attention to your overhang on the angle iron which is the side that holds the rack (for the pinion drive) You overhand must be 1/2" (width of the rack) + just a little so the pinion fully seats.

Sean;

Thank for for clarifying those things.

The only this that remains unclear is that since the difference on my X-Axis width at one end of the table is 71" and 71 1/16" at the other end. I guess my question is, when I set the rails, do I make the rails perfectly square or do I make up for the 1/16" on the one end? doing 1/32 extra on each rail on the side where the difference is? If I dont, my M measurement is going to be off by 1/16. Maybe I am just worrying too much about it .

Miguel, you make the rails perfectly square to each other so that the gantry rolls true. That means that relative to the table, there will be 1/16" variation, either at one end, or splitting the difference; it just doesn't matter because your table is close enough.

Think about placing a window or a door unit into a house. A best effort was made to have the rough opening be true, but you use shims to get the final window install perfect. You don't force the window unit to the opening - that would make it operate poorly. You don't worry about the rough opening.

Don't worry, just follow one of the rail setting procedures above or elsewhere, and it will work out.

Brad, Thank you. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

"doing 1/32 extra on each rail on the side where the difference is?" Yes, that is it.

Put "square" out of your mind - only think parallel for now. (You sort out square with the adjustable end-stops and then you trim the table top with the machine so that everything aligns up at the end)

Gerald: Thank you, Well put. The Square vs Parallel made it 100% clear for me.

So today I cut two of the rails out (in between my kids football games) using the 15-20 passes as somebody had recommended and worked great!.. It looks like i will be using 1.5 disks per rail. These are DeWalt metal cutting disks. I am sure they are not the best quality but I was able to pick them up for around $3.80 at Loews (Only hardware store open around here on Sunday). after cutting down the two rails I noticed I was cutting them at around 30mm instead of the suggested 28mm but I am guessing that's not the worse thing in the world, right?

Doing the rails at 30mm should not be much of a problem...I was 6mm out and had to adjust the motor bracket slightly... I measured 28mm from the INSIDE of the 6mm thick angle iron and not from the bottom.

Priming Had begun
 

It looks like I got everything pretty much cut, driller, bolted and welded on the table. I took the table apart today (After my commute to work lasted 2.5 hrs instead of the normal 12 minutes because of the torrential rain we had) and primed everything. I probably over killed it but I wanted to get a nice coat before the pain tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will start painting the table and touching up any imperfections.

Welded gantry and painted table
 

Today I finished painting the table and finished welding the gantry. I learned a couple valuable lessons today. Lesson #1 ALWAYS use the right paint mask and safety glasses. Out of stupidity I assumed (felt stupid afterwards) that I would be OK using a regular dust mask when spray painting the table. After about 20 minutes I could taste the paint, so I cleaned my face up and went to the hardware store and invested on a good paint mask $49 and a pair of clear plastic safety glasses. The funny part is that at the end of the day I had more red hair than my wife (and she is a redhead) :). So lesson #2, also wear a hat :)

I wanted to thank everybody on this forums for posting their pictures. Today when I was tag welding the gantry I realized that my one "end cap" that is a little different than the other three was in the wrong size of the gantry. I quickly removed the tag weld and fixed it. No harm done... After leveling my table I used it to mount the gantry. It worked perfectly using SurfCNC (aka Ross) method with the threaded rods. Thanks for the pictures!!!.

I know this may be a stupid question, but which drawing has the distance between the Y rails? or what is the distance between them? I am trying to get them drilled and tapped before the weekend but my cold is not letting me think straight.

It's not on the drawings. Search this thread...
http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233

Thanks Steve!!!. That's exactly what I was looking for. I don't have my V bearings yet (coming on Tuesday) but I wanted to get it ready for when they arrive.

Would anybody happen to have a list of the bolts and nuts that I would need for the Gantry and rack/pinions? I am about to place an order with McMaster for the Pinions and I figured I would order whatever else I need to complete everything on the Gantry.

Thanks
Miguel

Sent a PM

Gantry is rolling!!!
 

So today I got the gantry rolling. I received the V-rollers and everything worked perfectly. I need to do a little adjustment with some pvc washers but I think all in all it's sliding pretty smoothly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndPl-VnvJvk

For all of you that are wondering what happened to the red color, WELL, always make sure that your primer is meant for steel :). Within two weeks of painting the machine it was already peeling so I had to sand it down and re-prime it. I bought the primer / paint combination from ebay and you can tell the difference when you apply it with the spray gun. 10 times better.

Tomorrow I will get the Z-car going and getting it ready for the electronics that are coming on Wednesday (THANKS MIKE!).

Hey what gave with the red paint :D ??? ;)

There is more red coming, don't worry :). The problem was that it wasn't sticking the the primer properly.

Where should I get the cable guides from? And does anybody have a specific model that they are happy with ?

There are no hard & fast spec. for the cable chain, as long as
1) it can take in all the stuff you decided to chuck in,
2) the un-supported length is sufficient for your needs
3) fits your bank account.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showt...highlight=igus

Specifications and requirements for energy chain.
IGUS, Kabel are good resources.
Ebay often has energy chain for sale if you look for it.

I have had excellent results with the medium energy chain from IGUS.
outside dimensions of:

1.375 thick
2.85 wide
radius of 100 mm (total bend radius of about 4.5 inchs, 9" approx diameter)

Available from IGUS direct or McMaster carr.

Miguel,
Blue paint sticks better to primer, we all know that. :):D:rolleyes:

Heath.

I was wondering how long it would take fore somebody to make that comment.. hahaha!!!