Kim, the industrial machines are done as you say but they have spring loaded split pinions, this eliminates any lash between the pinion and rack, without it there WILL always be lash, you will be able to reduce it to a point, but without the spring loading its unavoidable..

I have worked with several different machines in the industry, and I have seen several without any spring loaded action. But I'll see how it will work out, maybe I'll make another set up uprights for belt drive instead. I already have the parts for it just in case this design will not work. :-D

they have spring loaded split pinions :confused:
Got my curiosity on that…..
Can someone bring some photos of this ?
Robert ;)

Tks ;)

Good point gerald. However, this is the helical track from the multicam, and that's not spring loaded as far as I can tell.

You don't a spring to make something springloaded. Sometimes you just use the flex in the mounting to keep a load on the system.

A bit more has happend now. My Y-Car have been mounted, and also the Y rack and pinion system. Working perfectly as it was supposed to. I love when things are going together as they were intended to do. :-D
Enjoy

Will you have any kind of measures to seal the linear bearings from dust? They are infamous for dust choking...

I will be having some kind of dust extraction made at some time, probably a Bill Pentz Cyclone, maybe I'll try and make a rolling curtain in front of the rails to keep dust away. I have however not figured out how to do that yet. :-D

THE BEAST LIVES......

I finally got everything hooked up, motors tuned and so on, and now it have already planed the surface of the table. Next up, I'm going to make my own Cable Carriers from recycled Plastic sheets. :-D

I have a small video on youtube for you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-zbHE3OYKQ

The reason for the change in sound as it planes, is that the ends of the table have been turned around, so now It's has zero position diagonal to the old zero.

Enjoy

Hello Kim,

that looks very nice. congrats with this success.

great machine kim i am also in the process of designing a similar machine to yours . i am really inspired by your design.can you add a 4th and 5th axis to it ?
as this will be so great ?

Great & happy for you….that when up FAST :eek:
Keep us updated !
Robert ;)

Depending on the way you build it, then yes, a 4th and 5th axis could easily be made.
a 4th axis would easily be mounted on top of the surface. It will however only take the maximum dimension of the clearance of the gantry. I reused the table from before my machine was gutted by thieves, so I had to confine my self to the table size I already had. Who knows, in the future I might build another table setup so I can take a wider plate, or maybe a higher Gantry to take it to real 3D cutting.

Hello Robert..

Yeah, it went fast, but I also made the construktion quite easy with my puzzles on the build parts. All things did not need any allignment as it was made to fit together without having to measure anything.

And here's a picture of the entire machine. Almost completely finished now. Only a few things remaining, home switches and things like that.
The wires you see hanging loose underneath are the wires from the previous installation before the thieves were in my garage. :-(

Needed some cable carriers for my machine as I have not been able to find some at the right size and the right price... :-D
So I have embarced on making my own cable carriers in 6mm HDF.
This is my Solidworks rendering of the cable carrier. 42x80mm outisde and 30x68 inside. It can be scaled as wide as I want to.

Nicly done KIM ....and in blue too :D

Very nice machine and looks very solid too. I did the same thing but with PVC. I have never used HDF but wouldn't it be a bit on the heavy side for something like that?

keep up the good work.

Don

Hey Robert.

Yeah in MM blue also. Well almost MM blue. :-D

Don:

yeah the HDF will probably be a bit on the heavy side, but plastic sheets just aren't readily available here in Denmark for everybody. One has to be a registered company to buy from other registered companies.. I bet, if I lived in the states I would have everything come to me very easily.. :-D

We in the sign industry call it Sintra. It comes in 3, 6 and 10mm thickness and is really nice for all sorts of things other than signs. :D

Alot have happend since my last post. Since I did not have any tension on my rack and pinion system, they have been replaced with a nice chain drive instead. This works better than I had anticipated.
I have also mounted my new 2.2kW China Spindle, and added the watercooling for it. All I need to do now, is add my VFD, and I'm almost set to go..

IMHO the chain for the spindle axis can do the trick but for moving the whole gantry I think it will need constant readjustments, looks smallish compared to the weight it need to move.

hi kim i tried to make a design similar to yours. if you have any suggestion
i will appreciate it so much, i didn't finish the base table yet. that doesn't mean i won't make a mechmate one but because i already have a cnc machine i am now making a renovation in it ,then i will go for mechmate thanks for sharing your thoughts

hi kim i really managed to draw the 2.2kw chinese spindle bracket with 2 different back lengths what's your opinion as the previous bracket was for the hitachi router

Hi Myusry

It's looking good.

I'm a bit been on finding out why you are using 2 square tubes to make the gantry. I don't know how large those tubes are, but it seems like they are quite thin. I would imagine it would bend a little over large lengths.
other than that I believe it looks very good.

The router mount should be with the large backplate instead of the smaller one. I have made only the mounts for the spindle, and not the backplate, My backplate is the z axis it self. I have thought of changing that so I can mount and dismount the whole router mount from the front instead of the back.

Kim

I found this last night. If this i a zero backlash system, then it's probably the best ready to install system I have seen until now...

http://leantechnik.com/english/seite...ainframee.html

I'm not sure at the price on this, but it would greatly increase precision on any CNC router if it works as they sat it will. It comes in a variance of models, and can almost be used for all kinds of linear movement.

Hi Kim
with this linear system what happen if something get stock .how will it disengage ?

It will not disengage. The Rails are not made for disengaging.
That feature is a Shopbot/Mechmate thing.