Introduction

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mike_irving

Mike_Irving
Hi everyone, My name is Mike Irving.

I live in Nevada USA near Las Vegas, where Hass is building their new 2.3 million sq ft (213676.992 sq meters) plant.

I was a machinist for 13 years from 69-84 and ran a old primitive paper punched tape CINCINNATI MILACRON mill/drill.

Just mainly drill, tap and slot as it was all manually programmed no canned cycles back then.

My home built machine is built on linear rod bearings, 1000 mm X and Y and a 400 mm Z. It has ball screws with big NEMA 23 motors on XYZ.

The frame is 2" x 2" x .25 wall steel tubing with a fixed gantry. I have a 5 watt laser currently hooked up to the side of the spindle.

The spindle is a BT30 6000 rpm head, putting a 2 hp DC treadmill motor on it for now, possibly updating to a 3 phase motor with VFD later.
 

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evermech

evermech

evermech
Hi Mike.

Ya like the open linear bearings and centre ball screw nice work. Nice solid frame should do well. Welcome to the forum

Regards. Guy
 
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mike_irving

Mike_Irving
It is still very much in progress I am building a chip pan to go under the table and some type of way covers, maybe the sliding metal type. It is solid over 300 lbs/136 kg of steel in the frame alone.

I went with the linear rods because they allow more misalignment than the flat ones it is pretty close but surely not machined surfaces. I figured if the frame was solid i could always upgrade other parts later.

Mike
 
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machinedude

machinedude
way covers are tricky, i got it but it took some messing around to get it no doubt. i have not had time to even get back to that or work on the gantry build since winter set in. the shop needed some attention in the winterizing area so i have been working on cleaning things up and getting insulation back up in the ceiling so i can stay warm the rest of the winter :)

if you watch some of the service videos from haas it will give you some insight as to how they do way covers. the covers basically have their own set of basic linear guides they ride on. they are a treat to make with limited equipment. it can be done it just has to be worked at to get there.
 
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machinedude

machinedude
the fixed gantry and moving table design works just fine. but it looks like the table is lacking some support for heaver operations and that being more pronounced in the center area. all this just depends on what your making with your machine and what your cutting, for laser work your just fine no cutting forces with that process and if your only cutting light stuff no need to get to crazy there.

i'm guessing you only have a span of around 30 inches so that will help keep things solid but if you would go to a bigger machine bed these are some things that can be tricky to fix with a central drive. i have a 4' x 8' moving gantry build with a central drive and making the table solid was not what i thought in the beginning and ended up adding a lot more steel to the frame to get things where i wanted them. the build started as a plasma build but as i thought about it the idea of multiple heads to swap out for different process came to mind. so the design changes to suite. when i get back to building the table will get a milling head to play with to see how the frame works getting a work out.

things can always be altered or improved if it causes problems. that's the good thing about scratch builds you can always make changes as the situation changes. Plus it's always an adventure along the way :)



since haas is mentioned in here they start their pricing for gantry mills at around 120k so when you think about it if you can build something close for pennies on the dollar for what they want for a machine your that much further ahead :)
 
testyourdesign

testyourdesign

testyourdesign
@mike_irving

Welcome to the forum. I started out on old ribbon fed machines myself back in the mid-eighties. Used to draw up the designs by hand on the drafting board then prepared the G-Code by hand on an XT-PC. The old ribon fed machines were so amazing to us back then. Those were the days!

It looks like fun project you got started there. What do you plan on making with that machine?

Cheers, Stephen Brown
 
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mike_irving

Mike_Irving
machine dude: i do have 4 3/4" square bars on the back of the table to stiffen it up some what. It has about 26"x 18"x 12" envelope.

testyourdesign: Plan on light aluminum machining, some wood engraving. Maybe get back into luthiery and make some ukulele parts.
 
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machinedude

machinedude
Quote from Mike_Irving on January 4, 2020, 5:50 am

machine dude: i do have 4 3/4" square bars on the back of the table to stiffen it up some what. It has about 26"x 18"x 12" envelope.



your travels are about what i have for the VMC style build i first started and will get back to at some point. i built the X axis on 1.5 solid square and have a steel table top that is 1.25 thick. steel is not good for vibrations so i had planned on using epoxy granite to dampen vibrations. part of the reason for the big gantry machine was so i could make molds for the VMC build easier. like i said it just depends on what kind of work you do and how heavy you make the machine to handle your work loads. costs add up quick as the size and rigidness increase so there is no sense adding extra costs if the work load is light.

i think my X axis on the VMC style build weighs around 250 lbs and will probably be over 1000 lbs when done. light machines tend to walk across the floor from vibrations so i try to keep my builds somewhat heavy for home hobby builds for this reason. every machine you build you end up walking away with something new learned.
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