DICKEYBIRD
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2007
- Messages
- 653
- Reaction score
- 47
Im starting this thread to (hopefully) keep moving me forward on this long overdue CNC machine for my shop. The thread was named after Vedersteins post about his saving several linear slides from the dumpster at his day job. He made me a deal I couldnt refuse on three of them that he had left over. Thanks Ved, you're awesome!
It all started with a plan to upgrade my old homemade MDO plywood & drawer slide CNC router built way back in 94. I started doodling around in TurboCAD to best utilize the slides to improve the router. One thing led to another & the decision was made to build a new machine utilizing a heavy-duty table I stumbled onto on ebay.
Its aptly called a Brute machine base made by the American Grinding & Machine Co. in Chicago. I got this one for $315 which I think is a steal. It came with 1 large electrical box and a smaller one on the other end. When I opened the boxes I found a bunch of DIN rails, cable tracks, wiring, a 3A 24vdc power supply, a 30A contactor, a bunch of 12ga stranded wire, DIN mount fuse holders and a ton of DIN mount terminal strips. It was way more than I bargained for.
That stuff is just icing on the cake though. Man oh man, is this thing is SOLID. Its an all-welded design made with 3 square, ¼ wall tubing with blanchard-ground ¾ steel top & feet. I feel pretty sure its stress-relieved before the grinding is done and the fit & finish quality is great. The specs say +/- .001 over the entire 24 square top & it checks out with the straight-edge we have at work for checking cylinder heads. It weighs over 400 lb. What better foundation for a CNC machine! I dont know if I should call it a heavy-duty CNC router or a medium duty CNC bridge mill. Im thinking the latter until proven otherwise.
I had it delivered at work where I had some help flipping it over so I could drill the mounting holes for the casters. (Rated for 900 lbs. each) I have been accumulating other stuff for the project: 6 - THK linear slides, 3 - 425 oz/in stepper motors & 4amp drives, a 36v switching power supply (probably build my own 48v linear supply later especially if I build up a 4th axis) a dual parallel port card to go in the Dell XP PC I fixed up for it, an LMS Sieg X-2 mill head/R-8 spindle to be powered by my trusty treadmill motor & KB speed control. The gray posts in the background will be used as part of the fixed y-axis bridge. Theyre 3 square ¼ wall tubing with welded 3/8 flanges on one end. Im still working on the bridge design and my plan is for the whole thing to be bolted & doweled together so I wont have to deal with welding/stress-relieving/issues. Im sure Ill hear complaints about the Mach3 P/Port control & that it should have servos instead of steppers but at the sad state my hobby-budget is now in, its all I can afford. Itll be a slow process over the next 6 months to a year but at least the process has started, yay!
It all started with a plan to upgrade my old homemade MDO plywood & drawer slide CNC router built way back in 94. I started doodling around in TurboCAD to best utilize the slides to improve the router. One thing led to another & the decision was made to build a new machine utilizing a heavy-duty table I stumbled onto on ebay.
Its aptly called a Brute machine base made by the American Grinding & Machine Co. in Chicago. I got this one for $315 which I think is a steal. It came with 1 large electrical box and a smaller one on the other end. When I opened the boxes I found a bunch of DIN rails, cable tracks, wiring, a 3A 24vdc power supply, a 30A contactor, a bunch of 12ga stranded wire, DIN mount fuse holders and a ton of DIN mount terminal strips. It was way more than I bargained for.
That stuff is just icing on the cake though. Man oh man, is this thing is SOLID. Its an all-welded design made with 3 square, ¼ wall tubing with blanchard-ground ¾ steel top & feet. I feel pretty sure its stress-relieved before the grinding is done and the fit & finish quality is great. The specs say +/- .001 over the entire 24 square top & it checks out with the straight-edge we have at work for checking cylinder heads. It weighs over 400 lb. What better foundation for a CNC machine! I dont know if I should call it a heavy-duty CNC router or a medium duty CNC bridge mill. Im thinking the latter until proven otherwise.
I had it delivered at work where I had some help flipping it over so I could drill the mounting holes for the casters. (Rated for 900 lbs. each) I have been accumulating other stuff for the project: 6 - THK linear slides, 3 - 425 oz/in stepper motors & 4amp drives, a 36v switching power supply (probably build my own 48v linear supply later especially if I build up a 4th axis) a dual parallel port card to go in the Dell XP PC I fixed up for it, an LMS Sieg X-2 mill head/R-8 spindle to be powered by my trusty treadmill motor & KB speed control. The gray posts in the background will be used as part of the fixed y-axis bridge. Theyre 3 square ¼ wall tubing with welded 3/8 flanges on one end. Im still working on the bridge design and my plan is for the whole thing to be bolted & doweled together so I wont have to deal with welding/stress-relieving/issues. Im sure Ill hear complaints about the Mach3 P/Port control & that it should have servos instead of steppers but at the sad state my hobby-budget is now in, its all I can afford. Itll be a slow process over the next 6 months to a year but at least the process has started, yay!
