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Granite base CNC router project

140mower said:
Well, with that kind of attitude your never going to squeeze that shaper in.....;):p
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frankly I just want to complete my current swedish death cleaning cycle and be able to get my chipmaster home and operating so I can get to long overdue projects. As much as I love benchtop shapers I dont think I'll own one until I can move out of the city.

The trade off though is that I'll hopefully have space in my house or more likely garage for cnc router. But for that I need new casters on the surface plate stand, because that thing dont roll like it should now.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
we have a one car driveway and private roadway with zero parking and our visitors parking is patrolled every night. I'm not keen on leaving my car 400 meters away on city street on a regular basis.
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My time as a city dweller was pretty short for some of those very reasons..... Having a ton of amenities at my fingertips that I never felt the desire to utilize didn't make up for the lack of freedom....
 
140mower said:
My time as a city dweller was pretty short for some of those very reasons.....
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+1 on that. We lived in the city for the first 2 years we were married. In that short time I broke up a street gang rape, woke up a dozen drunks sleeping on my porch, had my first car stolen, parted out, and then burned, and spent too many sleepless nights with rocks thrown through our windows.

Folks in the country have weapons so crime is much lower. Really only had one attempted burglary at a previous home in the country that didn't get far and never lost a catalytic converter, a tire, or a radio.
 
Have you seen this?
www.hobby-machinist.com

Kb58's granite CNC router build

I've been away from this forum for a few years. In that time, I built a CNC router but completely forgot that there's a subforum for such things here. As a result, the thread exists elsewhere, so over the coming days, I'll transfer it over here, where it'll be more at home. The original posts...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
 
DavidR8 said:
Have you seen this?
www.hobby-machinist.com

Kb58's granite CNC router build

I've been away from this forum for a few years. In that time, I built a CNC router but completely forgot that there's a subforum for such things here. As a result, the thread exists elsewhere, so over the coming days, I'll transfer it over here, where it'll be more at home. The original posts...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
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No I hadn't seen that design. I did however briefly consider using a fixed gantry design but rejected it in the end, having chosen to follow Piotr Fox Wysocki's design. The only real difference between ours will be that my rails and screws wont be as massive as his.

This is my first cnc build and is meant to be a demonstration and learning unit with a modest cost. IF this works as well as I hope we will likely build another more robust machine based on a 36x48 granite plate.

EDIT In reading thie thread I see that he did not go with fixed gantry. He built a very robust machine. I'd considered going with granite laminated into a beam but I didn't want to grind granite on our mill. I chose epoxy granite with embedded metal mounting plates for the rails and other critical elements, so that the metal can be precision machined and scraped to be flat. I also planned to mould in all my holes and threaded inserts in the side rails and gantry beam so I can avoid lots of hard granite drilling.
 
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So in order to make the CNC router I had to make space within my basement to house it.

That meant that my old space had to have a complete redesign. This was cool since one chunk of the space was taken up by two antique steel kitchen cabinets. They can support a lot of weight, but without full extension drawer slides they suck for storage. Into the trash with them or at least toss to the curb with a curb alert issued.

This time I plan to maximize storage with banks of drawers with full extension soft close slides... extra top support on the ends and middle with a space between the cabinet and the top to allow me to use parf dogs.

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To prevent wife from once again using the surfaces as a dumping ground I plan to add banks of 12" deep storage on top of the work surface for storing light weight items like sanding belts and sleeves, etc. I can easily move a few banks of storage when I need to use the surface.

82" wide x 24" deep x 36" tall.

To the left will be 48" x 48" space for router.

Black MDF is not cheap, but it hides dirt. It can be sealed well with minwax or varathane brand wood hardeners, sanded smooth and hit with a matte finish finish for easy clean surface that hides messes.
 
140mower said:
Well, with that kind of attitude your never going to squeeze that shaper in.....;):p
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FYI, the last few days I spent cleaning up the basement, after spending a week on an on and off basis cleaning the garage and building a storage mezzanine level of 9' x 11.5" x 20" tall and moving sooo much crap from the basement and garage to an out of the way storage.

and I was so cunning as to leave a reserved space for a small shaper right beside the lathe. Now I just need the best small shaper I can find

Tomorrow I will move the 350 pound granite surface plate off its stand, out of the garage, up to the front landing, thru the front door over 6" high threshold and onto flatbed dolly just inside the front door. Then a roll into the back of the basement, and onto another flatbed dolly.

then I will move the chipmaster lathe from shop at brother's to my my garage. Then I just need to add a 240v outlet, remount the motor in the lathe and wire up the VFD. The only hitch in that plan is the pulley adapter is not 100% machined yet. But very close to being able to use the lathe now.
 
Interesting. I look forward to more and watching your build. What are your work holding plans John?
 
DavidR8 said:
Whatever you do, only buy a 220v spindle. The 110v spindles need 110v, 3-phase power which is only available from the import VFDs which are know to blow up for no good reason.
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Sounds like a potential solution to my whimpy tool post grinder..... Can you point us to a 220V 3ph spindle motor?
 
Susquatch said:
Sounds like a potential solution to my whimpy tool post grinder..... Can you point us to a 220V 3ph spindle motor?
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there are hordes of them, often sold paired with a VFD.

I'm hesitant to recommend a specific one for a tool post grinder because unknown run out numbers.
 
I was eyeing something like this for TPG. And eyeing is about as far as I ever get. Air cooled which mitigates a lot of water fuss for an accessory that goes on & off a lathe for more occasional jobs. Box profile with integral mounting strips; easier mounting IMO. Despite the amazing runout claims, there seem to be some decent ones & also 'regret' models with dubious bearings & other shortcomings. But compared to what. Might still be better than other options. Classic TPG motor/spindle packages are spendy, heavy & bulky. Personally I think the weak links in the TPG grinding chain have more to do with the the typical lathe itself. How does one set 0.0001" DOC reliably. How much of the many sliding surface slop is resonating through the lathe which shows up in the finish. Spindle driven through a noisy gear box & maybe a coggy single phase motor. Also when you do the RPM SFPM math, these router spindles probably match the smaller ID stones, find for internal boring. But I suspect too fast at their slowest RPM for larger wheels for external grinding.

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