Electronics DIY blog

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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Building a CNC - Frame modifications and (re)assembly

Now for the frame.
First I had to fix a construction misalignment (explained in the picture bellow), that caused the the stepper motor axis to collide with the linear rail bar and twist and rotate eventually breaking the coupler in two.
I did it by cutting the corner stuffing (inside the cutted tube and over the corner) a metal bar that I had laying around (and was pretty much the height I needed), and then weld it and cut it to the desired length. The picture gives a clear idea. The fact that the bar entered in the tube also acted as an reinforcement. I was quite happy with the result.
Modifying/fixing the rail angle

One other thing I didn't liked in the initial design was the bottom bars in the frame. The initial idea was to put the bottom plane over these bars. But any millimetric offset would mean that the "floor" of the CNC would be like bump or a dip. So I removed the bars, used them to reinforce two of the sides (for the axis that clamps on the top side. The bottom side would probably cause collision problems) and the corners in the bottom square.

Modified Frame
 To finish I gave it a black paint cover and the axis a red tone as you can see bellow.
After the paint job
Finally I reassembled the CNC and gave it a spin. It's a working machine. OHHHHH YEAHHHH.
The picture bellow was taken before all electronics were in place but the machine is all now fully loaded and tuned.
Assembled Axis and Frame


Now I must thing of a name for my baby/beast CNC..hummmm
More modding is on the way. Electronics are next. So stay tuned...

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