BillFitzmaurice.info

Yes, you read that right, but you all knew I wasn't right in the head. It seems the quest to prove that point is my life's primary focus. (Like I need another hobby lol).

You see, it all started in a long time ago (2 or 3 mo.) in a place far-far away (my gara-er, I mean shop) and there I was, all alone in my, shop, sipping the good golden stuff (and by sipping, surely I mean pounding) when it suddenly occurred to me- Hey, Squidward (sorry, the telly must have been on) why, in all that is holy, do you NOT have a CNC???

After glaring at my bug zapper for several minutes looking for the source of that voice, I answered...... Uh, I dunno..

Ah HA! then it came to me, why don't I BUILD one? Yeah, that's what I'll do, I'll build it, then I can cut more wood in many more ways, I can stretch my graphic design skills and translate them into real, tangible items, I can carve pretty things that make the ladies swoon, I can speed up and become more precise with projects such as building speakers and...

I'll Make Millions of dollarinies and bathe in gold coins!!

Well, you can imagine what happened after I woke up from all those hop-flavored beverages. Yup, pipe dream disillusionment and a headache, for some reason.

Ah well, that's not gonna stop me. I'm the guy with the hammer remember?! So.. after drafting up a few more masterpieces on some rather used looking napkins, I broke out my grinder and got busy. That million dollars isn't going to create itself ya know. And off I went.

Unfortunately for you, I didn't take any pictures of that phase. By the time I remembered that cameras existed, I already had the base and Y carriage completed:

That's a heapin' helpin' of cold-rolled steel ain't it?

Here's the nuts and bolts of that (see what I done there?).

I simply cut four pieces of L channel at the same length and welded those suckers together in a rather symetrical patter, what with several right angles and similar side lengths, what the heck is that called again. Oh yea, a SQUARE. I then added four 1"x1/8" square tubing (there's that word again) to each corner, not just because they are cute as hell, it's because I have a plan for them <wrings hands> Mwhaaa, haa haaaaaa.
The uprights are 3/8" plate steel and that's all I have to say about them.

The rest of the 1" tubing you see, has been rotated 90 degrees from plumb and in case you can't see too good, that's where the slide bearings are gonna slide! (Please tell me you see them on the Y axis carriage)

No that I had all that put together I rushed right into- putting it on the back burner for over two months. What can I say, life got in the way as it usually does.

At any rate, you folks are lucky, you don't have to wait 'cause that was several months ago- so BAM!


X Carriage!

This will be interesting.

There's a guy at work who built one as well that uses a DeWalt router.
Are you following any plans or is this a ground up creation?

Just for yucks, and obvious foreshadowing, I even had the drawer slides for the Z carriage propped up on her!

Here's a hind-view. Just for your viewing pleasure. (psst, don't tell the missus!)


BTW, pay no attention to those apprentice welds. I've since replaced my old knock-off flux core jealopy with GAS! Either way, how does the old saying go? Oh right- "A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't"

Well now the only thing to do is put some running gear on this beauty right? And that I did.

First, I just knew this thing would have to run on motors, and those motors would have to use something to move that steel, so I immediately thought, what about some screw thingys? (<--Caution; engineers mind at work) I got on the horn and called Wil E right away, since he is my source for everything, and wouldn't you know it, I ended up with about four ACME rods. Oh, that Wil E.


These aren't your average threaded rods, they are smooth as butter and well, faster than butter as well, not that I would know how fast butter is. (I'm just gonna stop right there.)

J_Dunavin wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:22 pm There's a guy at work who built one as well that uses a DeWalt router.
Are you following any plans or is this a ground up creation?

Ground up of course as it seems every thing I do puts me there in the first place.

And slow down there buckaroo, I'm one of those guys that end up thinking about posting builds well after I've built. So, be patient.

I can't I get too excited.

May I suggest an Arduino for the controller.

So, where was I? ... Oh yea, so soon after I affixed all of the ACME rods to their respective carriages, along with the motor mounts, anti-backlash nuts and the above pitured pillow blocks (See, I TOLD you I had a use for those cutesy 1" tube stubs!) I then got some electramatronicals!


Yup, three more NEMA 17 motors, Arduino board with CNC shield, limit switches, 4 DRV8825 stepper motor drivers and power supply! (Ahhh, I love summer Christmases) That got me to a-wirin' right away and homemade router hole be damned, I was a-gonna see this thing move soon!

J_Dunavin wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:42 pm I can't I get too excited.

May I suggest an Arduino for the controller.

Err-Mu-Gerd - too late!

Ok, so being all wired up with nowhere to go, I did what any one else in my position would do- I drank. (someone said there seems to be a pattern here- Ha, silly wabbit, wha'do they know *hic*).

So, as to heade the heavy machinery warnings on my beverage labels, I instead concentrated on the confuser software that I would need to bring this beast to life. Turns out, there is some! (whew) Seems a lot of folks really like this Fusion 360 program for modeling and creating the Gcode necessary to run it. They then feed that to a Gcode reader (I chose Universal Gcode Sender) that will actually move them there moters.

Here she is, all set up and waiting to do somethin', anything:


And since J_Dunavin didn't bring enough for the whole class, I just let the cat outta the bag and if you notice, there is a router all up in her! Sure, it's a crappy Harbor Freight trim router that turns at about 26000 rip'ems. Heck, I wan't going to sacrifice my good trim router with out her being fully tested, what engineer would? So for now, that'll do just fine.

I have bigger plans for her anyway- he, he, he.

We'll save that for a bit later.

Now the astute among you (myself not included) will notice that nifty Indiana state model in the electronic picture showin' box on the right of the last picture. Well, that was my thought too, (wut??) but I was bound and determined to do SOMETHING for a first test. I mean yeah, all the motors moved, and moved the proper carriages in the proper amounts and all (after MUCH set up) but, will it dance?

YES, IT DANCED!


Oh sure, it was a feeble attempt at perfection but hey, Poughkeepsie wasn't built in a day was it?

What this did, really, was highlight my need to become a better modeler. (As if I needed this thing laughing at me like some of my other tools).

At any rate, I was able to pull myself together, and just this week, turned out a tool that made THIS tool even better!

Oh, and pay no attention to the bullet hole in that scrap piece of ply above, I.. uh,.. bought it that way. Yeah, that's it. Not done in a fit of rage or anything of concern or the like- tee hee.

Seriously though, as cool as that would be, it's not a bullet hole at all. It's actually where my bit tried to go after the engraving was 'finished". I have no idea what demon from hell injected itself into that rendering, but I can tell you it was mad enough to throw smoke out of that hole ('till I shut the machine off that is.)

Now I know you are all on pins and needles at this point to find out what I did next. Well, like I said above, I decided to put her to test building a tool that would make her even better. Do you see the round biscuits in a couple of pics ago that are holding down a work piece? Well, ironically, those are fall downs from several cornhole and speaker builds I've done. Problem is, they are better as fall downs then they are as clamps (whoodathunkit?) So to flex my chops, I decided to upgrade them puppies and here's what happened:


SUCCESS!!


Look how jelly the biscuits are now! hahahaha.

.

Those things are awesome, is there anything that BB cannot do?

Alrighty, finally, a successful run.

Now, on to the reason this thread even made it to what many would consider a rather unconventional place for it- one of the primary used I had in mind for it! If you figured it out- YOU WON!*

Yes, that's right, one of the main reasons I built this was to get freaky making those items that we all either dread or suck at. Want proof? Ok, it's all explained in the brochure. And by brochure I mean my short, hackneyed video clip hee hee:







That was a lot of fun, let me tell ya. Took just about 27 min to create each, a time I can surely cut down with some tool speed adjustments. I really wanted to keep my straight 2-flute sharp (that's what he said) I also didn't want to burn the pieces. Still, 27 min is probably less than it takes most to cobble one out with hand routers and jigsaws. I can't complain.

Yet, all this says nothing of future plans...

The suspense builds...




* Must be present to win. Prizes will or not at all be guaranteed, distributed or even announced. Void where prohibited and forget I said anything.

One last post of build porn. But that's it.. That's it I tells you. it's late here and I'm drun- I mean, Tired!.




'Till next time!

WOW, I mean WOW!!!!
You beat me to it John... Truely impressed with your result! Do you have any prior experience building things like a CNC router? A 3D printer maybe..?