I will post a bench test review in the controllers forum once I get the drivers built. I will be using THB6064AH's from MassMind driving 270 oz in steppers, 4 to start with. Drivers should arrive in a few days. Should be able to post late next week, if all goes well. Router setup will come later, l like many others will have to decide how to machine the plates.

I have no way to make the plates at this point. Is there someone (Kram242)? That would be willing to make me a set that I can buy?

I'm not sure why but I saw it already a few times that people confuse the PlanetCNC as a driver board even though it's only a breakout board. Maybe the owner of the site should point it out more prominently.

At mentioned in my last post, I am looking for suggestions on how to machine the plates. From previous trial and error using a drill press, I have found that the most critical difficult part of machining the plates is getting the holes for the wheels positioned right. This is especially more difficult when installing three or more wheels on the top and bottom of a plate. Less than 0.5 mm out on the eccentric hole renders it useless. Even tighter tolerances on the fixed wheels otherwise they become useless. Elongating the holes to allow for some adjustment is a bad idea since it requires the screws to be over tightened on the bearings which leads to all sorts of problems.

Don't get me wrong, this in not a grip secession, just a heads up for those who have limited tools and machining experience like myself that are planning on machining the plates themselves. I have had some success in drilling the holes, but have generated a lot of scrap plates also. What I have done is use a digital caliper to scribe mark the hold location, punch the scribed mark (Punching the hole works on aluminum but not on garolite), pilot drill a starter hold, then a 5mm drill to open it up. On the eccentric I have done the same but used a 7mm drill to open it up. Seems to work it the drill does not walk to much. I also drill the eccentric holes a 0.25 mm closer to the fixed wheel in comparison to the online plates to give them a better chance of working, rather have them slightly tight then not tight enough. I also machine these first so that not much time is wasted if I have to scrap the plate.

I have found that purchasing the plates is always cheaper if there is a plate that will meet your needs. But for the OX we may have to wait a while. What I am thinking is fabricating temporary aluminum plates and then using the OX to machine the lighter more accurate garolite plates.

What do you think? Does anyone have suggestions on how to drill the wheel holes with better accuracy?
Thanks.

I wonder why you said that. I'm not being facetious, I'm really curious why garolite will be more accurate.

Have you considered a compound table for your drill press like the Proxxon 27100? They are a bit small but when properly adjusted you should be able to achieve accuracy of 0.05 mm or better.

Sorry for the confusion, what I was trying to say is that the garolite cut would be more accurate, being cut on a CNC machine, where as the aluminum cut would be done by hand using a drill press. I though that making the plate out of aluminum would be easier since you can punch aluminum and then machining a garolite plate because it is lighter. However, since I posted, dawned on me that I can make a jig and slide the plate along the jig to get aligned holes. If that works I may not need to make a temporary aluminum plate, just drill the garolite plate on a drill press.
I have not worked with garolite before, and am not sure how easy it is to drill and cut with a drill press and miter saw. I do have a harbor freight micro mill and it may work but is probably to small for these plates, besides I was looking for a solution others may be able to use as well.

Any thoughts? Would it be wiser to wait until plates are available?

Interesting suggestion, I will take a look at that. I also have the parts to increase the bed size of my micro mill but have not installed them yet. Thanks for the suggestion.

Edited: Amazon has it for $92.99 with free shipping. maybe an option for some, I think I am going to use my mill which has more travel and it needs to start paying for itself. Had planned to put steppers on it just never got around to it. In the past it has always been easier to use the drill press.

Thank you, Sir. James Newton @massmind has been very forthcoming in explaining to me how to use the 6064. He has built a PCB based on his own knowledge and various suggestions from folks at CNC Zone. I am grateful to him. I have ordered 12 x 6064 and 1x blank PCB. I just want to get my hands wet (or burnt) assembling a board and then use ExpressPCB to do my own layout. He requested me to credit his massmind.org if I used his design or a modified version. I have told him that I would have no problems with that following the open source approach.

Very true! People like me who is viewing all these with fisheye explicit description will go a long way; but I may be in the extreme minority with such high levels of ignorance.

This may sound like a very amateurish approach born out of impatience.
Amazon sells precut 80/20 extrusions. I ordered 4 pieces of 20x40 – 305mm long (20 series). My plan is to use cross coupling straight plates to join two 20x40 extrusions for each side. Mount the V-groove wheels using the T-slots with the straight plates as the aligning guide. So, the gantry support plates will have an overall 80mm width and 20mm thick. The straight plates will also allow me to use the eccentric spacer to tighten the wheels to the V-groove.
(don't know how to insert a sketch here)
I could have used the 20x80 (40 series) but that would allow me to mount only two wheels. But I will use that to reinforce the X axis plate with 20x80 V-slot plate.

So goes my thinking ---

Here is my sketch!!!

Let me see if I get it correct! You went to a competitor's site and bought from them, came here to tell and then you'll use the V-Groove from here on the extrusion from there? Cool

BTW, you think the wheels will work on a non v-slot extrusion? And if they do, will they last long enough? Or did I misunderstand you? If I did I apologize.

If I understand you correctly, the T-slot is used as temporary plates somewhat like the Routy vertical extrusions minus the plates mounting the wheels directly to the T-slot. Then use it to cut the actual plates and then install them. I like it, a self enhancing router. You just need to make sure the wheels are tight enough so that they do not move in the slot, or you could mount the wheels using corner connectors as in some of the example videos. You could do the same thing with V-slot, using a washer over the V grove and it never hurts to have a few extra pieces of V-slot around anyway. You always find a use for them especially if you hang out in the Build's area of OpenBuilds for a while.

Edit: Putting the straps on the outside ends up against the spacer connected to the wheels will keep them tightly against the slot they are riding in.

I am not sure I follow your statement here or the implied consternation.

I am using two blank T-slotted extrusion plates joined together similar to the Routy vertical extrusions just like @wrdutcher has understood. I had no idea that buying standard Al extrusions from 80/20 Inc directly or thru Amazon would be interpreted as "going to a competitor's site". Neither of them design or build OX like units!!!
I am exploring the possibility of using a different approach to supporting the X-Z axes and the spindle motor. I did that because I have no machine tools to cut and shape that part to size; besides these are temporary support structures for the gantry. It has NOTHING to do with V-slot extrusions or the wheel or the belt&pinion design. So I wonder what prompted this remark "V-Groove from here on the extrusion from there - Cool" from you. Aluminum extrusion is a process and many organizations do that, the well known is the 80/20 Inc. V-groove is a design approach used by OpenBuilds to come up with a linear slide. Others use guide rail shaft with slide bearings, V-groove rails bolted on to Aluminum T-slotted extrusion, steel V-groove bearings etc.

As I said, it is a loud thinking process. The straps will be certainly thinner than the spacers that support the wheels. They will be used only to align the wheels and provide a fence to push against for the eccentric spacers. I am considering this approach as I might need more Z-travel and also the design can easily be borrowed from Routy.

I already have ordered several 20x60 and 20x80 V-slot pieces from the Parts store but I think they are the Lite versions - meaning thinner walls. I wanted to make sure that the end plates have thicker wall extrusions. Besides, I can get them in 305mm, 610mm sizes from 80/20. Parts store has them only in 1000mm or 1500mm lengths and I don't even have a good hacksaw to cut them to size!!!! I also have the several gantry plates, L and corner brackets, 3mm belts and pulleys, six Nema23 steppers and 3 Nema17 steppers - so I am all kitted up waiting for Mark to make his final approval on the OX.

Once Mark is happy with his design, I can perhaps ask him a favor to increase the height of the plate (assuming that is mechanically appropriate) so I have about 4"-6" of Z-space. This will be my FIRST cutting machine which will be dedicated to making parts for my other pet project.

Choosing a material for a certain aspect of a design is an engineering and personal choice. Both have there advantages and disadvantages. I don't think anyone was trying to fault you on this. In the end we are all here to make the best CNC router we can make. How we get there is not as important as the fact that we were able to get there. Gopal, I like your solution for making the plates. Its like Mark's router tywrap solution to get up and cutting fast, then machine something better. I may use your approach unless a better idea comes along, or some offers to make plates for us at a reasonable cost. Hint, hint...someone?

Thank you!

You may have to use SketchUp Make. Google SketchUp and you'll get to the new site and download it from there. You most likely will have to re-install the SketchUcam software too but that should not be a problem.

Does it mean that you can't buy it online too?

once I get my ox up, I dont mind cutting plates for people.
Im already doing one for one of my work mates.

I'm planning on some router mounts too, 3d printed, with screw tension.

If its a "off-the-shelf" router that popular, let me know and I can design it.

My intention is to do a parametertised scad, so should be easy for me to customize for differnt routers.

This is what I plan to do in my OX design:



Since there is about 1.5" dead space next to the side rails that the router can not reach. I plan to put a 20x40 piece of V-slot there and use a piece of 1" x 2" 1/8 aluminum angle to connect it to the side rail. The angle bracket will also provide support for the edges of the mdf board. A piece of 20x40 will be installed in front and back to provide a place to secure the mdf to the router as shown in Mark's 4th video. The advantages of this modification is stiffer side rails and a V-Slot channel on top of the table to attach clamps. The disadvantage is that cuttings will get into the V-Slot channel and it will have to be cleaned out from time to time. Leaving one side of the 20x40 open and using compressed air will make this easier. I had looked into using TTrack recessed into the mdf but it is more expensive than V-Slot, harder to install, and has to be reinstalled every time the mdf is replaced.

Would there be any interest in an alternative set of plates that you could have cut on a laser out of 1/4" MDF? The design would be changed as is appropriate for the material. It would be like a mini torsion box.

I ask because most hacker spaces have a laser cutter that can get though material that thick but no thicker. You could have an initial set of plates cut on the laser and then cut your own replacements from Alu or Garolite after the machine was built as an upgrade. This would also give you a way of customizing your build without having to buy plates you don't want.

E.g. I also want to tweak the design of the machine slightly for my needs: I need 2+ inches of Z for some 3D foam carving I want to do. I can design my own plates in CAD but I have no way of having them cut in Alu or Garolite. But I know where a handy 100W laser cutter is... http://www.metrixcreatespace.com/

What a great link Gareth. Thanks.
Nice to see it all coming together as a team.