#1016, Conversion 1M x1M for Hobby Panels

[bjbsquared]

A blog post with more pictures of this can be found here: http://replibot.blogspot.com/2013/04/re ... eater.html

In general I think I have met all my design goals. The only compromise was the over all size. At one time I did experiment with what overall size it would take just to load in a 24"x24" panel. The savings did not justify the effort of trimming down the extrusion nor the wood. Leaving the extrusion  at 1 meter and foot print 48"x48", the cutting area is about 40"x31".
So size was a compromise but I have room for it and I think this space will be worth it. Unlike other things in my garage this will "pay rent".  I may have to do some spring cleaning and  "evict" some junk to find this a home.

Overview

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Overview

X-Rail and Gantry Improvements

Because of the noticeable give in my current ShapeOkos gantry I really wanted to solidify the X rail and carriage. I scanned the forums and extracted what I thought was the best ideas for doing so. The upgrade are:

Double X-rails with wlanfox Blocks - It was pretty much a consensus that a Double-X rail would be needed for the meter span. I also thought that the wlanfox Blocks were an excellent idea and be made of 3/4" plywood. I will use M5 threaded rod and nylock nuts to span the distance of the blocks. I think using nylock nuts all around is a good idea as I have had some nuts loosen and fall off in the middle of a job. Also 4 more V-Wheel Kits are needed.

wlanfox Blocks and Double X

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Standard Wheel Carriage Plate - Using these instead of the existing motor plate lowers the X-Rail so that the resulting moment arm is reduced. Forces in the Y direction should have less twisting effect on the Gantry and X-Rail assembly. The draw back of this mod is that the Y motors have to be relocated. You can see in the overview picture that they will be mounted on a fabricated item I call the Motor-Buttress assembly (blue). This will require longer timing belts and two additional Smooth Idler Wheel Kits.

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I will use the ShapeOko to cutout the parts to make the Idler and Motor Buttress Assemblies as well as the wlanfox Blocks. I'm hopeful that I get it right before I tear down the ShapeOko for upgrading. If not then I will have to resort to my skills with hand tools which will be a big time suck and an exercise of patience but we will getr done. 

[bjbsquared]

I've been progressing the build lately. I still need to fastem the belts and wire it up.

I printed some plastic parts to fastem the belt ends. I still need to figure where I want the E-Switch, power supply and driver.

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[bjbsquared]

I've been working on mounting the belt ends.

Both ends of both Y belts have an eyelet glued to it with epoxy. The eyelet is made of black PLA made from my 3D printer.

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Here is a solution for the X axis not unlike the original belt mounting but easier tension and clamp the belt in place. There is one on each side of the X axis.

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[cpt kirk]

Very impressive lookng forward to seeing it all built!

[bjbsquared]

All wired up and ready to go.
I found that wiring and figuring what wire I wanted to use to be harder that putting the hardware together.
I ended up using some wire I had that I got from the hardware depot store. It is for sprinkler systems. It has 7 solid core wires in a PVC jacket. It makes a good stout self supporting cable. I used this for routing the X and Z connections. I used the original wire that the motors had for the 2 Y motors. The length easily made it to the GRBL shield.

I 3D printed some zip-tie tie-down brackets that helped organize the cables.
I was able to reuse my 3D printed E-Stop switch mount and the power supply mounting bracket. I just drilled some holes in them.

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I did a few movement tests so far. All axis work. I swapped windings to invert X but other than that everything is working so far.

I even gave it a Z ornament I had kicking around.

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For a bonus it says "A rescue attempt would be illogical." when you press a button on it's back.

Next step is to do a hello world - Mainly to see if I have to adjust some current limits.

I need to think about dust collection as I FOUND DUST EVERYWHERE when taking the original apart.

[JuiceBox]

I'm not grasping exactly how you have your y-axis belt setup. Could you provide more pictures? (BTW awesome setup!)

[bjbsquared]

I'm not grasping exactly how you have your y-axis belt setup. Could you provide more pictures? (BTW awesome setup!)

This photo shows what I call the motor buttress. It mounts the motor and Idler pulley and also gives a mounting point for the Y rail. Originally, the pulley was mounted with a whole but now I have made that into a vertical slot. The slot is so I could make the belt level with the attachment point on the carriage plate. My original hole placement was off and this was not so. There is enough friction to keep the pulley in place when tightened.

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This photo shows the carriage plate. Both ends of the Y belt attach to carriage plate. Each end of the Y has an eyelet that was 3-D printed. They were attached to the belt using epoxy.

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This photo shows what I call the idler buttress. It has two idler pulleys and mounts to the other side of the Y rail. As with the other buttress, the upper pulley is mounted with a vertical slot instead of just a whole. The lower pulley is mounted in a horizontal slot. The horizontal slot is how the belt is adjusted tight. The extra wooden assembly under the lower pulley was supposed to aid in the belt tightening. I found this unnecessary in practice so I am removing it from the design in the next revision. I just adjusted the lower pulley so the belt was just a tad short and then I could pull the belt and attach it to the carriage plate to create the desire tension. It's easier than it sounds. The Y belts have a nice tone when plucked.

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Another revision I will add is to chamfer the 90 degree corner of each buttress. The other Y belt setup is just a mirror of the one shown here.

[bjbsquared]

Hinged DW660 Mounts

These to me are a first step in designing a quick release mount for my spindle. A prototype if you will.

They are not exactly quick yet but I wanted something to hold the spindel now as I ponder it a while. I have ideas and but no one idea is shinier than the other.

The first idea was to have 2 hinged brackets with a quick release buckle. The quick release buckle is eluding me at this point. I want something like a quick release on a bike wheel.
This is what I came up with.

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I experimented and designed these with Tinkercad.
Lower Hinged Mount


Upper Hinged Mount


I printed these with PLA 25% fill. They seem good and stout.

Today after I mounted the spindle to the Z axis I decided I wanted the lower bracket to be something the DW660 would drop into and have a quick release bracket for the top. That way the spindle would be indexed at the same height when re-mounted.

[Improbable Construct]

For your quick release what about using the bales or ratchets and buckles off an old pair of ski boots.
I use some to hold the door of my kegerator closed. The seal is blown out and a new one is over 200 bucks so I got an old pair of ski boots at the goodwill and used the bales to keep the seal pulled tight.
You could use a pair to hold your mount closed.
Easy and repeatable.

[bjbsquared]

For your quick release what about using the bales or ratchets and buckles off an old pair of ski boots.

Excellent Idea!

I might even be able to do this sort of thing from scratch. I live in south Texas so the chance of finding old ski boots is low.

But... some bike racks have the same sort of thing. A ratchet and buckle system.

My plot for plywood domination is strengthening.