Well I have been working on my build for about a month. I want to document and post up the pictures I have taken so far. I will get those posted later today.
First off I need to thank a handful of people for getting me this far. I frequently read the 148 pages of the plans, and cross reference with a few builds on CNCZONE.
Devastator's Ongoing Solsylva Build
LS120's Solsylva 24 x 48 build.
CarveOne
louieatienza
revwarguy
Gerry one of the moderators I see in so many threads I read.
I do some woodworking and while building my daughter a castle I discovered the 20 year old router in my shop was for more than edge routing, rabbets and dados. I bought the giant trim bit and started making templates for everything. Google eventually had me discovering there were CNC routers too and shortly after I found David Steel's site with the Solsylva plans. It seemed like something I should pursue, but I shelved it for about a year mainly because I rebuilt my workshop and wanted to build a special room for the CNC. So now I am fulfilling my destiny.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in a 100 year old house. If you are familiar with this area, you'll know that you need to be making some decent money to afford a house with more than 1100 square feet. My shop is 18x12 and I also have motorcycles, woodworking tools, etc. So the spare room didn't pan out. Instead I decided to combine my CNC with my mobile table saw station which has a massive torsion box 4'x5'. I created some mounts and a leveling system so I can keep the CNC level on my uneven foundation. This meant I didn't need to worry about the legs on the Solsylva plans. That is where I will start this log on the next post.
Parts I have purchased:
3/4" Baltic Birch (the good stuff, not from the big box stores)
6"x36" of 1/2" 6061 Aluminum Plate
6"x24" of 3/8" 6061 Aluminum Plate
1/8" thick 1" Aluminum Flat ~48"
1/8" 1" Angle ~36"
1/8" 3/4" Angle ~36"
2x6's
Table Bed is 2x6's.
X Rail Support - I scrapped the 2x6's and laminated Baltic Birch with no openings on the sides. This really stiffened up the bed.
Gantry I laminated 3 pieces of 3/4" Baltic Birch for the beam and used the 3/8" 6061 plate for the end plates.
Carriage is all 6061 plate, 3/8" and 1"
X - Rack and Pinion from Mcmaster per the design plans. 2 racks 4' each, 2 1" pinions
Y - Rack and Pinion from Mcmaster 25" rack, 3/4 pinion
Z - I purchased a 3/8" 2 4140 Steel 2 Starts Acme Screw, 3/8" Screw Diameter, 6 Turns per Inch
XL timing pulleys (which are all wrong). They have #10 bore diameter, some are plastic.. Luckily they were less than $50 altogether.
I ordered some new ones which are all aluminum so I can bore the bore a little for the 1/2" pinion shaft.
3 - Nema 23 Steppers -
Manufacturer Part Number: 23HS45-4204S
* Motor Type: Bipolar Stepper
* Step Angle: 1.8 deg.
* Holding Torque: 3.0Nm(425oz.in)
* Rated Current/phase: 4.2A
* Phase Resistance: 0.9ohms
* Inductance: 3.8mH+/-20%(1KHz)
Lots of bearings
Flange nut is shipping from dumpstercnc.
Parts I am still deciding on:
Spindle or use one of my routers. I have a, Ryobi(Old 2HP), PORTER-CABLE 690LR, Harbor Freight trim router with a mind of it's own
Something to drive the steppers
Power supply
Build a PC from the parts I have
Dust collection port and adapt to my dust collector
Bits
Software
...
Look forward to talking to you.
Doug
