Just Started Planning & Need Help To Remix This Idea For The Grid Beam System

[QuietStorm81]

Hey all and thanks for doing this, in advance of anything else! :D

My name is Mark and I live and work here in Atlanta, GA. I want to change careers and switch to being a CAD/CNC operator and designer. In particular, I'd like to create a way to rapid replicate the Grid Beam construction system in Wood and eventually in Aluminum by drilling the massive amount of holes neccesary to make a component.

Thus my coming here and wanting to be a part of this. I'd like to design a remixed version of the Mech Mate to do a 8x8 foot drilliable area grid so I can produce the parts I need in bulk and such. I would also like this plan to be simple enough for the novice DIY'r to both scale up and down AND build using available parts.

But for now...more reading and hopefully more help from ya'll in designing this thing. Thanks much! :D

P.S. For those who might not know what Grid Beam is, here (http://www.gridbeamers.com/) is a link so you can get an idea of what I'd like to do.

[domino11]

Welcome Mark! :)

[sailfl]

Mark,

If you are going to be drilling a lot of holes like you need for the grid beams, you might want to think about adding a air drill to you system. Routers and spindles are not the best thing to use to be drilling lots of holes. Hard on the bearings.

[smreish]

...Nils, I was thinking the same thing! Good Luck.

[QuietStorm81]

Nils, good first tip. I'll be looking for that in the designing of the Z-Axis gantry. The idea, ideally, is that we can switch hardware in the Z axis assembly to switch between styles of work. One assembly for GB drilling, another for routing, and possibly another for plasma.

Details. but it's good to already get mad support for a design idea like this.

Question for the board: If I were to codify an 8x8 foot design and open source it under a creative commons, would you guys build it if the parts were made available by me or others? Particularly because I'd like to be in the business for this along with CAd as my next career. If we supply it we can build it, can we not?

Opine away, please. I welcome all feedback. :D

[MetalHead]

Well we work at this site to stay focused on our standard design. This way it is solid and can be used and supported through this forum. That said making small mods to meet a need like yours is surely open for talks in the group.

If you want to redesign a new CNC Router setup you should just consider doing it over on the zone or setup your own site for it. Just some ideas.

But Welcome to the team and looking forward to your MechMate build. I am sure it can handle what you need with ease !!!

[sailfl]

You can add a Air Drill along with the router to have both functionality. Plasma is another story - usually the table has a different design.

[smreish]

Mark,
Speaking with the MM design in mind, your needs should be met.
Routing, drilling, ancillary "tooling" on the z-axis is easy to do with the implementation of the quick disconnect (QD) plate and associated drawbar shown in the plans. If you want to deviate to a plasma or other torchlike machine, I would be best served as a single purpose machine for that use. Sparks and dust really don't mix well unless you plan for it.

I have built both versions. And the plasma unit the students at UNCSA built is capable of routing wood, light machining of aluminum and plasma cutting. The BOB and torch height controller were required to be of a significantly different variety than typically used for the MM. The control side did get complicated, but maintained the "spirit and intent" of the MM design.

Good luck on your choices.

Sean

[QuietStorm81]

Much obliged all. Even in this phase, some ideas have been given that rule and will be considered.

I will be lurking here and perhaps gleaning a bit of info as well but in the spirit of Mike's invective, I have found a more appropriate forum for my build threads and such seeing as I'll be using a bit of a hybridized design. However, once it is codified, I will give the PDF's and such to you guys here as a non Mech Mate but still CNC related idea. No tagging or threading on these boards will happen but you are all welcome to glean whatever knowledge I get as well.

Thanks all and hopefully we can make a new world one cut at a time! :D

[qroger]

I just took a quick scan through the site, but it looked like the strength of the gridbeam system was a standardized set of parts that could be utilized through the ingenuity of the builder to make an array of products.

My view of the Mechmate is a piece of production equipment that is itself flexible and can convert a 2-d sheet of mdf into smaller 2d objects. I look at it as sort of a really big printer. That simultaneously cuts out the patterns it prints.

I wonder if a 10 spindle drill press might be better. (Poor Mechmate might get restless with nothing but a boring job..)

But look around. Before long you will be infected as you become more and more familiar with digital electro mechanical stuff.