How you hold down the Gantry ?

[roomer]

Hi,

the mechmate is a very good design. I like it....

I will build the same machine.

Now i have a question about the gantry slide.

How do you hold down the slide on the rails ?

Only with the wheel from the motor or you are using a second bearing
under the rail ?

Thanks

[smreish]

The y - car is held down on one side by the pinion/motor combination. The alternate side is captured with a spring loaded stud mounted bearing assembly.

[roomer]

Hi,

do you have any picture of this detail ?

Thanks

[smreish]

Look under Y-car and gantry here. You will find A LOT of details.

[MetalHead]

That is covered in the plans. They are held down by weight and spring tension.

[domino11]

Have a look in the "Mechmates Already Cutting" for pictures. :)

[Gerald D]

Roomer, you asked "How you hold down the Gantry ?"

The main gantry is only held down by its own mass and the gear wheels of the 2 motors. (one on each end)

The smaller car only has one motor and so there is only one gear wheel on the one side. On the other side of the small car we add a roller under the rail. This roller is springloaded like the other motors.

But, I have to ask you, "What will lift up the gantry?" Think about it if you have big forces making a lift? Yes, sometimes things go wrong and there are very big forces, but these are not normal, and they are mostly caused by mistakes in the programming, or a clamp that gets under the cutter. If you had a very strong holding down system then you will get some big damage when these mistakes happen. With our system the gantry does lift when there is an accident, but we can make a recovery without damage.

[roomer]

Hi,

you are using two Motors for the large car ?

I will look the pictures.

Thanks

[roomer]

Look under Y-car and gantry here. You will find A LOT of details.

Hi,

under Y-CAR only 10 Threads. :(

[MetalHead]

Just look under here and look at the machines that are already finished.

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=78

It takes a lot of reading here to learn how things work.

Here is a teaser

http://www.mechmate.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4013&postcount=49

[smreish]

Thanks Mike,
That's the pictures I was looking for!

....Boy, that JR sure does nice work. I think the machine is prettier without paint (and before rust)
:)