A new build in the Netherlands

[markvanderraad1]

Hello everyone!

I am Mark from the Netherlands. I’ve been lurking on this forum for a long time. Now it’s finally time for me to start building. Not the best planning to be honest because as you all probably are aware, the prices of materials are trough the roof at the moment. But nevertheless it’s been a dream of mine to have a full sheet cnc for a long time so now it’s happening!

I have some prior cnc experience as I build a Cnc plasma cutter a couple of years ago. Building 3d printers has kept me busy on and off over the last few years.

The plan is to build a Mechmate that handles full sheets of 1530x3100mm. Although it will not be as precise as laser cutting, I want to cut the metal parts on my plasma cutter and bend them on my pressbrake. Holes will be drilled manually because the plasma cutter isn’t very good at making round holes 😄.
Here’s what else I’d like to use:
- 4.5kW air cooled ATC spindle (import)
- EdingCNC control. (It’s also on the plasma table and has served me well)
- still in doubt on (closed loop) steppers vs servos. Any thoughts?
- future additions may be a vacuum table and an automatic tool changer.

As of now, I’ve started building the frame and I’ve made the skate to grind the rails. Pictures will follow soon!

Kind regards, Mark

[bachaabdelkabir]

good luck with your build

[rischoof]

Hello Mark
nice to hear there's a new build in the Netherlands. eding cnc is a good choise. Most of the builds are with steppers (not closed loop). I use stepper motors in combination with gearboxes (my design and dxf files can be find ion the forum) In the beginning it's a lot of reading and check the forum to define the configuration you like the most.
the air cooled spindles generate a lot of air flow and spreading dust, so water cooled can be an better option. I designed my machine I can easily disassemble and rebuild ( had to move it 3 times up till now)

[markvanderraad1]

Thanks for the tip, I never thought about the amount of airflow that an air cooled spindle produces.
Like you Rik, I’m building the frame to be disassembled relatively easy. Attached is a picture of what I have so far. The orange colored strips are temporary to keep things square. In the back there is a hint of my plasma table.

Im building the MM at my place of work, so it will need to be moved at some point. The frame has the legs and cross braces set up like it does because I wanted some storage space underneath. The vacuum pump should fit underneath for example.

As for the steppers, I bought one nema 34 closed loop 4.5nM to play around with. I designed the belt reduction to 3:1, but that’s purely based on parts I have laying around. Im hoping to get decent acceleration with modul 1.5 racks and 20 tooth pinions.

Next is grinding the rails.. wish me luck!

[danilom]

You can use your plasma cutter to mark holes and then drill them, it makes a small mark just like center punch.

[markvanderraad1]

Thanks, I have tried that method an it works well most of the time, especially on thin sheet metal. On thicker stuff (5mm and upwards) I found that the plasma flame wonders off center before it pierces and the location of the “centerpunch” is not very accurate. Worn consumables in the plasma cutter also throws it off.

My preferred method for thicker sheets is to cut the outline and glue on a printed template with the hole locations. Center punch the holes on the template and drill them.

A little update on my build:
Currently I’m having a battle with the top of the C-channel not being parallel to the bed, the top and bottom of my C-channel is heavily skewed inwards. I’ve read on the forum that most people shim the angle iron linear rails to get it to line up parallel with the bed, so that would be the next step for me. When I screw down the angle iron linear rails to the top of the C-channel it messes up the alignment of the rack and the pinion doesn’t fully engage over the width of the rack.

Any tips are very welcome!