Edmonton, AB frozen north LR2 amateur build

First off thanks to Ryan for providing such a cool design and the continued support here in the forums. It’s a definite selling point for a newcomer to the forum and cnc’ing in general.

I’m a complete beginner in nearly all the aspects of this project and the surrounding areas of knowledge required. Many months ago now I stumbled on the V1 Engineering offerings and have been enamoured with the possibilities and relatively low entry point $ wise for such a machine. I quickly scoured the internet about this “3d printing” device and a few days later I was printing pieces on my Ender-3. I false started on the MPCNC and after a few dozen hours into that printing job I bailed and jumped onto the LR2 never looking back. I’ve printed all the parts now, have the 1” ss tube, and am going down the rabbit hole. I’ll definitely have questions before this is done but hopefully with all the great guides they won’t be too numerous.

My box 'o goodies from V1 arrived yesterday, it was in the mail almost before the email confirmation was done, and at my place up in Canada a few days later.

I enjoyed putting all the bits together last night, and was happy to realize all those hours of printing weren’t in vain as everything fit really well together and was just a perfect friction fit on all those dozens of bolts. I was a little leery about printed parts shrinking and not fitting but I can say following the printed parts guidelines on my ender-3 the parts fit great scaled at 100% out of pla.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Yb4hjbSl.jpg[/img]

I was also lucky enough to link up with a local fellow who’s willing to help me out with the flat parts. He’s got access to a big industrial cnc at work where they do a bunch of cutting from acrylic so I think I’m getting some acrylic flat parts from their scraps. I’m hopeful they’ll be more than sufficient to at least get me started if they’re not good enough to be a permanent part.

Next up is getting the last few parts in, and building the all-important table. I’m going to park this in a functioning two car garage so am going to try to create a modular table that I can hopefully hoist the table surface up flush with the ceiling joists. I’ll see where this leads.

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Something about this image hits home for me. V1 parts, tubes, dial indicators, and a duplo car.

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Okay… some people use skateboard bearings and SOME people use the whole wheel!!! LOL

I’m GUESSING that that is for the “Low-Rider”? (I’ve not actually looked into it, yet.) :slight_smile:

The low rider uses the entire wheel (and they are inline roller skate wheels, usually).

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Ah yes… I JUST woke up to that fact and edited my comment. Nice!
BTW… I’m down in Michigan but am from Hamilton, Ontario.
I miss home.

Ha ha yep, it’s a mixed use zone that is mostly dad’s indoor “work” bench. It’s adjacent to our kids play space which basically means it’s also the kids play space…

Most people usually go to warmer places… but hey, to each their own. Cheers from still in Canada.

Awesome, I am diggin your enthusiasm. Made me smile, seriously. Can’t wait to see it dirty!

Guys, you won’t believe what cnc’s can do… a local fellow was kind enough to help me with the flat parts as mentioned and wow, super cool he hooked me up with lexan flat parts! half inch and quarter inch stuff.

I also made a little headway on my table. Torsion box style from straight-ish home center wood. It’s going to be decent but not perfect. A jointer and planer would have been really handy.

1/2" mdf top and bottom for flatness and heft. I tried fairly hard but I think I’ll end up with a few shims to get it just right. I chose to go 4’x6.5’. It’s huge, and keep the dreams big too.

It’s sitting all glued and nailed at the moment with all the heavy junk I could lay hands on, piled on top.

 

 

 

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So that’s done, the top is really flat all the way across both width and length. Apparently I wasn’t so good at keeping the width that great in the glue up and it narrows through the middle by about 3/16". If that’s problematic I may go the rails route that I’ve seen people suggest for runners for the wheels.

Opinions?

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Your acrylic parts look really nice. I don’t think the width will cause you problems as long as you assemble your low rider to clear the widest part of the table.,. important and hardest part is the flat top that you managed !

I’m in Calgary also partway through my torsion box build (10 feet x 56 inches).

 

Thanks Greg, I know there a few of us in Alberta as I think I’ve even seen another response from in Edmonton here in the forums. The flat parts are actually lexan so much better than acrylic as it’s virtually indestructible. Luckily the fellow that helped me out with this just used from off-cuts from their workplace as I know sheets of this stuff is not cheap at all. The fit on everything has been awesome. That’s a huge table you’re making, I thought mine was big.

Regarding the dimensions/squareness I was assuming that the gantry would rely on a perfectly same width table as it rolled along to stay true on the x-axis as it moved along it’s length. I may answer this on my own once I get it all assembled but I suppose once it’s all squared up that may be all it needs to remain true on the one axis as it moves along the table.

Lexan that thick is pricey… you got really lucky. I was thinking a lexan plate for the router is actually nicer because you can see what’s going on.

By convention most people have the length of the table as the Y axis and the width as the X axis.

Your carriage should have a small gap and not be rubbing on the sides of the table so the side should have no effect.

The belts will keep the carriage at 90 degrees to the table… the only issue I had is some ‘drift’ side to side… some people prevent this using wheel rails or I routed grooves in the table for the wheels.

 

 

Thanks for the extra info Greg, I toured through your posts and found your info about the slightly wandering y-axis. The solutions you came up with seem ideal and I may copy some of it.

 

Yes I was definitely lucky with the lexan. The shop where the fellow works uses lexan a lot so little off cuts just go wasted most of the time which is normal but also sort of wild considering the expense and usefulness for hobbyists like me. I may hit him up for some scraps down the road if they do just get tossed.

I’ve got a 4” think table edge and don’t believe this is an issue at all? It seems I’ve got clearance between items on the y-plates now that I’ve got all those together. the fancy tube length calculator says I should have a 40” x 63” cutting area with my 48” x 78” table dimensions. This is a big space for me, and should be plenty for the things I’m hoping to tackle.

 

I know I’m pretty close to having this thing running now and it’s really just up to me getting all the last bits assembled and the wiring/software stuff figured out. Even my wife’s excited about this project so I’m looking forward to it.

 

More progress and what felt like a big move in the build phase as I’m out in the garage now with a moving gantry.

I think I may have the steppers for the z’s mounted with the cables facing the wrong way. Not a major issue but one I suppose I could remedy pretty quickly to avoid the risk of any cable carnage.

Optimistically I’m hoping to have this thing drawing this weekend. I’ll be tackling the wiring routing and connections next if there are any top tips. I’m going to use the hackaday tape measure idea someone posted and should have tons of that braided nylon sheath to work with elsewhere as I’ve got 25ft of the stuff.

 

 

 

 

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Home stretch!

 

 

It’s all too tight. and misaligned. I’m heading down familiar territory but I’m questioning my sanity at the same time. I can’t tighten things and keep things square. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

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I’m pretty sure I’ve got it all too tight like Ryan’s said many times in the past, over, and over again. I fussed and fussed last night and then gave up and started reading about squaring and I got the message pretty clearly. Less tightening.

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I can say I have never seen that axis not square…umm… You might want to check your printer to see if it has a Z axis tilt. Print a large cube and check the diagonal edges not just the flat surfaces.

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I’m not entirely familiar with how the LR2 goes together but it seems that purple part would have to be way out of square to get that effect. Are there goobers on the inside cylindrical surface, or maybe “elephant foot” first layer artifacts? If you find those issues, a file or sandpaper might remedy.

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