New Build in Manassas, VA

ChefSpanky · January 9, 2021, 2:39pm

I have been lurking for about a month, reading as much of the forums as possible, making notes of the many of the do’s and don’ts, deciding on how big of a machine I want to build.

I started my life as an auto mechanic, was an electrician in the Navy and got my computer science degree on active duty - this project uses all of those skills! BTW, please consider me a resource for computer and IT related questions, happy to contribute (I run both Windows and Ubuntu Linux at home) - I am a coder by profession and founded and sold a startup back during the dotcom boom - so if a solution is needed, I am happy to contribute. Unfortunately, I have risen to my level of incompetence and don’t get my hands in the works these days, so this is truly fun for me. From the looks of it, you have an awesome community here and I am happy to join and contribute.

I am starting my table today! All of my parts are printed (please don’t laugh at the colors, we had a filament shortage and I learned how to successfully to a filament swap mid print! ). I have all of my supplies in hand.

I have spent the last few weeks prepping my garage ( I had to do some serious purging and re-arranging).
I have a new idea for a drop table starting with AllTed’s parametric table, Dui’s peg system and Ryan’s hand crank idea. I will be sharing my progress (good or bad).

So here’s to starting the new adventure!

jeffeb3 · January 9, 2021, 3:18pm

Welcome to the crew.

There are a few software projects here that could always use more eyes and fingers. Here are some (in no particular order):

Marlin Builder

The current location for firmware configurations.

Docs

The documentation.

v1pi

A script build pi image useful for our little machines.

TFT screen

Our (heavily edited) fork of the tft software.

Sandify

Website to create patterns for sand tables like the zenxy.

If you (or anyone else) wants to contribute to these projects, we there is always room. These all seem to work well enough, so we need to add features in a way that doesn’t add a ton of maintenance. They all have issue trackers (but they sometimes represent things we won’t do more than stuff we need to do).

Tokoloshe · January 9, 2021, 3:56pm

Welcome to the party. I think we had an orange/blue Primo before, but not in a single part.

turbinbjorn · January 9, 2021, 9:09pm

Welcome! One friendly advice to a kind newcomer: Just be careful around the guys who sacrifices goats!

Tokoloshe · January 9, 2021, 11:12pm

Says the Viking.

ChefSpanky · January 10, 2021, 2:15am

Thanks everyone! I feel welcome! i will definitely see where I can contribute as I get up and running. Made some progress today, with a a few build challenges. Had to refit the roller feet. Things are coming together. More tomorrow!

timonjkl · January 10, 2021, 4:41am

Wow love it can’t wait to see it covered in dust or old g###

jeffeb3 · January 10, 2021, 4:43pm

Looks like a smart design. Like a big easy chair for your CNC.

ChefSpanky · January 11, 2021, 2:26am

Day 2 is in the books! Got the shelves in stalled and used that exercise to square it up a bit. Spent most of the day prototyping my drop system. I have been burning a lot of brain cells on how this can work. Once it started coming together, the realities of precision, especially over long vertical runs is critical. Clearancing my threaded rods 1/32 at a time until they were functional. The center “guides” are schedule 40 1/2" PVC tubes - they go through 7/8" holes. There is just enough clearance to allow movement but each side can actually be lifted by 1 threaded rod - just enough support to prevent racking and binding. I had some bearings left over from a filament spool project so I put them at the bottom. The goal is to put hand cranks on the tops of the rods (after I get my 2 layers of MDF - the top layer being spoil board).

Next up I will frame out the “build area bed” to rest on the lifting boards. My wife was quick to point out that it might take two people to raise and lower it without a mechanism to move them all together. I will save that for v 2.0. I reasoned that while it will be nice to have a drop table, the likelihood that I would be going up and down multiple times a day just doesn’t seem realistic - yet. So when the need arises to drop the center, it will be part of the job setup.

I have an idea for anchoring the front (instead of pegs) to incrementally position the front cross 4X4 (think 1/4" increments) and then can use the threaded rods to always adjust it to be level - in theory.

Much of this is all test fit. I will start attaching everything once I get the drop bed framed out and we can evaluate the attachment strategy.

Feedback welcome! much of my design is based upon other’s that have been shared and me watching a butt load of videos …

Tokoloshe · January 11, 2021, 4:08pm

This is genius and I hate you for not having the same idea before building my table.

ChefSpanky · January 13, 2021, 2:38am

Slow progress. I finally got the lifting mechanism attached to the table. I framed out the drop table piece. I successfully can travel the drop bed up and down. It takes forever and is a real pain - but. it. works. . Upside is there is fine enough adjustment to tweak it. All of this for a 24 X 24 work area… I need to attach the front 4X4 to the bed and I have an alignment strategy for it as well. Should be starting machine assembly by the weekend!

This picture is with the bed dropped about 6"

Alignment is a real pain - definitely will be documenting some lessons learned from this. I need something on the end of the rods to center in the bearings but the turning motion is pretty sweet. A cordless drill makes quick work of moving the rods, although they have to be walked up.