Paradox Pete's LR V2

Greetings all,

Thought it might be time to share my LR2. I did things just a tiny bit different from Ryan’s instructions at a number of points in my build, and thought a couple of the changes might be of interest to others.

I was drawn to the LR by the large working area, low cost, and because I can still use the most of the work surface for other purposes when the LR is parked at one end of the table. Many thanks to Ryan for sharing the design. I like to support open source / design projects when I can, so I did purchase a hardware/stepper/wiring kit from V1. Easy when Ryan’s prices seem to be pretty good anyway…8^)

I printed most of the parts with a carbon nylon blend filament. Possibly not the best choice. It is relatively difficult to print (prone to warping, etc) and is less rigid than PLA. It does seem to be rigid enough, however, and should be much tougher.

Rather than the stainless tubing recommended, I used 4130 chrome-moly tubing, as I happened to already have it. I’m pretty sure it is plenty hard and rigid. I’ve seen no issues with it.

I’m using a tinyg controller, again because it was something I already had. Setup and configuration has been easy, and everything is working great. The tinyg has outputs for spindle control, coolant, etc. I’ve managed to arrange things so the spindle control turns the 611 router on (m3 or m4) and off (m5), and the coolant output controls my dust collector.

While I was surprised at how well the vac duct worked, I have a 4" dust collection system in my garage, and the tiny duct seemed highly restrictive, so I made a somewhat larger duct. It’s about as big as possible within the constraints of the stock 611 plate.

I don’t have room for a full sheet Lowrider, so I went with a ~24’ x ~64" working area. The actual dimensions result from my use of a 32x80 solid core door as a table surface. This is the easiest Lowrider table I can imagine, and also inexpensive if you pick up a second hand door. I got mine at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and just cleaned it up and painted it. I do have a few inches of extra y-tube length, so I could go to a 36’ wide door if I come across one.

So far I’ve just used my Lowrider to make it’s own parts. After getting it running, I cut new 611 and Y-Plates (originals were rough hand made versions). followed by a couple of finger jointed boxes. One to hold the tinyg and a Raspberry Pi, and another for power supplies (24v for tinyg and 5v for RPi), an opto-coupled solenoid for spindle control, and a master power switch.

Now it’s time to learn a bit more about CAD/CAM so I can make more stuff.

-Pete

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Cool build. Check out my v1pi image if you’re interested.

The DC port looks pretty nice. I’m sure many people would be interested in that, myself included. I have a sold core door in my shoo, mayb I should repurpose it… What is the last picture of?

Such a clean build and really demonstrates how tidy the Lowrider for its size.

Very nice! I just started cutting with my lowrider, and I need to make a bigger dust port as well. I’m gonna try to fit my 2.5 inch hose on it. Good work!

Thanks Jeffeb3,

I am using your v1pi image. I’m guessing that’s built on rapbian lite? I switch my dust collector with a wifi switch over MQTT (sonoff w/tasmota firmware). Controlling it from the Lowrider involved reading the signal from the tinyg via a GPIO pin and publishing an MQTT message. I wrote my first ever Python program to do this, but found I needed to add a few packages to the pi to get it working…

The last picture is of the bottom of a Z tube, where I put a stop/switch mount. I have homing switches on all 3 axes. I’ve already found this useful to when looking to restart a job.

I will share the DC port. I made it a couple mm to wide, so I’ll fix that first. I attempted to make the base as wide as would fit between the X mounts, but neglected to note that the bearings protrude beyond the mounts themselves. A rat tail file was my crude solution. 8^) My 2.5" hose is a loose fit on the port…It’s probably about right for 2.25"…but the hose stays on, and I find I like the ability to easily pull the hose off and use it to clean up.

I also need to get my magnetic dust collection fittings on thingiverse. They show in another pic. I’m really pleased with them. The picture has a fitting for the 4" DWV pipe, a green “cap” that I use to close the ports I’m not using, and a 4" to 2.5" adapter.

I’ve noticed that some LR builders have added brushes around the 611 plate, but that looks like it would make setup awkward. I’m finding the Dust collection adequate without it

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Yes, I pull a new image when I build it. It is based off the excellent work of octopi, which scripts the entire thing, building it in a docker image. It works great, and almost anything you can do on the command line on a pi, you can set up in a script, and do it repeatably.

Nice.

I’ve also seen people use that rubbery paper from hobby stores. I think it just slows down the dust so the collector can pick it up. The huge DC you have probably doesn’t hurt.

Brushes catch the fast movers.

Right now I’m using a dustopper from HD because I already had it, but that thing really chokes down the flow. Still good enough to suck up all the dust from the table in short order, but I have to use it a bunch more to determine whether the air is moving fast enough to keep dust in the bucket and not my DC (small portable 1hp unit).
All that so I can relate that for now I rest the big hose on the small port and just hold it while the lr moves around doing its thing. Huge difference in how much dust ends up on things like rails, steppers, virtually everything, so I’ll be happy with just the 2.5 inch hose. Doesn’t pick up the heavier stuff from the piece or the surface. Got me thinking about an air curtain to wrap around the back of the 611 plate. Don’t know how much air it would take, or how small the holes would have to be, but that would be pretty cool. Anyway, wrong thread for all of that.

Here is my Vacuum duct. I’ve only make it 4mm narrower than my initial design. That may not be quite enough, and I haven’t printed this version myself to check, but I think it should JUST barely fit. I hope it’s useful.

I find a few things really help make my time in the shop more fun and MUCH more productive. Good Dust collection is one of those, along with good light, decent organization (tool storage etc.), and adequate heat / insulation. Like most of my shop tools I have Craigslist (Denver) to thank for my dust collector. It doesn’t get ALL the dust, but it gets 90+%, and makes it easy to clean up the rest. A very worthwhile investment. I’m sure it’s better for my health as well.

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ha! I found a 42" commercial solid core door at the Re-Store. I’m putting ⅛" hardboard over the veneer and riding the wheels on some s4s MDF trim.

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That’s a great find! I thought using a door for the table was a good idea and hoped others might find it useful. I’m going to have to watch for something like that myself.

I’ve been making my first “real” cuts with my Lowrider. I’ve learned a little something that’s probably worth sharing.

I had made a few things with some nice 1/4" baltic birch plywood cut with a 1/8" bit. Everything had worked perfectly. However, my lowrider shut down – spontaneously – mid-cut ! while cutting 1/2 " ply with a 1/4" bit at a 5mm DOC. Twice!

After thinking about it a little, I concluded that the only thing really different with this cut was the volume of saw dust created. Also, It’s really dry in my shop now. Relative humidity about 10%. Seemed like I might have a static problem…

I added a minimal ground wire inside the dust hose. I just stripped about 2" of insulation off a length of 18ga wire I had on hand, hung it inside the dust hose about 8" up from the 611 plate, and connected the other end to the mounting screw on a convenient electrical outlet (the mounting “ears” on an outlet are electrically tied to the ground lug). This seems to have solved the random shutdown problem.

Food for thought.

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I found my solid core door in the back of the hone depot. They have a section with special ordered doors that were returned and are at clearance prices. It is hard to find them flat. So many are the 6 panel stuff.

Maybe I should special order one that is 60" wide and then return it :slight_smile:

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Another good tip! I didn’t know they did that I’ll have to check.

I actually bought my door as a set of three. They had never been installed! Never drilled for knob or hinges. They were pretty scratched up though. I’m guessing a builder had mis-ordered 32" when he wanted 36", or something like that. I figured on using them for bench tops, but ended up only using 2… until now…

How would you hang a 60" wide solid core door? Hinges would be a losing battle, I think. Barn door style overhead rollers? If I needed to fill a 60" hole, I think I’d go with french doors. I actually have a 60" wide sliding glass door I would like to replace with french doors…

All good reasons to return it, then buy it again for a LR table.

Not if you cheat… The way my dad did it was to include diagonal bracing and threaded rod the width of the door. Managed to keep it square and swinging smooth. At probably closer to 48" wide, but something like 84" tall… One side of an outside gardening closet. It hinged out, then the other side was on a barn door arrangement to slide into the now vacant space. But it was also a custom made door (general contractors usually have mill workers happy to do personal work at cost to ensure the chance to keep bidding on the big jobs).

I forget how wide my shop door is. I’m pretty sure it used to be a pocket door. It’s hanging on standard(but heavy) door hinges.

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I’ve made some changes to my Lowrider, so…time for an update.

As noted above, I used a 32"x80" solid core door for my table. This provided a ~24"x64" working area. I’m working on a project where I needed a longer work area. There are ways to work around this, but it seemed like a good excuse to add unistrut rails.

While at HD to get the unistrut, I thought I’d take @jeffeb3’s advice and see if there might be a deal to be had on a bigger door…Nothing available of the returned type, but they had a 36"x80" door that was pretty scratched and scuffed up. I couldn’t find a price on it, but after some inquiries, it was determined it usually sold for ~$77 dollars, but I could have it for $50 due to the damage. Works for me!

So I now have a ~31"x104" working area (more than double my original!). Cutting a full 8’ will involve 8" of the material extending past the table on each end, but I don’t see that as a big problem. On the other hand, I now have an area at each end where I can potentially mount material too thick to fit under the router while on the table. Or mount a board to work the end. Or possibly even a place to mount a rotary axis!


None of the above is anything new or groundbreaking, others led the way… However, I did make one change that may be new. While mounting the unirail on the door, it occurred to me that it might be possible to put the belt inside the unirail. If the table was dedicated strictly to the Lowrider, this might not be worth doing, but my table also serves as an assembly/finishing/etc. table, and “hiding” the belt would be nice when doing those sorts of activities on it. A search in these forums found one previous mention of doing this, but indication it had ever been implemented. Bummer. :slightly_frowning_face: I was hoping for some “prior art”, I could copy. After a bit of measuring, some CAD, and 3d printing, I was able to put the belt inside the unistrut. I only did 1 side, as the other is up near a wall.

I used 4 idler pulleys and this 3d printed assembly to “offset” the belt so it would be inside the unistrut


This results in a somewhat convoluted belt path. It would be easier to design something to just move the 2 original idler pulleys as necessary, but I’m using @someoldguycoding’s “Schmutz Covers”, and wanted to see if I could work around those too. It all seems to work just fine. I used some blocks of wood cut to fit inside the unistrut and eye bolts to mount the belt.


Time to start making some more saw dust!

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Neat!

That looks like it could be a perfect set up for custom carved doors!