I am looking at the design files, It looks like it may be possible to laser or waterjet the stepper motor holders to save fabrication time…
Water jet some aluminum would be really nice, You will need extra speed washers.the printed ones have them built in. Let me know what kind of price you get for them I might want to buy in bulk.
I do water jet and laser, shoot me an email and Lets work something out…
Lasered steel plate in 2 or 3mm and powder coating is dirt cheap
I can also get CNC bending done. It is around 70 cents per bend for small runs.
looking closer, The part roller motor mount could be made in 3 lasered parts.
One flat part from 2mm steel plate, and the bottom as 2 parts lasered and CNC bent with a way to bolt it together.
Part Z motor mount could be water jetted from 10mm aluminum and then finished on a milling machine, although the bolt size would have to be maybe m6 or m5.
Motor mounted with standoff brackets or just longer conduit.
Middle end can be water jetted although the bolt holes I would not water jet, just drill them out. You will get some artifacts on the end holes and the machine time goes up because of the piercings.
Alternately I could water jet delrin or HDPE sheet and machine. Machined Delrin looks like injection molded parts when done.
Same with Middle Joiner. Water jet and a final machining.
To save money I would leave with mill finish or we could powder coat them which adds about a week to the process.
Now if we could figure out how to cast them and use resin…
Corner blocks I would use aluminum bar stock or delrin. Cut to length on a lathe, then drill out on a milling machine. Attach the belts with a electrical connector like I sent in a PM a few days ago. Delrin would be cheapest to machine.
It could all be modified, I was heading towards injection molding, but realized that would be a waste of money.
Two things. Milling is expensive, You could easily throw money at this and make it better. Delrin is ridiculously expensive and aluminum block aren’t far behind. My goal was how inexpensive can I make a mill that can mill aluminum at a decent speed, I think I achieved that. Buy buying in bulk I think I’m helping others to get it for a good price as well. The total cost of the parts is less than 2 spools of filament. I use that as my base price right now without looking for a deal thats less than $50 for all the parts.
The second thing is you might be adding significant mass. Adding mass forces you to slow down the machine and you lose power to just moving the machine around.
The reason I like the x and y motor mount out of sheet is to help with the bending and creep that happens from keeping that plastic piece under tension all the time. It is flat because I intended to get this piece cut, I had to add that rib feature because the first one bent too easily.
I could get well below $50 for lasered steel 2 and 3mm plate.
I build 3D printers and other stuff in the Philippines, so my costs for some items are really low.
One of the things that attracted me to the project is your use of steel pipe and bearings vs linear guides.
I have been searching for a CNC machine design for the last 2 years, that does not require a lot or no parts from China. Ordering from China, I pay more than what I would if I was to buy in the US. Linear bearings, guide rod, and ball screws are crazy expensive here. A order of $300 in ball screws and smooth rod will cost additional $400-500 dollars in shipping and customs.
On the other hand raw materials like steel plate, laser, water jet, delrin and machining if done locally I can match or beat China prices.
I’d love to try out a cut/bent setup. I am pretty booked up right now but I think I could get full roller assembly DXF/DWG redesigned for sheet metal. Could be a cool experiment. If they work well I would love do more of the pieces. Can you do smaller production runs?
I would really like to dedicate more time to the cnc and that requires monetizing it somehow. I thing full kits is the way to do it for people without a 3d printer.
Since you like the rails I use, do you have a any ideas.I would like to do 1 design using 1 rail available world wide. right now we have 23.5mm and 25mm. I might be able to make it adjustable to fit both but really just want 1 rail available everywhere. Double development is tiring, not a fan of extra work.
I can do smaller runs no problem. I can fit parts on to the un-used skeletons of my current production stuff
My biggest hassle with the smaller jobs is the running around town. I am currently without a vehicle and public transport turns a 20 mile trip into a half day affair.
If you want I can laser and bend the test parts for free. If it works, I will send you the prices for fabrication.
As far as the pipe issue, not much you can do with the sizes, Where I am at it is a english/metric mix but a little more heavy towards metric that the States.
Pipes and bar stock here are generally english sizes. The machinists prefer english sizes cause if they are making something in metric 25mm size they get 25.4mm (1 inch) size and have some stock to work with for surface finish.
Note for CNC tolerances, bending is within one degree, laser/water jet is within 0.2mm for 2mm and goes up the thicker the material.
I was thinking of something like this…
Acme screw version here…
Hey autox3d, can you contact me via email and or give me a way to contact you? I have some steel laser cutting and possibly bending I need done and would like to see what you could do or get it done for. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Sorry to hijack the thread, I dunno how else to try to make contact.
I can be reached at moonbloodsflow@gmail.com
id opt for \water jet parts myself if that was an option.
The X and Y motor mounts would look good as water jet aluminum…