Seattle Lowrider CNC V2

Hi All,

Went from “it’d sure be handy to be able to machine 4x8’ plywood into furniture” to ordering the parts kit from V1 and printing the parts for the Lowrider v2. Getting close to finished, figured I’d log my build for the benefit of future lowrider enthusiasts!

Plan is to be able to cut 4’ x 4’ (half sheet) of plywood at a time, flipping it if necessary to do the whole sheet. The build table is therefore going to be 56" x 63" if I remember what the calculator said. I ordered the kit with the mini-Rambo.

I ordered stainless tubing from Metal Supermarkets in Kent, WA (which I was able to pick up in person the next day. There’s a forum topic on the subject, which evades me at the moment.) These things had some NASTY burrs, which took a while to remove with a file and a Husky brand pipe deburring tool I picked up. I probably could have used a dremel with an abrasive bit to do this faster.

I printed the plywood part DXF’s on my printer (a 13"x19" printer that I haven’t used in years, so it was happy to be appreciated!) I imported them into Fusion 360, via the create Drawing functionality, which wasn’t super obvious but I got it to work:

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Next I attached those to plywood: oak 1/4" for the 611 plate, and 1/2" baltic birch for the Y sides. I cut them out with a bandsaw, jigsaw, drill press, and finished on a spindle sander:

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Printed all the parts, some in black (amazon generic brand PLA) and the blue (Hatchbox brand PLA.) 3 shells, 30% infill, .28 layer height, no surprises. Actually, I was surprised that there were no surprises; each part was correctly aligned when I imported them into my slicer. Truly an excellent design.

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Assembly at this point was basically a snap. Be sure to measure the screws etc, as there is a mixture of metric and SAE hardware, which confused me at first.

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For the wheel assemblies, I didn’t have to use a rubber mallet or anything, the bearings press-fit into the wheels by just putting them flat on my table and using hand pressure.

Making the plywood parts accurately is vital (holes drilled in correct locations.) I used a center punch and a brad point drill to make sure there were no surprises there. There are a few edges I needed to trim to get the parts to fit exactly right.

Can’t think of any “gotchas” other than the V-rail attachment (cable holder) was confusing until I realized the long-ish 6x32 screws go downwards into the steel pipe.

Next up, build table. I’ve milled the lumber (jointer, planer, and table saw) to be straight and true, shall update the post as I make it.

Then, electronics, movement, and eventually, celebration! :slight_smile: Thanks for the awesome design.

 

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Awesome post, welcome to the crew. Now stop typing and get that finished up and dirty!

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We have lift off!

Ultra simple table, but it’s perfectly square thanks to milling the lumber first. Plunked MDF on it for the time being (48x48 MDF half sheet)

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I like these Y axis tensioners off Thingiverse, a little easier than the belt-ziptie-dealies ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3453813 )

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Manually drew a sweet “box” to start :wink:

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Tomorrow, sleeving the cables, then I’ll make some actual cuts/ run some gcode to make some funny drawings.

But man, this thing is smooth and accurate! Thanks again for a grand design!

 

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Cleaned up the wiring a bit, half assed the pen z height and ran it twice, but made the token big ol crown, looking good! Soon the chips will fly … Ahhhhhhh

 

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Finally got to the fun part: having the machine improve itself by making the parts that I made by hand earlier!

Amazed at the accuracy, what an awesome design!

I got some cabinet screws and 3D printed the clamps. Will print more clamps, 4 probably was the bare minimum. 12 foot “crush proof” shop vac hose fit the bill nicely, as it reaches the wheeled shop vac on the floor. The dust collection works very well.

I put “finished elegance” brand pre-finished (lacquer it appears) 11/16" x 1.5" moulding my rails, on top of the jointed 2x3. They are supposed to be moisture and dent resistant, so hopefully they will hold up! They are 1/16" below the surface of my spoiboard, which seems to be perfect.

Interested to see how the Birch plywood cuts compared to the MDF. Cutting that tomorrow.

Looking forward to some big projects!

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For some reason, I think it cuts like sugar cookie dough. I love it.

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Hah! Tis the season!