I borrowed a mouse from my father-in-law, and worked on cleaning up the CNC PC. It didn’t really go all that well, but I do have a working mouse.
I also checked the third critical measurement again, and cut the final 3 pieces of the superstructure, the router bracket, and router gantry bottom. The cuts went pretty quickly. Setting up the drill holes went well, too. I was a little worried about my hand-drilling. But that seems to have gone OK as well. I was getting a lot of chipout on both the saw and drill today. I think I was going too fast.
Once I started trying to put together the router gantry, the troubleshooting began. The first thing I noticed is that I had drilled the BRA hold down holes way too close to the edge of the router gantry sides. The measurement was 1-13/16″ and I cut it to 1-3/16″. sigh. So I set the new holes up and re-drilled. That worked just fine.
Then I noticed how tough it was to get the router gantry installed with the Z-axis in place. I think maybe I’m supposed to do it in a different order. Anyway, I got it in there, but getting the cross dowels into the bottom bracket was very tough.
Once I got everything installed, I realized that I’d cut the pieces too long. It took two iterations of tearing it all apart, setting up a new cut to trim off a small amount of wood, then putting it all back together, before I got to the point where the axis was now too tight. argh.
So I put in some washers to loosen things up a little; I needed to install them on each side before I found the right setup. Then the BRAs were still a little loose, so I installed washers under the BRA. Once that was done, I got everything tightened up one last time, and just like that, the superstructure was all together! w00t!
There are a number of places that need tweaking.
There are a few parts that still need cutting.
On the todo list:
– drill the Z-axis transmission holes and install the Z-axis transmission nut
– measure and drill the Z-axis motor mounts
– counterbore the X-axis motor mounts
– cut the Z-axis rail to length
– cut the X-axis rail to length
– mount the router and cut the router hole
At that point, I think that the “wood” part is done. I’m sure I’m forgetting some small tweaks, but at that point, this becomes an electronics project. With one good afternoon of work, I should be able to get there.
Already on the PC todo list:
– save off anything that needs to be archived
– install the CNC software
– test the motor cables
– install motors
If all goes well, I should be able to attempt some sawdust tomorrow or the day after.