I got a lot of work done today, despite being at a “stopping point”.
I started the day by chamfering the remaining 3 edges of the X-table.
Then I reset the chamfer bit, and chamfered the Y-“table”.
I was going to cut out and do the same to the Z-“table”, but ran into a roadblock.
I spent a bunch of time scratching my head, figuring out how to cut up the “primals” into parts.
While I was mulling it over, I rooted through the observatory and dug up all the 1/4-20 hardware I had lying around. I had just enough bolts to bolt the two halves of the X-table together. Nifty.
Then, before dinner, I pulled out the chop saw and cut:
– Parts C & D, the “Z-Gantry Sides”
– Parts W & X, the “Router Gantry Sides”
– Parts G,H,I, & J, 4 of the 6 motor mounts
– Part E, the X-axis transmission nut
I also realized that of the 3 primals I have left, two of them have enough meat on them to consolidate some of the parts, and in particular, all of the Y-axis “dependent” parts are on one primal, and all of the Z-axis “dependent” parts are on another one, and all are set up such that I can cut the length all at the same time, so they will be perfectly the same length. w00t!
I showered before dinner; I was covered in sawdust after routing and sawing all morning and afternoon.
Once the kids were in bed, I started laying out measurements on the parts I’d cut. I ran into some “bugs” in the plans. Nothing I missed catching before taking things to the drill, but there was a lot of second-guessing and re-checking involved.
In particular, bugs that I found are:
– The axis bearing counterbore + 2 holes to attach the motor mount have a variety of widths in the plans. They are shown on 4 different parts (the X-table leg, the Y-gantry side, the Z-gantry side, and the motor mount), and they simply don’t all agree. I ended up lining things up against parts I’d already cut out (luckily, the two that *do* agree are the two I’d cut already), and that worked.
– The BRA hold down points have different spacing on various parts on which they occur (The Y-gantry side, Z-gantry side, and Router gantry side). I checked several places, and even laid some 3/4″ rail in between some 1/4-20 screws on the Y-gantry sides, and changed everything around to match that.
– There is not a comprehensive set of correct measurements for the Z-gantry sides. This is a well-documented problem, but even the “best” version, the one from the forum, has the BRA mounted in a different way than the “normal” plans, so there was some fancy “to the 32nd” math that had to happen before I could get that laid out.
I have decided that I really, really suck at hand drilling. I tried a couple more of the “this will go into a cross dowel” holes today, and frankly, I can’t get it done right. I will have to re-drill them. sigh. I see some J-B Weld in my future.
Anyway, once I had everything laid out for the drill press, things went pretty quick. I banged out all the 1/4″, 7/16″, and axis bearing holes I had to get done. My big pile of parts is down to some partly-drilled motor mounts (I am going to wait until the motors get here tomorrow before I drill those), and the X-axis transmission nut, which somehow escaped my notice while I was measuring.
I have now completed:
– Y-gantry sides
– Z-gantry sides
– Router gantry sides
– X-table legs
Partially completed:
– X-table (I still need to drill the holes for the angle, but I am worried about the warping of the table, so I might add some more through bolts)
– motor mounts (need the coupling hole and the 4 motor holes drilled and counterbored)
– X-axis transmission nut (needs to be measured and drilled)
Dependent:
– Y-table, both parts, and gantry bottom (dependent on width of X-table)
– Z-table and “gantry bottom” (3 parts total) (dependent on width of Y-table)
– Router-table and “gantry back” (3 parts total) (dependent on width of Z-table)
En route (all expected Monday):
– hardware kit (can’t wait for BRAs, bearings, cross dowels, and couplings!)
– electronics kit (yummy)
Now I have to shower again before bed. Sawdust, baby.