The last box of parts arrived today, so I started construction on the CNC machine.
I also headed over to Home Depot to pick up the lumber for the torsion box; I ended up with 3 sheets of 3/4″ MDF (which is about $33/sheet, a lot more than I was expecting) and 2 sheets of lauan ply (1/4″ stuff). I bought a new sawblade too, for doing all the MDF cuts.
Anyway, to the build.
The small inaccuracies in bit position and angle added up to some of the holes not… quite… lining up. I mean I think everything is going to come out OK in the end, but a lot of the pieces fit tight.
I ended up with 2 x-axis mounts, for some reason.
I cut one of the Y supports backwards (it’s a mirror image of what it should be).
But I got the Y gantry together, mostly. And I got all the rest of the parts sorted into piles with their various assemblies.
Here’s what’s left to do.
To buy:
– new Y axis rails (I bought 2×52″, they need to be 2×59″)
– new Z axis rails (I bought 2×8″, they need to be 2x~16″ — measure against the appropriate piece)
– washers 3/16″ thin and thick (need ~16 of each)
To be designed:
– router mount (probably make one for the DeWalt and one for the Craftsman)
– gantry top and bottom (these were too long to cut on the book machine, and too wide to cut with the scraps; I need to cut shorter lengths and make do. Either 2×24″ and 2×18″ OR 6×12″ will do the trick. Need to line up the holes, though. Cut from the 24″ stock that’s left and design from the DXF)
– cross doweling jig (is this part hiding out on the DXF somewhere?)
– Figure out placement for all the re-cuts.
Re-cuts (I should have plenty of stock for all this; about 12″x24″ on each of 4 boards, plus some small scrap):
– 2 router mounts
– vacuum shoe (2 parts)
– 2 small router mounts (square, with 5 cross dowel holes)
– 2 large router mounts (can just route them flat, maybe)
– 2 Z rail supports (can just route them flat, maybe)
– Z motor mount (it’s really bad)
– a couple of the chain clamp parts (they’re pretty quick and are in tough shape)
– gantry top and bottom pieces
To drill:
– 7/16″ holes in the Y gantry backer board.
– all the cross dowel holes
– a few places where pockets were missed (bearing seat on one gantry side, bearing seat on Z axis bearing mount)
– holes in the rails (measure against the as-built)
To grok:
– figure out the new Z-table (compare the 4.1 and 4.0 ones and study the changes; in particular, did the bearing mount points change?)
– X motor mount (3rd cross dowel?)
– Z screw mounts (how do they work?)
It’s going to be awhile before I’m finished. And I am more certain than ever that I am going to cut a new Blackfoot as my first project on the new Blackfoot. For $50 of plywood, there’s no reason to hesitate. I am unimpressed with the accuracy of my first couple of boards, but I am not certain that running 2 more boards through the Book machine is worth it. I can hide most of the egregious errors, but I’m really fighting the little “off by a touch” places whenever I try to put a screw in.