I just couldn’t face another marathon session today. I put some time in, and I got some good work done, but I quit before dinner and took the evening off.
I started the day at Home Depot. I knew that without a chuck key, I wasn’t going to be able to start really putting the parts together in a permanent way. While I was out, I also picked up some sandpaper and I was able to find a set of Allen drill bits. w00t!
The search for the actual chuck key took quite a bit of time, though. 2 hardware stores and a trip home to remove the chuck and arbor from the drill press were required before I found something that would work. The Ryobi chuck is irritatingly smaller than 1/4″ pilot hole, so it’s difficult to find a chuck key that will work. I finally figured out that 15/64 (that’s 1/64 less than 1/4″) works. grr.
With the old drill bit out of the chuck, I was able to pop in a Forstner bit and get all the pocketing done that I needed to.
I also figured out how to turn the head of the drill press sideways, so that I can drill into longer stock. That’s a big win.
Armed with a power Allen driver and a full set of gantry parts, I threw together the front of the gantry (complete with cross dowels) in … fairly short order.
The power went out for a couple of hours; there was a pretty big windstorm, but we really need to think about getting a generator. The stuff I was doing did not require power, but I took an hour off anyway, because I was starting to get tired and I was definitely hungry.
Back to work, I added one gantry side, but realized that the other gantry side is really not the same size and shape. I think maybe I did an “inside” profile on one of them by mistake. I had considered picking up a quarter sheet of ply while I was at the hardware store, but didn’t do it. I think that I’ll be re-cutting at least one of the two gantry sides (I can’t figure out which one is “correct” from the data I have).
I moved on to the Z axis. I really needed to watch and study the construction videos, because it was a case of painstakingly getting a bunch of stuff put together, only to realize that I needed to rip it all apart in order to get the next bit in. I probably built and tore down the axis 3 times today, each time a maddening succession of misdrilled holes and too-tight fits. I stopped once I got both router mounts in, with one side of the axis installed, and the other tacked in place with a couple of bolts.
I just didn’t have the energy to keep going.
I’ll get back to it tomorrow, and more progress will be made. If all the parts fit together perfectly, it would still take a little time to get everything running right. But just like the last CNC build, the edge drilling is really suspect, and it makes everything take forever to complete, because there’s a lot of drilling and re-drilling going on.
Todo:
– complete Z axis construction
* build the other side front
* drill the clamp holes for the router mounts
* attach the top and bottom assemblies
– more recuts
* gantry side
* vacuum shoe (drawing needs to be mirrored — I hope CamBam can do it)
– rails
* Need to buy 2x 59″ and 2×16″ (I suppose I could use the 52 and 8 to make 60″ rails and then just buy the 16″ ones)
* drill the rails (measurements? I imagine I will just lay the rails in situ and mark them as we go — drill slightly large for adjustment)
Without rails, there’s no need for bearing surfaces to get done.
Without bearing surfaces, there’s no real need to work on chain mounting.
I can’t start harvesting parts off the old CNC machine until I know it’s done cutting. That’s keeping the Z axis down for now.
I still need to stop by Tacoma Screw to pick up some ceramic bearings.
I’m suddenly realizing that I have a long way to go yet.