Hi Piotr. Your videos are a great source of inspiration, speically becasue your desing is different!!!! I was ready to start building a fixed gantry / column milling machine and after watching your videos multiple times, I'm questioning my initial plan. My goal is similar to yours, get the best possible finish and accuracy. The only difference, based on what you had shared is that you mainly do aluminum and I will do aluminum, but also steel. There are many reasons why your machine, with a gantry design makes sense, there is only 2 things I'm considering: 1) given the current suply chain issues, getting a granite suraface plate large enough would be a huge challenge and very expensive. The alternative would be to do granite epoxy and find a different solution to achive the desire flatness, which is what you got by using a surface plate, out of the box. 2) how rigid you think your design is compare to a fixed grantry? again, your design makes sense, but all the big guys machines, like HAAS VF2, etc, are using fixed grantries. Is that only for lack of inovation and try something different? to sell more expensive machines with a few more inches of working area? or just for the extra rigidity?
1) epoxy would be very tricky to get it flat etc. beside epoxy shrinks when it cures. thermal expansion is 7x bigger than granite. it will also sag over the time, especially when its warm. so it will take some time until it stabilizes even with rocks inside. in comparison granite had 300 million years to stabilize :) I'm not saying its not possible, I'm just saying its much more work and it will be much trickier to do it to the same level as granite. 2) there is always a trade-off something for something you can't have it all. my design 2 servos on Y vs one. extra ball screw etc. but much bigger work area in much smaller machine. 20x + by volume. fixed gantry makes sense when you use some monstrous spindles. so everything is also made to work in its scale. in monstrous machines they go back to moving gantry again. the best design in my opinion is kern kind of hybrid but the most rigid construction. but huge machine in comparison to the work area. as I said before, always a trade-off I don't think my answers are any help to anyone recently :D
Yes, I know. How about the sand+small rocks+epoxy for the base and a 1” aluminum plate on top as table, which can be later machined with the same machine. I’m just trying to find alternatives since lead tine for a surface plate that size may be 6+ months, from a well known brand
If I could say something. You should mix all sorts of sizes of stones. I guess there is a lot of info about it around. I would recommend to check it out.
Gratuluję odwagi w budowie maszyny cnc z granitu,dla mnie jesteś wielki.Ja też buduje maszynę cnc ale głównie z aluminium , które jest o wiele łatwiejsze w obróbce i tak muszę się zmierzyć z wieloma problemami.Ale z granitu . Jesteś WIELKI! Jak to mówią Polak potrafi.Oby udało ci się Piotrze uzyskac dokładności którą sobie założyłeś. Powodzenia.
dzieki :) ja kombinowalem pare lat ze przydalo by sie miec lepsza cnc, ale nigdy mi sie nie chcialo tego robic. Ale jak juz nie moglem wyrobic z moja chinska 6040 to najprosciej mi bylo zrobic z granitu :) zeby zrobic z aluminium to trzeba miec maszyny zeby to prosto wyszlo. granit nie jest taki straszny, jak pomyslisz to ludzie kuchenne blaty jakos robia i tna. czyli sie da :D
Excellent video series, thanks again for sharing your work and the clear explanations of the how and why of everything! I'm sure you know this, just adding for completeness: spreading the rails and mounting blocks farther apart also gives better leverage for resisting off-axis forces / torque.
Did it make hard working and resisted cracking ? I plan to make from concrete with iron rods but i suspect if it cracks. Please inform me if you have data. Thank you very much in advance. Congragulations👏
I noticed you only screwed the blocks of the top rail while adjusting the y-axis (I assume because adjusting would change the distance between the rails), but wouldn't screwing all blocks force a constant distance between the top and bottom rails which could help you set the rails easier? Btw, I'm amazed by the quality of your work. I don't really have much work experience in precision or machine design, but after watching so many RUclips videos I can easily tell you are doing some really fine work.
I need to rebuild my CNC from scratch. I've learnt so much that I've outgrown it. But this time I want to make it more precise. I see a lot of precision marking and measuring tools, but don't know the names of them. Which ones do you think are essential to build a precise CNC (without going to extremes, because I'm not an engineer and I don't have access to a proper shop). Thanks!
i would recommend a dial indicator on a stand, granite square or something similar, and perhaps a straight edge. please check my recent videos "epic cnc upgrade" its another series on upgrading this machine with proper stuff and proper ways of assembling everything. this time i put much more time trying to explain, what and why.
how did you attach the rails to the granite. this is really some serious precision stuff on youtube. first time seeing someone doing these type of things, making cnc out of granite.
Hi Piotr, love your videos, thanks again for making them! Without having built one yet, it looks like the least rigid part of the machine would be the gantry. I am considering box beam construction for the gantry, to increase stiffness without a large increase in weight. Given your experience with the mill, is there a significant improvement possible here, or does this seem like wasted effort because other factors have more of an effect? Perhaps problematic because of needing thicker granite to anchor fasteners in? Clearly more work to build. Issues would include how to get the beam front surface straight, any deformation due to fastener forces, ...
One thought: would it make sense to put one rail on the ground top surface of the gantry and the other rail near the bottom of the side (where it is now)? The first rail provides a vertical reference. The second rail controls (or prevents) rotation of the spindle mounting plate relative to the gantry. Perhaps the top rail is attached while the gantry is laid flat on the bottom tooling plate. Use the rail carriage to control the distance from the edge / tooling plate during mounting. Or, remove the carriage and the rail is either directly against the tooling plate or a precise spacer strip.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki I would like to understand what would make it difficult to align, to help me do a better job of designing. I have limited time right now, and will just list the items that I am aware of so far (pardon my perhaps confused terminology). Thinking out loud: Item 1: As a design input, how much lash vertically vs. side-to-side for the carriages? How to use them for the most accuracy. Best direction to apply (A) uni-directional, (B) bi-directional forces. Avoid applying torque. Probably a linear rail manufacturer has a published application guide. Item 2: If the top of the gantry is ground parallel to the bed with the gantry mounted (I will need to re-watch videos to check whether this was done), then any vertical variation would be due to variation in the linear rail. I am not sure how much it varies, or the effort required to lap the rail to a more constant thickness (vs. the cost of better linear rails). Item 3: when you take the gantry off and put it back on, how much does it shift? I wonder whether a dowel-pin arrangement would be helpful. Item 4: getting the (mounting surface of the carriage on the) top rail parallel to the front edge of the gantry. Perhaps done with a spacer, with the gantry flat on a surface plate? Item 5: how much lash side-to-side vs. vertically for the carriages? Lash side-to-side in the top rail carriages would allow the axis plate to tilt. Item 6: getting the (mounting surface of the carriage on the) lower rail parallel to the top rail. Any variation in height will tilt the axis plate. Item 7: An 'L'-shaped carriage would be required. Possible axis plate tilt due to thermal expansion? Probably not significant, compares to lash.
@@scottwillis5434 I don't even know where to start. I won't comment on all, but only on what i think is important. my main goal was to share the idea of using granite surface plate as a building material and to show how and why. As well as some tests and results from milling using this machine. So people can use some inspirations in their builds. there is plenty of cnc designs and reasons behind them. or some just simply stupid :) with my design i was trying to put rails on a one surface plane. for example a box. if you attach 2 rails on to the same surface than you can move them only in 2 axis. up/down and left/ight. if you put one rail on the side of the box and the other one on the top. than you can move them in all 3 axis. because of this if you attach Z axis to configuration like this it could lean forward and backward as you move it a long. if you put rails on the top and bottom than your cube thickness has to be perfect. otherwise it will stuck. than you will also tilting issues. its way easier if you can make one axis straight than you attach another axis and another.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki your videos have definitely inspired me! I appreciate your thoughtful answer. I am not so much arguing for the rail-on-top approach, as wanting to explore and understand the benefits and difficulties of the various design options, to make better design choices. I do see that if the gantry is removed and re-installed, and this affects parallelism to the bed, it would be difficult to adjust a top-mounted rail to be parallel to the bed. This also suggests to me that dowel pins may be desirable at joints, to save alignment effort at disassembly / reassembly.
I am studying various DIY CNC designs. I have definitely settled on the bridge design and I know It is going to be concrete filled or epoxy granite. It's interesting I priced large grade B granite surface plates and the cost to buy those and cut them, vs the cost for casting epoxy granite is similar.
Hi Piotr, nice videos, very inspiring. I'm trying to learn a little. How did you make both linear rails be parallel? From what you show in the previous video, you ensure they are coplanar with sanding and checking with the dial indicator, but I don't know an easy way to install these rails and ensure they are the parallel. I suppose you first select one side to set the master rail. Position the rail in the perfect middle, parallel to the side edges seems tricky, and also to make the holes for that rail, because even if you engrave in the granite the hole positions with the laser, as you did in other videos, making a perfect hole isn't either easy if you don't do it with a CNC to ensure same distance and in they are aligned. Make the holes manually seems very tricky if you don't perfectly match the bit with the middle of the mark. After that is done, then you have to do the same the other side, but also ensuring both rails are parallel. I don't know which method did you use to make all this stuff with precision.
I’m just starting to learn about CNC routers and milling machines. Is there a significant difference between the two besides their appearance/design? I see that router tables can do larger pieces of metal/wood, but is there any other huge difference between the two and why both are needed in the shop? Also if someone was to build one or the other which one should they build first? I recently watched a video where the guy 3D printed parts to build a CNC router table out of aluminum square tubing. He then used that 3D printed CNC router table to cut some aluminum plates to swap out the 3D printed parts. That’s when I read in his comments section about skipping out on the aluminum tubing and make granite epoxy. So while searching RUclips for epoxy granite CNC videos I came across videos of people making Lathes, CNC router tables and mostly milling machines. I was going to buy a $900 mini milling machine but then came across a project I wanted to do that would most likely need a router table to use a router or even a laser to cut many holes in acrylic and aluminum sheets. So is the router table better to have than the milking machine since it seems you can do larger projects or do they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Is there things the milking machine can do that the router table can’t?
Hi Piotr - maybe I missed a video but did you show how you measured the rails for the y-axis [I think]. The rails on either side on the raised pieces you bolted.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki Sorry buddy I did not explain very well. What I mean is how did you layout the holes for the rails on the two raised blocks and get them roughly parallel?
@@fupersly i see.. it was very similar to setting up x axis. you bolt one rail straight and than the other one is floating, than you slowly tightening everything up, going back and forth. eventually I will make a video showing the process.
Hi Piotr, What is the distance between the rails on the gantry ? I read that it is 1 meter long but how wide it is I'm guessing it is around 20cm or so? Thank you for posting these valuable information about the build process.
gantry is 1030 x 190 x 50 mm, 1030mm its to match the screw length. does it have to be same length? No, not really, but its easier to mount it. as less parts you use more rigid its going to be and more precise. keep it simple. you can always add more gadgets once machine basic functionality is achieved.
Thank you for the brief answer. This will be my second CNC Router build and I first built mine back in 2013 and now I want something stiffer and more precise. I think it is the best practice so far that I see to use granite in a home/shop made CNC Router to achieve the desired stiffness and preciseness. Thank you again for all the information.
Hey Fox, did you just rest the granite on top of the aluminum extrusion, or is it secured to it? If not, do you find that the cnc on top of the aluminum moves or not? If it is secured to the aluminum frame, how did you do that? Thanks!
Cnc is on the aluminium. It's not sliding because aluminium is soft and Granite has lots of grip on it. And it weights 380kg so it can not move. I wanted steel table but got offered aluminium one.
i have been thinking about it, but im in New Zealand and its really hard to get them here. And if i would get them on ebay or something the shipping price would be just insane. i used 50mm thick granite bench top and i manage to grind it to 2 microns. linear rails where much worse than this. check previous videos.
This project is a true inspiration for my next build. I already own the same Bosch drill press and Makita cordless... but I do have a question regarding the drilling itself. How on earth did you manage to get 15+ holes perfectly aligned to mount the linear rails? If I want to drill a hole in a wall, the drill always 'walks' away just a tiny bit. For this project they all need to be perfect in order to mount the rail. Also, mostly the rail needs small adjustment (wiggleroom) to align it... did you maybe use smaller size bolts to get more moving space? And last but not least... the Bosch drill press doesn't have hammer drill function. Can you drill granite without that hammer option when using the normal drill bits? I also own a bigger drill machine (Hilti) but I'm afraid that it's hammer setting will be too aggressive, causing the granite to break when drilling close to edge of the stone.
well to me honest they are not perfectly aligned :) the whole story. . i have placed rail on top and marked where are the holes. than i used drill press with base twisted to the back. and drill holes as close as possible. i switched to diamond drills(hollow tube with diamonds dust on the edges) i think its for tiles. you have to drill in pool of water. otherwise you will ruin the drill and not too fast. anyway it goes quite quick. holes in the rail are +-0.5mm bigger than the screw so you will have some room for adjustments. i won't lie , this is quite critical step. if you drill slightly off, you can always, drill out the insert and redrill hole to be a bit bigger and glue in new insert. its pain to do but its possible. (i did it on base of the cnc)
Thanks (again) for your honest answer. Made a few phone calls today... for about €150,- (that's about 250NZD) I can let a specialized CNC machine drill 2 rows of 15 holes, 8mm wide and 35mm deep and perfectly parallel. Although I like to do most things myself... because this step is SO critical and I don't want to ruin my stone (read; f#ck this up), I think I'll go that route. Because of my somewhat different approach, my linear rail will be mounted directly on the surface plate. By total coincidence... yesterday I discovered that the gantry design I want to use is designed by someone you also subscribed to. And you are also on his list... it's a small world ;-)
this was my first idea, to put rails directly on the surface plate. but then i realized that they will be covered in chips and water. so that was the reason to move them up. but i guess you could use some Linear Rail Covers. I agree :) world seems to be very small when it come to building sturdy and and reasonably precise cnc's. Best of luck on your project. Could be cool if you would like to document the build and put it on the youtube. or final result.
Hi Piotr, awesome build! I really like your design and want to build a similar one. How tall are the 2 granite sides for the base? I believe you mentioned they’re 50mm thick in your other videos, but not height. Are you satisfied with Z axis clearance? Thanks!
Hi Piotr, i hope you still read these comments! I was building a steel framed CNC (PrintNC) but got a great deal on a granite surface plate so it will be the base of the CNC. I've been watching this and the upgrade series, and have a few small questions. How have these DIY inserts been holding up over the years? They look like a neat solution. I don't really like the ones you used on the sides since they put mechanical force on the granite with a (probably very small) risk at cracking. What bolt size would you recommend to bolt on the sides? I'd like to keep the option to eventually upgrading to granite sides like you have as well. And last, but not least: what is your approach to inserts on the plate itself for workholding, do you just make them where you need them to place a vice etc, or use some sort of a grid? Thanks for all the information you put in these great videos so far!
Hi and congatulations for good work! Maybe I miss it, but please give more information about the granite gantry. What promise precision flat surface? Is it parallel or precision straight edge?
thanks :) not sure but i was talking about materials in part 1. I used surface plate which supposed to be 5 microns over the whole surface and gantry and sides i used regular bench top 5cm thick African granite. any granite of this thickness will be flatter than anything else. i wish to have granite straight edge but it impossible to get in New Zealand. but i hope someone can prove me wrong.
Hi Piotr, shims. You have to shim out the linear rails, so that when you torque them, they will stay in place. You can buysheats of machinist shims, that excists for this very reasin. Thin like tinfoil, but is made out of meal instead of tin, so it tolerates the compression without dimension deformation.
Hi Piotr, i really do like your work and i am curious wich type of laser and from whioch manufactorer you use (the big one with which you marked the granite) and how much watt it has. i would really appreaciate if you could answer me this little question, i am going to build myself too such an cnc machine, just like you. kind regards and greetings from germany Alex
i had to check my old emails because for some unknown reason I couldn't remember company name. I found it and now i know why :) company name is "Liaocheng Dongchangfu Ketai Laser Equipment Co., Ltd." and it is 1300mm x 2400mm working area, 100watt co2.
Regarding carriage construction, I'm unsure about milling grooves for the screw and both rails; seems like it could lead to an over-constrained assembly. I mean, one rail's path will dictate the other, but with both in a groove, there's no way to align them. Same for the screw assembly, where if the rail and screw grooves aren't perfectly parallel, the screw carriage drive could also bind. I realize that if the plate is machined with a mill, any parallelism error will be tiny, but if so, other than one rail groove, adding the other's doesn't seem like they're contributing anything. I'm stating all this as questions and opinion, not fact, and am happy to learn otherwise!
I am going to build one of these I think. Are are the other alu-plate parts all just manual milled, then stoned/ground? I have very limited tool access but I do have a mill. I obviously need to get a good dial-gauge indicator I think. Thanks again!
i guess it will be hard to explain. all the plates are cut on a drop saw and drilled by hand on a drill press. granite base and granite gantry we could assume that they are perfectly flat. nothing will bend or bow. i put gantry on 2 aluminium blocks on both ends which are bolted to linear bearings. variation between plates could be about 0.05mm (cut from the same stock.) when you will adjust rails on the gantry you will be able to correct it very easily. (holes in rails are over sized so you have room to play) vertical plates are just to prevent gantry from tipping or sliding. this what im trying to say is, you have to use indicator while screwing all together. you take advantage of over sized bolt holes and you tight it once reading is correct. With something not precised you can adjust it to be perfect. again i could go forever :) about indicator, go on trademe and get the cheapest 0,001 resolution analog indicator. you just need to see if something is moving. Warning, 0.001mm is a bit overwhelming and it can drive you nuts :) i guess 0.01 would be more reasonable if you dont want to be depressed :)
Thank so much, Piotr. My personal approach to building things while ill equipped is "If you can't make it accurate, make it adjustable", so we are on the same page there. I was truly wondering about the cheap dials so cheers for clarifying, as my assumption was the same in that I don't need it to be 100%, I just need to witness the change and adjust accordingly. Also yes, I would be shooting for 0.01 as I understand how chasing a tolerance can drive a perfectionist mad. I think based on your experiences and my own with the Chinese rails, I may spend the most there and get THK or genuine HIWIN rails, or perhaps old stock from ebay which should still be better. Again I appreciate your time and the detail of your videos, I am looking to prototype also and am foolishly investing all of my time into learning things I am not qualified in (I was a 3d animator/graphic designer in the past) so folks like yourself make it so much easier. Many thanks -Kane
No where big like WETA as we all dream of at some point I'm afraid. I became qualified in 2009/2010 and went into indie game development with a now defunct company and then tried my own hand at solo projects but nothing took off. Probably worth noting that I use "animator" as a general term as most people do not know what a "hard-surface modeler" or "rigger" are. Mostly I have been a freelance designer but have only recently left my full time job to try and start my own thing. I still mock up everything in polygons though haha
In nz I have started at huhu studios ;) I perfectly understand modeling in polygons ;) it took me a while to learn solid works ;) thank Lord now we have fusione360
Hello Piotr, thanks for sharing. Excellent build. What size of surface plate did you end up using for the base? Do you have any cad drawings you would be willing to share?
Hej. Czy prowadnice są tylko przykręcane do górnej belki czy smarowane tym klejem do granitu i przyklejane dodatkowo do płyty granitowej żeby się nie przesuwały?
@@WorldofMachines no ja stali staram sie nie ruszac. ale jezeli popatrzysz na to z innej strony to chyba nie jest tak zle. kazda os ma 2 szyny. zwby przesunac jedna to musisz tez przesunac druga bo sa polaczone. przykrecone sa co 6cm (chyba) do tego dochodzi tarcie jak bys chcial przesunac. czyli sila ktora musial bys uzyc do przesuniecia jest ogromna. sila nacisku na wiertlo jest minimalna w porownaniu do sily potrzebnej do przesuniecia prowandic. zrobilem filmik o wiertlach. i przy 20kg nacisku wszystkie wiertla carbide sie odginaja o 1/10 mm bez roznicy czy to 6mm czy 10mm. przy takich odgieciach finish byl by koszmarny. czyli jak cos obrabiasz to watpie zebys uzywal wiecej sily
When you glued those inserts you smeared your finger oils all over the metal. You should clean the metal with isopropyl then put glue on metal for a proper adhesion. Glues hate oils
@@PiotrFoxWysocki 😂 no way that's crazy I have to check that one out see how many end mills he goes through lol it's better to save up and spend once then to waste money. I was looking at the video on spindles you've done and I think I'll go for a 6kw instead of the 2.2kw and hopefully my wife doesn't see the receipt 😂
я поставлю некоторые резьбовые вставки в гранит и закрепите его или палитру. English would be bit easier for me to communicate in. btw im using google translate :)
Piotr Fox Wysocki Oh, I'm sorry. The first answer was very clear. I thought you speak Russian. Even your channel name looks like in Russian:) "Peter High"
yeah:) google does good translation sometimes :) i guess i should change the channel name in to something else. but i don't know in to what. i'm doing all sort of random stuff. btw i'm Polish living in New Zealand :)
Perdona il mio commento. Non è bello cercare di insegnare qualcosa ad uno super preciso quale sei. Tuttavia... non concordo sul modo di incollare gli spinotti filettati al granito. Secondo me avresti dovuto tappare il filetto con una vite lunga e sigillarlo con della cera. Poi avresti dovuto usare una siringa con beccuccio lungo per inserire dell'adesivo poco denso in fondo ad ogni foro. Poi avresti dovuto inserire in sede lo spinotto filettato premendo fino alla fuoriuscita dell'adesivo. Pulire gli avanti e stop. In questo modo i tuoi filetti avrebbero avuto una tenuta all'altezza del resto del tuo bel lavoro.
Well, so much for "rough introduction and some first steps in making cnc machine out of granite surface plate with very simple tools. on a budget" (intro to part 1) :-D I do get that the term "very simple tool" is relative, but you should have stayed the course and at least show the rest of us how to do those markings with something simpler than a large CNC laser cutter. Perhaps you can do a follow up video with other methods for locating those holes? I do appreciate what you are building, I know what it takes to improve accuracy of anything by one order of magnitude. Doing it with the tools you have (sans that laser thing...) is an achievement.
"I would use a compass" is not an answer good enough from someone who cares about 1 micron :-) Say, you locate the first hole. The second one will be 60mm plus (or minus) the error of setting the compass (systematic error). Assuming no random error will be introduced during the manual operation of locating the holes, the tenth hole will be located 60mm x10 plus (or minus) 10x error away from the first. That compound error may matter. In real life with manual operation will always introduce some random error. In some cases the random error may compensate for the systematic error, in others it will compound it. In the end the last few holes may end up not aligned with the holes in the rail. Another aspect is the (in)accuracy of position of the holes in the rails. The quality (=expensive) rails have the holes drilled within prescribed tolerances. The inexpensive ones may not. There are more than few videos on youtube where people assumed the dimensions of the inexpensive components are are X as the spesc say, but one is off just enough for the bolt or part not to fit.
@@rok1475 If you care about 1 micron, get a laser :-) If you don't then use a compass. The other option is to drill a larger bore hole, say 14mm, then epoxy in a steel plug. Do this the entire length of the rail. Then drill and tap your first plug making sure all other holes in the rail line up in the plugs with plenty of room to spare. Bolt in that first hole tight. Go to the other end and spot drill through the hole just 2mm or so deep to make a dent. Remove rail. Drill and tap that 'spot drilled dent' which will center your drill. Repeat for all the other holes. The holes in the rails are all normal drill size, say 4.5mm or 6mm so using the correct size drill gets you bang on with .5mm each side for adjustment.
you are doing it wrong if you measure from each hole 6 cm , you use a ruler and mark the lines that way the error doesnt add up, thats the obvious way of doing it, the holes in the rials have 0,5mm play for adjustments, easy.@@rok1475
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This is really badass. Thank you for the video series! If you have any more amazing projects, please share them.
so happy to found this project!!! thank you thank you!!!
Hi Piotr.
Your videos are a great source of inspiration, speically becasue your desing is different!!!! I was ready to start building a fixed gantry / column milling machine and after watching your videos multiple times, I'm questioning my initial plan.
My goal is similar to yours, get the best possible finish and accuracy. The only difference, based on what you had shared is that you mainly do aluminum and I will do aluminum, but also steel. There are many reasons why your machine, with a gantry design makes sense, there is only 2 things I'm considering:
1) given the current suply chain issues, getting a granite suraface plate large enough would be a huge challenge and very expensive. The alternative would be to do granite epoxy and find a different solution to achive the desire flatness, which is what you got by using a surface plate, out of the box.
2) how rigid you think your design is compare to a fixed grantry? again, your design makes sense, but all the big guys machines, like HAAS VF2, etc, are using fixed grantries. Is that only for lack of inovation and try something different? to sell more expensive machines with a few more inches of working area? or just for the extra rigidity?
1) epoxy would be very tricky to get it flat etc. beside epoxy shrinks when it cures. thermal expansion is 7x bigger than granite. it will also sag over the time, especially when its warm. so it will take some time until it stabilizes even with rocks inside. in comparison granite had 300 million years to stabilize :) I'm not saying its not possible, I'm just saying its much more work and it will be much trickier to do it to the same level as granite.
2) there is always a trade-off something for something you can't have it all.
my design 2 servos on Y vs one. extra ball screw etc.
but much bigger work area in much smaller machine.
20x + by volume.
fixed gantry makes sense when you use some monstrous spindles. so everything is also made to work in its scale.
in monstrous machines they go back to moving gantry again.
the best design in my opinion is kern
kind of hybrid but the most rigid construction.
but huge machine in comparison to the work area.
as I said before, always a trade-off
I don't think my answers are any help to anyone recently :D
Yes, I know.
How about the sand+small rocks+epoxy for the base and a 1” aluminum plate on top as table, which can be later machined with the same machine. I’m just trying to find alternatives since lead tine for a surface plate that size may be 6+ months, from a well known brand
If I could say something. You should mix all sorts of sizes of stones. I guess there is a lot of info about it around. I would recommend to check it out.
Gratuluję odwagi w budowie maszyny cnc z granitu,dla mnie jesteś wielki.Ja też buduje maszynę cnc ale głównie z aluminium , które jest o wiele łatwiejsze w obróbce i tak muszę się zmierzyć z wieloma problemami.Ale z granitu . Jesteś WIELKI! Jak to mówią Polak potrafi.Oby udało ci się Piotrze uzyskac dokładności którą sobie założyłeś. Powodzenia.
dzieki :) ja kombinowalem pare lat ze przydalo by sie miec lepsza cnc, ale nigdy mi sie nie chcialo tego robic. Ale jak juz nie moglem wyrobic z moja chinska 6040 to najprosciej mi bylo zrobic z granitu :) zeby zrobic z aluminium to trzeba miec maszyny zeby to prosto wyszlo. granit nie jest taki straszny, jak pomyslisz to ludzie kuchenne blaty jakos robia i tna. czyli sie da :D
Excellent video series, thanks again for sharing your work and the clear explanations of the how and why of everything!
I'm sure you know this, just adding for completeness: spreading the rails and mounting blocks farther apart also gives better leverage for resisting off-axis forces / torque.
Did it make hard working and resisted cracking ? I plan to make from concrete with iron rods but i suspect if it cracks. Please inform me if you have data. Thank you very much in advance. Congragulations👏
I noticed you only screwed the blocks of the top rail while adjusting the y-axis (I assume because adjusting would change the distance between the rails), but wouldn't screwing all blocks force a constant distance between the top and bottom rails which could help you set the rails easier?
Btw, I'm amazed by the quality of your work. I don't really have much work experience in precision or machine design, but after watching so many RUclips videos I can easily tell you are doing some really fine work.
I need to rebuild my CNC from scratch. I've learnt so much that I've outgrown it. But this time I want to make it more precise. I see a lot of precision marking and measuring tools, but don't know the names of them. Which ones do you think are essential to build a precise CNC (without going to extremes, because I'm not an engineer and I don't have access to a proper shop).
Thanks!
i would recommend a dial indicator on a stand, granite square or something similar, and perhaps a straight edge.
please check my recent videos "epic cnc upgrade" its another series on upgrading this machine with proper stuff and proper ways of assembling everything. this time i put much more time trying to explain, what and why.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki Thanks Piotr, will check them out!
how did you attach the rails to the granite. this is really some serious precision stuff on youtube. first time seeing someone doing these type of things, making cnc out of granite.
I was looking on the youtube and everywhere else if someone did something like that. But I couldn't find anything, so i decided to share the research
Hi Piotr, love your videos, thanks again for making them!
Without having built one yet, it looks like the least rigid part of the machine would be the gantry. I am considering box beam construction for the gantry, to increase stiffness without a large increase in weight.
Given your experience with the mill, is there a significant improvement possible here, or does this seem like wasted effort because other factors have more of an effect? Perhaps problematic because of needing thicker granite to anchor fasteners in?
Clearly more work to build. Issues would include how to get the beam front surface straight, any deformation due to fastener forces, ...
One thought: would it make sense to put one rail on the ground top surface of the gantry and the other rail near the bottom of the side (where it is now)? The first rail provides a vertical reference. The second rail controls (or prevents) rotation of the spindle mounting plate relative to the gantry.
Perhaps the top rail is attached while the gantry is laid flat on the bottom tooling plate. Use the rail carriage to control the distance from the edge / tooling plate during mounting. Or, remove the carriage and the rail is either directly against the tooling plate or a precise spacer strip.
Good point but it is much harder to make it all aligned.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki I would like to understand what would make it difficult to align, to help me do a better job of designing. I have limited time right now, and will just list the items that I am aware of so far (pardon my perhaps confused terminology). Thinking out loud:
Item 1: As a design input, how much lash vertically vs. side-to-side for the carriages? How to use them for the most accuracy. Best direction to apply (A) uni-directional, (B) bi-directional forces. Avoid applying torque. Probably a linear rail manufacturer has a published application guide.
Item 2: If the top of the gantry is ground parallel to the bed with the gantry mounted (I will need to re-watch videos to check whether this was done), then any vertical variation would be due to variation in the linear rail. I am not sure how much it varies, or the effort required to lap the rail to a more constant thickness (vs. the cost of better linear rails).
Item 3: when you take the gantry off and put it back on, how much does it shift? I wonder whether a dowel-pin arrangement would be helpful.
Item 4: getting the (mounting surface of the carriage on the) top rail parallel to the front edge of the gantry. Perhaps done with a spacer, with the gantry flat on a surface plate?
Item 5: how much lash side-to-side vs. vertically for the carriages? Lash side-to-side in the top rail carriages would allow the axis plate to tilt.
Item 6: getting the (mounting surface of the carriage on the) lower rail parallel to the top rail. Any variation in height will tilt the axis plate.
Item 7: An 'L'-shaped carriage would be required. Possible axis plate tilt due to thermal expansion? Probably not significant, compares to lash.
@@scottwillis5434 I don't even know where to start. I won't comment on all, but only on what i think is important.
my main goal was to share the idea of using granite surface plate as a building material and to show how and why. As well as some tests and results from milling using this machine.
So people can use some inspirations in their builds. there is plenty of cnc designs and reasons behind them. or some just simply stupid :)
with my design i was trying to put rails on a one surface plane.
for example a box. if you attach 2 rails on to the same surface than you can move them only in 2 axis. up/down and left/ight.
if you put one rail on the side of the box and the other one on the top. than you can move them in all 3 axis. because of this if you attach Z axis to configuration like this it could lean forward and backward as you move it a long.
if you put rails on the top and bottom than your cube thickness has to be perfect. otherwise it will stuck. than you will also tilting issues.
its way easier if you can make one axis straight than you attach another axis and another.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki your videos have definitely inspired me! I appreciate your thoughtful answer.
I am not so much arguing for the rail-on-top approach, as wanting to explore and understand the benefits and difficulties of the various design options, to make better design choices.
I do see that if the gantry is removed and re-installed, and this affects parallelism to the bed, it would be difficult to adjust a top-mounted rail to be parallel to the bed.
This also suggests to me that dowel pins may be desirable at joints, to save alignment effort at disassembly / reassembly.
I am studying various DIY CNC designs. I have definitely settled on the bridge design and I know It is going to be concrete filled or epoxy granite. It's interesting I priced large grade B granite surface plates and the cost to buy those and cut them, vs the cost for casting epoxy granite is similar.
Hi Piotr, nice videos, very inspiring. I'm trying to learn a little. How did you make both linear rails be parallel? From what you show in the previous video, you ensure they are coplanar with sanding and checking with the dial indicator, but I don't know an easy way to install these rails and ensure they are the parallel.
I suppose you first select one side to set the master rail. Position the rail in the perfect middle, parallel to the side edges seems tricky, and also to make the holes for that rail, because even if you engrave in the granite the hole positions with the laser, as you did in other videos, making a perfect hole isn't either easy if you don't do it with a CNC to ensure same distance and in they are aligned. Make the holes manually seems very tricky if you don't perfectly match the bit with the middle of the mark.
After that is done, then you have to do the same the other side, but also ensuring both rails are parallel. I don't know which method did you use to make all this stuff with precision.
I’m just starting to learn about CNC routers and milling machines. Is there a significant difference between the two besides their appearance/design? I see that router tables can do larger pieces of metal/wood, but is there any other huge difference between the two and why both are needed in the shop? Also if someone was to build one or the other which one should they build first? I recently watched a video where the guy 3D printed parts to build a CNC router table out of aluminum square tubing. He then used that 3D printed CNC router table to cut some aluminum plates to swap out the 3D printed parts. That’s when I read in his comments section about skipping out on the aluminum tubing and make granite epoxy. So while searching RUclips for epoxy granite CNC videos I came across videos of people making Lathes, CNC router tables and mostly milling machines. I was going to buy a $900 mini milling machine but then came across a project I wanted to do that would most likely need a router table to use a router or even a laser to cut many holes in acrylic and aluminum sheets. So is the router table better to have than the milking machine since it seems you can do larger projects or do they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Is there things the milking machine can do that the router table can’t?
Hi Piotr - maybe I missed a video but did you show how you measured the rails for the y-axis [I think]. The rails on either side on the raised pieces you bolted.
here it is: ruclips.net/video/eMhk0BgUzsE/видео.html
@@PiotrFoxWysocki Sorry buddy I did not explain very well. What I mean is how did you layout the holes for the rails on the two raised blocks and get them roughly parallel?
@@fupersly i see.. it was very similar to setting up x axis. you bolt one rail straight and than the other one is floating, than you slowly tightening everything up, going back and forth. eventually I will make a video showing the process.
Great video loved the load test
Hi Piotr, What is the distance between the rails on the gantry ? I read that it is 1 meter long but how wide it is I'm guessing it is around 20cm or so? Thank you for posting these valuable information about the build process.
gantry is 1030 x 190 x 50 mm,
1030mm its to match the screw length. does it have to be same length? No, not really, but its easier to mount it. as less parts you use more rigid its going to be and more precise. keep it simple. you can always add more gadgets once machine basic functionality is achieved.
Thank you for the brief answer. This will be my second CNC Router build and I first built mine back in 2013 and now I want something stiffer and more precise. I think it is the best practice so far that I see to use granite in a home/shop made CNC Router to achieve the desired stiffness and preciseness. Thank you again for all the information.
Hey Fox, did you just rest the granite on top of the aluminum extrusion, or is it secured to it? If not, do you find that the cnc on top of the aluminum moves or not? If it is secured to the aluminum frame, how did you do that?
Thanks!
Cnc is on the aluminium. It's not sliding because aluminium is soft and Granite has lots of grip on it. And it weights 380kg so it can not move. I wanted steel table but got offered aluminium one.
Would you consider building the base out of granite parallels next time? Some grades are square and parallel to +- 1 micron, which might reduce error
i have been thinking about it, but im in New Zealand and its really hard to get them here. And if i would get them on ebay or something the shipping price would be just insane. i used 50mm thick granite bench top and i manage to grind it to 2 microns. linear rails where much worse than this. check previous videos.
Interesting design. Thanks for sharing!
This project is a true inspiration for my next build. I already own the same Bosch drill press and Makita cordless... but I do have a question regarding the drilling itself. How on earth did you manage to get 15+ holes perfectly aligned to mount the linear rails? If I want to drill a hole in a wall, the drill always 'walks' away just a tiny bit. For this project they all need to be perfect in order to mount the rail. Also, mostly the rail needs small adjustment (wiggleroom) to align it... did you maybe use smaller size bolts to get more moving space? And last but not least... the Bosch drill press doesn't have hammer drill function. Can you drill granite without that hammer option when using the normal drill bits? I also own a bigger drill machine (Hilti) but I'm afraid that it's hammer setting will be too aggressive, causing the granite to break when drilling close to edge of the stone.
well to me honest they are not perfectly aligned :) the whole story. . i have placed rail on top and marked where are the holes. than i used drill press with base twisted to the back. and drill holes as close as possible. i switched to diamond drills(hollow tube with diamonds dust on the edges) i think its for tiles. you have to drill in pool of water. otherwise you will ruin the drill and not too fast. anyway it goes quite quick. holes in the rail are +-0.5mm bigger than the screw so you will have some room for adjustments. i won't lie , this is quite critical step. if you drill slightly off, you can always, drill out the insert and redrill hole to be a bit bigger and glue in new insert. its pain to do but its possible. (i did it on base of the cnc)
Thanks (again) for your honest answer. Made a few phone calls today... for about €150,- (that's about 250NZD) I can let a specialized CNC machine drill 2 rows of 15 holes, 8mm wide and 35mm deep and perfectly parallel. Although I like to do most things myself... because this step is SO critical and I don't want to ruin my stone (read; f#ck this up), I think I'll go that route.
Because of my somewhat different approach, my linear rail will be mounted directly on the surface plate. By total coincidence... yesterday I discovered that the gantry design I want to use is designed by someone you also subscribed to. And you are also on his list... it's a small world ;-)
this was my first idea, to put rails directly on the surface plate. but then i realized that they will be covered in chips and water. so that was the reason to move them up. but i guess you could use some Linear Rail Covers.
I agree :) world seems to be very small when it come to building sturdy and and reasonably precise cnc's.
Best of luck on your project. Could be cool if you would like to document the build and put it on the youtube. or final result.
Hi Piotr, awesome build! I really like your design and want to build a similar one. How tall are the 2 granite sides for the base? I believe you mentioned they’re 50mm thick in your other videos, but not height. Are you satisfied with Z axis clearance? Thanks!
Hi Piotr, i hope you still read these comments! I was building a steel framed CNC (PrintNC) but got a great deal on a granite surface plate so it will be the base of the CNC. I've been watching this and the upgrade series, and have a few small questions. How have these DIY inserts been holding up over the years? They look like a neat solution. I don't really like the ones you used on the sides since they put mechanical force on the granite with a (probably very small) risk at cracking. What bolt size would you recommend to bolt on the sides? I'd like to keep the option to eventually upgrading to granite sides like you have as well. And last, but not least: what is your approach to inserts on the plate itself for workholding, do you just make them where you need them to place a vice etc, or use some sort of a grid? Thanks for all the information you put in these great videos so far!
Wow man, that's really heavy!
Hi and congatulations for good work!
Maybe I miss it, but please give more information about the granite gantry.
What promise precision flat surface?
Is it parallel or precision straight edge?
thanks :) not sure but i was talking about materials in part 1.
I used surface plate which supposed to be 5 microns over the whole surface and gantry and sides i used regular bench top 5cm thick African granite. any granite of this thickness will be flatter than anything else. i wish to have granite straight edge but it impossible to get in New Zealand. but i hope someone can prove me wrong.
Thank you for your answer and for that you share your work :)
My question is for the upper horizontal part - X-axis (gantry)
horizontal part(x-axis)(gantry) :) its a regular bench top 5cm thick African granite. sorry if my previous explanation wasn't clear.
Is "Bench top" means it is for interior/exterior/decoration use?
Sorry, maybe my English is not good enough.
Велоклуб УСТРЕМ / Veloclub USTREM it's just regular granite for kitchen or bar. Every company who sell granite will have it.
Hi Piotr, shims. You have to shim out the linear rails, so that when you torque them, they will stay in place. You can buysheats of machinist shims, that excists for this very reasin. Thin like tinfoil, but is made out of meal instead of tin, so it tolerates the compression without dimension deformation.
Is that polyester glue stronger than 2 part epoxy?
The solution to every problem is lasers.
Hi Piotr, i really do like your work and i am curious wich type of laser and from whioch manufactorer you use (the big one with which you marked the granite) and how much watt it has. i would really appreaciate if you could answer me this little question, i am going to build myself too such an cnc machine, just like you.
kind regards and greetings from germany
Alex
i had to check my old emails because for some unknown reason I couldn't remember company name. I found it and now i know why :) company name is "Liaocheng Dongchangfu Ketai Laser Equipment Co., Ltd." and it is 1300mm x 2400mm working area, 100watt co2.
Regarding carriage construction, I'm unsure about milling grooves for the screw and both rails; seems like it could lead to an over-constrained assembly. I mean, one rail's path will dictate the other, but with both in a groove, there's no way to align them. Same for the screw assembly, where if the rail and screw grooves aren't perfectly parallel, the screw carriage drive could also bind. I realize that if the plate is machined with a mill, any parallelism error will be tiny, but if so, other than one rail groove, adding the other's doesn't seem like they're contributing anything. I'm stating all this as questions and opinion, not fact, and am happy to learn otherwise!
I am going to build one of these I think. Are are the other alu-plate parts all just manual milled, then stoned/ground? I have very limited tool access but I do have a mill. I obviously need to get a good dial-gauge indicator I think. Thanks again!
i guess it will be hard to explain. all the plates are cut on a drop saw and drilled by hand on a drill press. granite base and granite gantry we could assume that they are perfectly flat. nothing will bend or bow. i put gantry on 2 aluminium blocks on both ends which are bolted to linear bearings. variation between plates could be about 0.05mm (cut from the same stock.) when you will adjust rails on the gantry you will be able to correct it very easily. (holes in rails are over sized so you have room to play)
vertical plates are just to prevent gantry from tipping or sliding.
this what im trying to say is, you have to use indicator while screwing all together.
you take advantage of over sized bolt holes and you tight it once reading is correct.
With something not precised you can adjust it to be perfect.
again i could go forever :)
about indicator, go on trademe and get the cheapest 0,001 resolution analog indicator. you just need to see if something is moving.
Warning, 0.001mm is a bit overwhelming and it can drive you nuts :) i guess 0.01 would be more reasonable if you dont want to be depressed :)
Thank so much, Piotr. My personal approach to building things while ill equipped is "If you can't make it accurate, make it adjustable", so we are on the same page there. I was truly wondering about the cheap dials so cheers for clarifying, as my assumption was the same in that I don't need it to be 100%, I just need to witness the change and adjust accordingly. Also yes, I would be shooting for 0.01 as I understand how chasing a tolerance can drive a perfectionist mad. I think based on your experiences and my own with the Chinese rails, I may spend the most there and get THK or genuine HIWIN rails, or perhaps old stock from ebay which should still be better. Again I appreciate your time and the detail of your videos, I am looking to prototype also and am foolishly investing all of my time into learning things I am not qualified in (I was a 3d animator/graphic designer in the past) so folks like yourself make it so much easier. Many thanks -Kane
May I ask where have you been animating? We might have some common friends ;)
No where big like WETA as we all dream of at some point I'm afraid. I became qualified in 2009/2010 and went into indie game development with a now defunct company and then tried my own hand at solo projects but nothing took off. Probably worth noting that I use "animator" as a general term as most people do not know what a "hard-surface modeler" or "rigger" are. Mostly I have been a freelance designer but have only recently left my full time job to try and start my own thing. I still mock up everything in polygons though haha
In nz I have started at huhu studios ;)
I perfectly understand modeling in polygons ;) it took me a while to learn solid works ;) thank Lord now we have fusione360
Hello Piotr, thanks for sharing. Excellent build. What size of surface plate did you end up using for the base? Do you have any cad drawings you would be willing to share?
600mm x 900mm. cad drawing will be available after my current upgrade.
Those rails are 30mm hiwin clone?
those rails are so bad that i dot think they where trying to clone anything :)
🟢 Hi! I don't have money for epoxy, can I use refractory concrete?
Where do you get the granite pieces?
Surface plate I found in online tool store and sides and gantry I got from local granite/stone supplier
16:17 and that easiest. how you straight z axis? you need another z axis to measure is it square lol
Hej. Czy prowadnice są tylko przykręcane do górnej belki czy smarowane tym klejem do granitu i przyklejane dodatkowo do płyty granitowej żeby się nie przesuwały?
tylko przykrecone. jak bym przykleil to bym nie mogl juz ich wymienic jak by co.
Ok dzięki za odpowiedź. Ciekawe czy nie przesuną się przy ciężkiej obróbce np stali.
@@WorldofMachines no ja stali staram sie nie ruszac. ale jezeli popatrzysz na to z innej strony to chyba nie jest tak zle. kazda os ma 2 szyny. zwby przesunac jedna to musisz tez przesunac druga bo sa polaczone. przykrecone sa co 6cm (chyba) do tego dochodzi tarcie jak bys chcial przesunac. czyli sila ktora musial bys uzyc do przesuniecia jest ogromna. sila nacisku na wiertlo jest minimalna w porownaniu do sily potrzebnej do przesuniecia prowandic. zrobilem filmik o wiertlach. i przy 20kg nacisku wszystkie wiertla carbide sie odginaja o 1/10 mm bez roznicy czy to 6mm czy 10mm. przy takich odgieciach finish byl by koszmarny. czyli jak cos obrabiasz to watpie zebys uzywal wiecej sily
W sumie masz rację. A co to są za dyski do obrabiania granitu jakieś diamentowe tarcze?
@@WorldofMachines jedyna diamentowa tarcza co uzywalem to byla do betonu chyba. podejzewam ze mozna je kupic w kazdym remontowym sklepie.
What size ball screw did you use on the z-axis?
1605
Granite ,wow, Great Idea
When you glued those inserts you smeared your finger oils all over the metal. You should clean the metal with isopropyl then put glue on metal for a proper adhesion. Glues hate oils
If you wanted to flatten the table more, you could apply polyurethane coat followed by sanding.
How you fixed the granite plates together?
this should be in the "CNC machine made out of granite - part1" video.
7:43 Да там даже ручки на ящиках из Хивина сделаны.
very well done !
Now thats what i call good lazy
f wow, how easy and fast it does those scratches on granite, wow
I saw someone build a CNC router out of wood 😂 there is no lack of strength here.
i saw one 3d printed out pla :) well.. everyone has to start somewhere.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki 😂 no way that's crazy I have to check that one out see how many end mills he goes through lol it's better to save up and spend once then to waste money. I was looking at the video on spindles you've done and I think I'll go for a 6kw instead of the 2.2kw and hopefully my wife doesn't see the receipt 😂
No way man... they see everything 😉
Приятный результат!
Плиты прецизионные или обычный гранит?
оба, я смешал их
Piotr Fox Wysocki а как будете решать вопрос крепления заготовки?
Так же закладные гайки?
я поставлю некоторые резьбовые вставки в гранит и закрепите его или палитру. English would be bit easier for me to communicate in. btw im using google translate :)
Piotr Fox Wysocki Oh, I'm sorry. The first answer was very clear. I thought you speak Russian. Even your channel name looks like in Russian:) "Peter High"
yeah:) google does good translation sometimes :) i guess i should change the channel name in to something else. but i don't know in to what. i'm doing all sort of random stuff. btw i'm Polish living in New Zealand :)
Петя не легче было на сквозь просверлить и соединить?
Witam, Piotrze. Czy zrobiłeś projekt 3D w programie CAD?
no. i didn't feel like it was nessesary.
@@PiotrFoxWysocki
A jaky jest wymiar pola roboczego, i jka grubość płyt granitowyh. Pozdrawiam.
?
What is your XYZ travels?
400mm y. 700mm x. 180mm z
kkkkkk thats new! imagination has no limit!
Perdona il mio commento. Non è bello cercare di insegnare qualcosa ad uno super preciso quale sei. Tuttavia... non concordo sul modo di incollare gli spinotti filettati al granito. Secondo me avresti dovuto tappare il filetto con una vite lunga e sigillarlo con della cera. Poi avresti dovuto usare una siringa con beccuccio lungo per inserire dell'adesivo poco denso in fondo ad ogni foro. Poi avresti dovuto inserire in sede lo spinotto filettato premendo fino alla fuoriuscita dell'adesivo. Pulire gli avanti e stop. In questo modo i tuoi filetti avrebbero avuto una tenuta all'altezza del resto del tuo bel lavoro.
Love it
Well, so much for "rough introduction and some first steps in making cnc machine out of granite surface plate with very simple tools. on a budget" (intro to part 1) :-D
I do get that the term "very simple tool" is relative, but you should have stayed the course and at least show the rest of us how to do those markings with something simpler than a large CNC laser cutter. Perhaps you can do a follow up video with other methods for locating those holes?
I do appreciate what you are building, I know what it takes to improve accuracy of anything by one order of magnitude. Doing it with the tools you have (sans that laser thing...) is an achievement.
True laser cutter is net a very simple tool. If I wouldn't have it I would use a compass. Much much simpler tool ;)
"I would use a compass" is not an answer good enough from someone who cares about 1 micron :-) Say, you locate the first hole. The second one will be 60mm plus (or minus) the error of setting the compass (systematic error). Assuming no random error will be introduced during the manual operation of locating the holes, the tenth hole will be located 60mm x10 plus (or minus) 10x error away from the first. That compound error may matter. In real life with manual operation will always introduce some random error. In some cases the random error may compensate for the systematic error, in others it will compound it. In the end the last few holes may end up not aligned with the holes in the rail.
Another aspect is the (in)accuracy of position of the holes in the rails. The quality (=expensive) rails have the holes drilled within prescribed tolerances. The inexpensive ones may not. There are more than few videos on youtube where people assumed the dimensions of the inexpensive components are are X as the spesc say, but one is off just enough for the bolt or part not to fit.
@@rok1475 If you care about 1 micron, get a laser :-) If you don't then use a compass. The other option is to drill a larger bore hole, say 14mm, then epoxy in a steel plug. Do this the entire length of the rail. Then drill and tap your first plug making sure all other holes in the rail line up in the plugs with plenty of room to spare. Bolt in that first hole tight. Go to the other end and spot drill through the hole just 2mm or so deep to make a dent. Remove rail. Drill and tap that 'spot drilled dent' which will center your drill. Repeat for all the other holes.
The holes in the rails are all normal drill size, say 4.5mm or 6mm so using the correct size drill gets you bang on with .5mm each side for adjustment.
@@iDiveDOTtv That's a good idea on the oversized insert:)
you are doing it wrong if you measure from each hole 6 cm , you use a ruler and mark the lines that way the error doesnt add up, thats the obvious way of doing it, the holes in the rials have 0,5mm play for adjustments, easy.@@rok1475
movable gantry should not be so heavy imho
I also want to know where the magic weight numbers shift between favour for moving vs fixed gantry!
@@stockholm-tech yep
why, do you wanna do mass production? then a small machine is useless anyway, speed is easy to achieve but precision is not, i prefer precision
The scale on your indicator is 0.01 mm. 1 μm = 10−6 m = 0,000 001 m or 1 μm = 10−3 mm = 0,001 mm.
he has multiple ones