Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: DIY Router Design questions ?

Hi Rab:

I too , have seen X and Y as the Gantry movement. I use Y as the Gantry
myself, but I suppose its really moot, just a matter of rotating the job. I
see what you mean about the under connections affecting your work. I have
seen a system which clamps to a floor with suction cups to engrave wooden
floors, wire ropes work very well for keeping the gantry from skewing under
this type of system. The one I saw had 4 large suction cups at the corners ,
linear slides on the sides , and wire ropes which go from the Gantry around
pulleys to the other side. Tighten the wire ropes, and you get no more skew.
You could even use wire ropes as the drive mechanism. I use a pulley from my
sailboat, myself. Wrap a wire rope twice around the epoxy pulley which is
rounded concave on its surface and the system will drive with zero backlash
and will surprise you with its accuracy. Replace the pulley (around 5 bucks)
every 1000 hours or so of cutting and its a good cheap alternative to
worrying about rack/pinion, etc. If you have to have wire ropes for de-skew
anyway, might as well use them for drive.

Just a thought,
Art

----- Original Message -----
From: <rab@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 7:11 AM
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: DIY Router Design questions ?


> Thanks everyone for the comments,
>
> As for the gantry approach, I was thinking that it may be possible to
> clamp the whole router onto larger bits of timber and cut straight
> down onto those if I could only keep the design free from connections
> going from one side to the other which in most designs go "under the
> table" I don't know whether I'd use this capability often, but it may
> be useful for bigger jobs requiring just X,Y,Z cutting. (I'll post a
> picture if my explanation is lacking.)
> As for the moving table approach, I see the advantages but I'd like
> to be able to keep the work stationary in case I want to set-up work
> on one half of the router while it's cutting away on the other half
> of it's work area.
>
> I'd like to keep the weight of the router head down, would an air
> driven router give the best power to weight ratio ?
>
> What's the consensus of opinion as to which axis is X /Y on a router
> as I've seen both X and Y being refered to as the movement direction
> of the gantry ?
>
> Is backlash not a bigger problem in rack and pinion ?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Rab,
>
> PS. Art, your splash screen is just too fast to study :)
>
>
>
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