My CRP4848 Build

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

OK, I decided to do a build thread here as well on the Zone. I figure I have been here at SMC WAAAAY longer than I have been on the Zone and not everyone goes over there!

I have ordered and am assembling a CNC Router Parts CRP4848 machine. I decided to build my own base out of wood instead of using their steel legs since I wanted more weight and read that a lot of folks prefer wood for its dampening abilities. Being that I was a custom home builder for 18 years, I have a lot of experience with LVL (laminate veneer lumber) and know how strong and stable it is so I choose that for my material. I started with 1.75" x 14" LVLs and jointed and planed them to get them straight and smooth. I then ripped them in half, roughly 6.75" once dressed. The legs are 3 pieces glued up to make a roughly 5"x5". I am only making the top of the base 28" off the floor since I work primarily with acrylic and saw no reason to make it any higher and have to lift that heavy stuff further! I hope I am not making a mistake at this height!

Anyway, here are some pics of my progress thus far:

Day one:

LVL leg glue up
legglueup.jpg

A pile of legs ready to go!
Legs.jpg

Base frame glued, nailed, and squared up
Base1.jpg

Legs installed and another set of LVL's inside. I know I do not need them for strength since LVLs are plenty strong but I wanted them to lock in the legs and provide extra weight. The clamp goes to some waste block I screws on to the outside to precisely true it up square. By tightening or loosening the clamp just a little, I can change the squareness.
Corner.jpg

Results at the end of day 1
Day1.jpg

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Here are the pics from day 2. I went to Lowes to try to find leg levelers but they only had cheap ones for furniture so I decided to make my own.

To make the levelers, I cut some 1.5" x 1/8" steel flat bar about 3" long. I then drilled a 1/2" hole in the center and 4 holes on the outside. I then welded a 1/2" bolt to the back side. Don't laugh at my welding! It is strong but not pretty! It is hidden in the leg anyway.

levelers1.jpg

For the leg itself, I used a 1/2" x 1.5" bolt and welded a large washer to it.

levelers2.jpg

I wanted to make sure the washer was 90° to the bolt itself. I don't have a metal lathe so I chucked them in my drill press and used a piece of MDF with some 120 grit sandpaper glued on and used that to face the washer. I then glued on some rubber washers I found at Lowes onto the nut to provide some vibration dampening and anti-skid. The extra nut it to be able to lock it in place once adjusted.
levelers3.jpg


All of this got painted to prevent rust. I then drilled a 1 1/4" hole about 3/4" in deep in the legs with a forstner bit to provide clearance for the nut and my sloppy welding! I then drilled a 5/8" diameter hole an additional 1.5" deep to provide clearance for the bolt shaft when fully inserted. After all the drilling was done, it was simply attach the levelers with some 1 1/4" truss head screws.

levelerclose.jpg

After the levelers were in, I ran some bottom "joists" for the bottom shelf while I still had it upside down. I started with 2x6's and after planing and jointing to get them straight, they ended up being 1 5/8" x 4" so not much more than a 2x4! If I had started with a 2x4 though, I would have ended up smaller than I wanted.

bottom.jpg

After gluing and screwing all the joists in place, I cheated and used my electric hoist I concocted a few years ago to flip it back over. That thing has come in real handy on many occasions!

flip.jpg

After flipping and moving back to close to where the machine will go, I leveled it all up (did I say how well my homemade levelers worked (), I installed some 3/4" BC plywood with glue and 2" finish nails for the bottom shelf. At this point, it was close to 2 am so I knocked off for the night!

basefinished.jpg

Thanks for looking and sorry if there was too much boring detail!

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

I am sure you guys are getting bored with base pics but I am going to give them to you anyway! Tonight I installed the "joists", the MDF top, and the plywood skin to the top section. I believe I am going to wait on the lower skin until after I decide how I am going to use the space underneath. That will be easier once I have my machine and know what I am dealing with as far as electronics, etc. I plan to put the controller and other electronics underneath and may even put the computer box there. Not having any idea what the heck I am doing without parts, I think it will be prudent to wait and see how big of doors or drawers I need to build. I plan to paint the top and skin tomorrow and get ready to start the machine build, hopefully this weekend!

Anyway, here are the progress pics from tonight.

Here it is after I installed the joists. I used pocket screws on each end with glue. These are also LVLs. They look funny because I planed them down to get them nice and even and straight. In some cases, I planed through the outer veneer and the black areas are the glue layers.

Joists.jpg

Here it is with the MDF installed. I ran a generous bead of Titebond2 along each framing member and the nailed it ever 6" or so with 2" finish nails. I was going to use screws but decided nailing would be easier. Besides, I just had to keep it in place until the glue dried since glue is stronger than the wood itself anyway! It is perfectly square verified by measuring the diagonals.

Beforeskin.jpg

And here are a couple of shots after I put the skin on the top band. I used 1/2" plywood and plenty of Titebond 2. I ripped the ply about 1/6" oversize and flushed it to the bottom. I nailed it all on with 1 3/8" 23 gauge pin nails. Again, all it has to do is hold it there until the glue dries. After it was nailed up, I used a flush trim bit in my trim router to trim the top of the ply perfectly flush with the MDF.

Endday3.jpg

Endday3-2.jpg



Again, thanks for looking!

[bobby milam]

Looking good. Enjoying all the details

[bobby milam]

Saw on the zone you are in Texas. What part? I am in Arlington

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Bobby,

I am in San Marcos. I thought I had that in my profile here. I guess I need to check.

[Jim Underwood]

Thanks for the update pix Curtis. Can't wait to see it all....I quit going to the other forum because I never got a response when I did post something.

[Eric DeSilva]

That is coming together nicely. What does that puppy weigh?

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Friday afternoon I had a couple of college kids helping me clean out a spot in the shop for the machine and get ready for the assembly. The spot where I am putting it is where I was storing a few thousand pounds of different burls and logs I have harvested so all of that had to get moved and re-stacked! Then of course everything had to be swept and vacuumed. That was quite a undertaking itself but thankfully, I had 2 strong guys and did not have to lift a finger!

The base was moved into place and leveled up and ready to go. The UPS truck showed up at his normal time of 5:20 or so and we unloaded the parts. Man, were some of them heavy! Here is $4,000 worth of parts ready to unpack and start assembly! Kinda shocking, actually, that these few boxes cost $4k and will be used to make a precision robot!

Parts.jpg

Last night I worked on unpacking the parts and getting them spread out, ready to build. Today I will be spending the day putting stuff together!

[bobby milam]

That thing looks like a beast. Hope you picked the right location for it. LOL. I've rearranged my shop 5 or 6 times the last 4 months.

I didn't even think about looking at the profile for your area. I was hoping you were closer so I could take a look at it. Get that puppy up and running. You got the parts today, should be making chips tomorrow right? j/k

[Mike Heidrick]

So how do you plan to attach the extrusions to that top?

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Mike, this update should answer your question!

Build Day 1

I wanted a good way to attach the base of the machine to my wood base and did not want to just use angles attached to the inside of the frame down to the wood. My wood frame is too deep to drill all the way through so since the machine frame is extrusion, I decided to use the bottom t slot with an old stair maker's trick for attaching newel posts. I drilled a hole down from the top where the center of the t track is the correct diameter for a bolt plus a little play. I then drilled a 1 3/8" diameter hole in the side a couple of inches down to intersect the bolt hole. This will be a clearance hole to put the washer and nut and get a wrench in there to tighten it all down.

holddown1.jpg

holddown2.jpg

I did not have any special headed t-bolts so I did a little playing and found I could take a regular 1/4-20 bolt and weld some spots on opposites sides and that would keep if from spinning inside the extrusion and allow me to tighten it all down.

tbolt.jpg

tbolts.jpg


Here is a pic of the side of the table with all the holes. After I get the machine all together, I will run a piece of trim to cover the holes and probably paint it a different color to provide an accent.

holddown4.jpg

Here is a pic of the top with the bolts installed before installing the extrusion.

tablewithholddowns.jpg

This is how the bolt interfaces with the extrusion. Kinda hard to see since it was hard to photograph.

holddown3.jpg

And here it is with the outside frame installed. The interior cross pieces are just sitting in place in this pic.

frame.jpg

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Build Day 1 Continued

Got the base all fastened together, squared up, leveled, and fastened down. In this pic, the rails are installed, the rear bumpers are on, and the rack for the rack and pinion are installed.

railsinstalled.jpg

The rails are cold rolled steel and do not come with the red paint. I got the idea to paint them by looking at other builds of this same machine. It adds some color and helps keep them from rusting. I cleaned them real good, masked off the area of the bearing to run, and sprayed a primer and then paint.

I took my time on everything and made sure things were true and accurate. Anyway, here is where I got by 2:30 am on the first build day (already had the wood base made)! BTW, I did not get started until after lunch and I took a LOT of breaks due to the heat! I also worked in the garden some so this is really only 4 or 5 hours of work.

gantryinstalled.jpg

gantry2.jpg

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

Build day 2

Well, I got it all put together yesterday except the motors! The motors I ordered were backordered and shipped separately from the rest of the machine. They are supposed to get here today. Everything else is ready to go.


Gantry rails installed and gantry complete
Gantrydone.jpg

Assembling the Z axis. Comments on the net say this is a really difficult step. I must have done something wrong because I found it really easy.

zaxisassembly.jpg

Got the router mount done and attached the Hitachi M12v I bought for this machine.

Motormounted.jpg

Now just waiting on motors. Everything else is complete. After the motors come in, I will get them mounted and wire everything up. Then it is time for testing!

readyformotors.jpg

[Curtis O. Seebeck]

That thing looks like a beast. Hope you picked the right location for it. LOL. I've rearranged my shop 5 or 6 times the last 4 months.

I didn't even think about looking at the profile for your area. I was hoping you were closer so I could take a look at it. Get that puppy up and running. You got the parts today, should be making chips tomorrow right? j/k

San Marcos is not that far away! Come on down, I would love to have you!