CnC Cart build thread

[RatFinkleton]

I thought I would share a build I have going on in my shop.

Backstory: About 2 yrs ago I decided to design and build my own CnC router. I spent the better part of 6 months designing/building but I got it together and functional. I have been cutting projects on it ever since.




Fast Forward to a couple weeks ago: When I built the router I didn’t have time to make it a proper home. Instead it found its home atop an old failed project.

This worked and I tried to make it as pretty as I could but at the end of the day it just doesn’t cut it. It also resides in my basement creating dust and noise. My wife has been very understanding thus far but I think it’s time this thing join its comrades in my woodshop.

The solution design and build a custom cart.

The design Criteria:
1. Must have on board dust collection.
2. Must have room to store work holding tools, machine tooling, collets, & associated hand tools.
3. Must have dust proof enclosure for electronic components. This enclosure must also shield controller from EMI off the VFD. (More on that later)
4. Must have onboard PC and monitor. No more dragging the laptop to the machine.
5. Will serve as clamp storage for small-medium shop clamps.
6. Must be mobile. My shop space also serves as parking for my car occasionally when it snows/storms.

Armed with all that information I headed to CAD to model everything up. I will pick up there in my next post….

Thanks for reading!

—TheFInk—

 

[RatFinkleton]

Now was time to flesh out the design. I laid everything out in CAD. Some things are just rudimentary forms. Specifically the shop vac and cyclone represented by rectangular blocks.

After a couple hours of refinement, I had something I could work with. It looked like this:







The Features:
1. Metal Frame Construction--Primarily rect tube and angle steel.
2. Two large drawers for machine related storage.
3. A French cleat wall that separates the lower shelf into halves. The cleat side will serve as small-medium sized clamp storage. Behind the wall will be my dust collection shop vac and cyclone.
4. A panel that includes 3d printed vents. The vents come contain a replaceable filter material to for dust. One of them also has a large computer fan to draw air into the enclosure. The other acts as a vent.

Now full disclosure....as I write this excerpt I am already quite far in the build process. Having said that there are going to be some things further down the line that change from what was modeled. Some of my ideas were bone headed and needed to be re-worked. Some were just poorly executed. I will get into all the gory details of that when I get there.

Now at this point in the build, I hoped on Mcmaster and Amazon to order a whole variety of things. I cranked over the old work truck and headed to my local steel supplier. I am not sure what I spent more $$$ on.... the steel, or gas at 10mpg. At any rate, I then proceeded to convert gasoline into loud truck noises all the way down to the local BORG to buy MDF for the rest of the construction.

I think my next project will be a liquid cooling system for my Credit Card. It seems like whenever I start a project like this...that poor thing gets swiped more times than your dad's cigarettes used to......and just like dad's cigs, if mom finds out we are both going to the shredder.

If you have followed along this far. Thank you very much for reading. I am doing this more for my own enjoyment than anything, but I am hoping at least a few other people will find it interesting. Or at the very least get some amusement from watching a monkey making big pieces of material into littler pieces of material with the wrong tools.


--TheFInk--

 

[dfiler2]

Looks like a great start, can't wait to see it come together.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Armed with some prints I set out to turn my pile of material into smaller pieces.

There are way nicer shops around here than mine, but I do have capable set of metalworking tools. However, one of the things I don’t have is a porta band. This means all my cuts are done a-la-sawzall. I know, I know….I’m a hack. It is high on my current shopping list, but I am able to work around for know.

With a floor full of pieces of steel that looked as though a meth-fueled beaver chewed on them, I went out to the front yard to summon a lightning storm. After Officer Randy explained to me why that was a bad idea, I decided to use the Lincoln.

Here is the basic frame tacked up:

I mocked up the casters and monitor swivel mount to check fit:


After everything was tacked up and I was happy, I started to burn all the welds in:

At this point I began to clean everything up for final paint. I used $300 worth of flapper wheels on the grinder, but eventually it got done.

I convinced myself that I had plenty of paint on hand so I could start spraying right away. After I ran out of primer, I headed to the local farm and barn.

Watching paint dry:

I will cut things off here. More in the next post. If you read this far thank you!

—TheFInk—

 

[RatFinkleton]

Looks like a great start, can't wait to see it come together.

Thank you kindly,

 

[loganb]

I'm impressed your other half tolerated it that long in the laundry room! Excited to follow along as I have a half built cnc in thr garage I need to get back on and looks like you did a great job on the router so looking forward to seeing what I can learn!

 

[RatFinkleton]

I'm impressed your other half tolerated it that long in the laundry room! Excited to follow along as I have a half built cnc in thr garage I need to get back on and looks like you did a great job on the router so looking forward to seeing what I can learn!

I am surprised she has too. I still have all of the pictures from the CNC build. Maybe in the future I will start a thread for that build.

 

[niget2002]

I am surprised she has too. I still have all of the pictures from the CNC build. Maybe in the future I will start a thread for that build.

Please do. I bought some rails last year to do a 4'x4' build and that's as far as I've gotten.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Alas, I finally had a frame. Armed with the closest size metric wrench for my 1/4”-20 hardware, I set out to round off every bolt holding the casters and swivel mount for the monitor on.

Now it was time to break down some MDF sheet for the drawers, clamp rack, bottom shelf, & panel. I grabbed the sharpest metal hacksaw I have and got to work.

Once I had all the squarish stock that my CAD cartoon prints said I needed, I pin nailed and glued it all together. I added some 90 degree corner brackets for strength. The cheapest handle the BORG had makes pulling the drawer easy.

The drawers just ride on angle steel. To save wear on the drawer I added some UHMW tape I had from my homemade Biesmeyer fence build. The drawer pulls like tabs at the local watering hole.

The clamp rack didn’t go at all as planned. My original design was bone headed and we aren’t going to talk about it. The French cleat system was just basic batching cuts and glue/pin it in place. What I needed to go back to the drawing board on was attaching the wall to the rest of the cart. I ended up welding a small sub frame together from angle steel. Some paint and it ties the floor to the cleat wall.

Same song and dance with the panel. Glue, pin nail, cuss, tear apart, re-pin, cuss, tear apart, re-glue, re-re-pin, and of course curse the government.

Some picks of all the described baffoonery all put together:

—TheFInk—

 

[larry4406]

The extensions for the wheel outriggers look like ankle biters.

 

[RatFinkleton]

The extensions for the wheel outriggers look like ankle biters.

It was something that concerned me at first, but this far they really aren’t that intrusive. Time will tell…

 

[RatFinkleton]

It has been a little while since I posted a build update. My posts finally caught up with where the project currently stands.

Things have been rather slow moving since I have focused most of my shop time on getting my shop heater installation and prepping for a kitchen remodel.

Nonetheless, I have been able to get some work done. I decided to just go with a mdf top. My original plan was a 8/4 maple top. I am also cheap and am just wanting to get this thing done. So mdf it is.




On to the ‘lectrical portion of the build.

With the panel built, I could fit cut holes and fit my vents. I drew these up in CAD and 3d printed them. There is one vent with a large computer fan to draw air in, and one without a fan to act as an exhaust. Each vent has a filter material captured to keep dust and critters out.




I sketched out zones where I thought electrical components should go and began to fix them in place. From there I used a single wire color to wire everything up.




I got some wiring left, but I am almost to the point where I can bring the machine out of the basement. Looks like it’s time to lure a friend over.

Until next time….

—TheFInk—