I was thinking making the Y rails 120” since that is the length they come in, any issues or changes I need to make for the extra length? I was probably going to make the X rails 57-60” to give me just over 50” in width to work with. I don’t need to oversize this much if will hurt performance.
I see most people are using the Makita, but are there any good spindle options? It seems like a more variable option could be better but if that is not the case I can grab the makita.
What kind of speed can I see with this, like how long would it take to cut out a sheet of cabinets in hardwood plywood? I would at least have shelf pin holes.
Y can be infinitely long, you’ll need to adjust for the curve of the earth and negotiate some treaties with other countries though.
The more rigid your x, the faster you can go. The more oversize you go, the slower youll want to move.
I’m using a bauer router/makita knock off. Spindle are doable but consider the weight. The last one i messed with was seriously heavy. I didn’t use it, it would have likely caused some z variation across the x.
The rigidity goes down with the square of the length of X. So half the length in X is probably close to 4x more rigid (in that dimension). But the machine is a balance and you should be happy cutting sheets with a 50" work length in X.
Y doesn’t matter as much. The trouble there is mostly the space it takes up. It can also be a little more error prone because the belts and rails and table are longer. But if you work close to the endstops, then you shouldn’t see any difference between that and a 6 foot machine.
Don’t discount the makita. That thing is designed to be abused by builders and has a good warranty. It has good features and should be able to cruise through sheet goods. I would definitely start with the makita for you and stay close to a “standard” build for you. You’ll find it is a well balanced machine and you can take advantage of the many versions and lessons we’ve learned before the LR4.
On a cabinet side, there is the length of the slots on the outside, and the drilling for the shelf pins, plus the travel to get around. The perimeter might be better to do in 3 passes, maybe two roughing and one finishing pass. If we said you need 10m of slotting even at 10mm/s, you would be done with the perimeter in 16mins. I’m going to guess another 15 mins for the shelf pins. But really, there is a lot more time in setting up a job or doing the design and CAM or testing your feeds and speeds. Some of those are one time tasks. Some of them require work for each panel. You have to babysit these machines. So you could be CAMing the next one in that 30 mins.
If you were making one cabinet, it would take a lot longer per cabinet than if you’re making 10x. If you were cutting them full time, you would be working on optimizing everything and they would end up quite quick per unit.
I have the space, I want the area under the table to be able to hold 4x8 sheets so a little oversized will work in my favor.
I am thinking to build the table with rails to be able to use the full Z axis when desired but have a typical set up for cutting 3/4 material, my most likely use of the machine. Trying to figure out how to work that out and have a stop/clamp system to quickly and reliably position sheet goods.
I am seeing the carbide router for $60, looks like a cheap option ready to go.
Are there any savings to be had or quality improvements from ordering the $299 kit or self sourcing?
Tell me anything I should know. I have already printed the majority of the pieces. Gotta love a Bambu printer, especially when you have two.
the carbide 60 usd is a good option, comes with standard er11 collets ( the er11 version, 1/8 & 1/4 inch) a pretty long cable and another 2 sets of brushes. that said its discontinued.
save yourself the hassle and get a kit with the jackpot controller, it comes with everything you will need and most important: the correct parts out of the box, no weird errors because you got the wrong pulleys or bad quality belts
Yeah, I saw the calculator. How much extra clearance is available beyond the cutting area on the y axis? Local place has 49”x97” and 60x60” sheet goods
There’s another option for the table - @franklyrosalind 's Torsion LR4 table generator. But, having produced a lot of MDF scraps at this point, I’ll warn you that getting accurate cuts (especially in a newly-built, “on the floor” LR4) is maybe more of a challenge/source-of-frustration than you really want when you’re just starting out.
The “non-CNC build” LR4 table linked above is probably a good place to start - I avoided it because there’s a gap between my woodworking skills and the precision needed to make a “good” table using those plans: too many small pieces that have to to be attached to each other, too many opportunities for losing any semblance of flatness.
As for the router, I happily used a Makita for my LR3 and up until a few weeks ago in the LR4. Bought one of the Carbide 3D “clearance” routers and am really happier with it than I was with the Makita, especially for the price. (Which reminds me that I need to order a second one to have in reserve before they’re all gone…)
Consider how you’ll access the parts you cut on a table that big - unless you’ll always be making very large parts that can be reached from the sides of the table, you’re going to find yourself having to crawl out onto the table at some point to cut some hold-down tabs loose.
Unless you really have a need for something that big (and I can’t imagine what that would be, since a 49x97 sheet of MDF is about the biggest sheet of anything you can get), I’d go with something smaller – full-sheet size at the upper end; smaller if you don’t really anticipate cutting very large parts (think: cabinets, etc.).
And the LR4 calculator will take your desired usable cutting area and produce the rail lengths that you need - so constrain your designing to that rather than figuring out the actual rail sizes you really need.
Yeah, my table has gone through some evolutions. My first attempt was to cut a torsion box on the ground. After a couple trashed sheets (tears, wailing, gnashing of teeth) I built a table very similar to a wall frame. That was flat and stable enough I could fix other issues with my machine, and cut the parts for the torsion box (though, it was a little tricky to get together, probably because I’m less careful than @tippmar and just clamped/hammered it home.)
So, I’m not sure I recommend cutting the parts for a torsion table on a floor CNC unless you’re pretty confident it’s cutting accurately. And if you are…not sure why you are building it a new table!
Designing the table looks interesting. If you use a spoil board and want the 50mm designed Z travel you need to put the lowrider on rails. I was thinking to make things simple I would just mount it to a flat table, but once you put a spoil board you lose the thickness of your spoil board too. I am mostly wanting to cut .25”-.75” so I guess I would be ok to start with a flat table but it seems like rails would be appropriate in the long run. I am assuming the 50mm is taking the length of the bit into account.
How are we clamping full sheets? A vacuum table seems prohibitive. I am not a fan of using screws, I wonder if a jig that could align and hold a 48x96 and 49x97 sheet from the edges would work.
You can use screws (thats the most affordable and fast way) the vacuum table can be done cheap, nosier but cheaper, you can use toe clamps, alu /3d printed, plastic nails. Your imagination is the limit
The LR4 has more Z travel than that. But you do want to keep it lower as that’s where its stronger. You could go with a 1/2" MDF spoilboard instead of 3/4 to get you a little lower. Or run strips of the same material you use for your spoilboard under the LR. That will bring it up to the same height as your spoilboard.
Screws straight into the spoilboard is how I do it with everything. I tried all kinds of different solutions on my original LR2 and in the end the screws was the easiest thing. If I have material I don’t want to screw through then I use a washer head screw (think pocket screws) on the edge where the head catches the sides and holds it down.