Introducing - Big Red Lowrider 3

[Bartman]

Major Milestone Achieved!!!

I first started this journey in July 2023.

Bartman's LR3 build thread - A New(bie) Adventure!

I’m super stoked to start my LR3 build. My Ender 3 Neo is mostly set up and working, and my first roll of filament (Hatchbox PLA black) just arrived, with a second roll (same brand in red) scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I’ll spend a bit of time making some test prints with the new filament, ensuring for dimensional accuracy and squareness before starting to print the parts. I’m going to build the LR3 in small scale first using printed parts for the XZ and YZ plates. I’ll start by using one 10…

The reason that I decided to build a CNC was that I wanted to build a custom shaped poker table, and I needed a CNC machine to cut the complex super-ellipse (aka Lame curve) shape that I wanted to use.

For those unfamiliar with a super-ellipse, it is based on a mathematical formula where any point on the curve is defined by

or

It’s too complicated to draw by hand, and I wanted to be able to play around with different parameters. Changing “n” changes the shape of the table, changing “a” (length) and “b” (width) changes the size of the table. So I pretty much had to use a CAD program to create the curve before I could cut it with the CNC.

Along the way, I had to teach myself all about 3D printing, 3D modelling in CAD (first in FreeCAD, then in Fusion), CAM/G-Code, creating Youtube videos, and everything about building and operating the Lowrider 3.

Well finally, over two years later, I have completed cutting the first full sheet of plywood for the poker table (sheet 1 of 2). Woohoo!!!

There were a few hiccups during the cut, mostly self inflicted. I had secured the plywood to the spoil board with small nails at three locations along the end edges. When I cut the large curved part, it cut the edge in two places, and when I went to do some later cuts in those sections, they were only held by one nail, so the board twisted and the bit dug into the plywood.

I also had an issue where the X motor started chattering, and another where the Z1 motor would lose power during a cut and the Z1 homing switch was open circuited. I traced the issue to a couple of extension cable connections that I hadn’t used an S-Bend on. I had to open up my cable management, pull some slack from inside the controller box, and lengthen the cables enough to get the S-Bend on each connector and tape it all back up. It seems to have fixed the problem (hopefully).

I have one more sheet to cut (hopefully tomorrow), and then I can actually start building the table. I’ll post photos as the table construction progresses.