Lowrider 2 journey

Olivier · December 9, 2021, 7:22pm

What happened there? You know that you could add a spring valve in the lid, so it opens instead of imploding:)

Yes I can

I was actually watching your video this afternoon! It’s great inspiration for me.

There’s enough room at my ceiling, that’s why I actually needed a long vac hose. However I am not so keen on adding a swingarm (would need to drill into the wall, the bricks are really rock solid and takes a lot of effort to align 2 hinges)
So I’ve seen your solution of using a zero gravity tool holder. How did this work out, and by looking back to it, do you have a preference between the two?

Olivier · December 10, 2021, 10:09am

It´s time to move on in my journey and have a look on how I am going to try and square my L2. I suspect that part of my experiences are caused to bad printed LR parts, but also due the fact that my wheels are slipping on the slippery surface I´ve got.

I´ve seen that some users add a beam to keep the wheels aligned, some make grooves for the wheels to run on. I was considering linear rails as a solution.

I was never planning on building a full sheet CNC machine. It just happened because I can do it And that´s now causing an issue to find a linair rails long enough to fit.

So, I found this earlier on Thingiverse:
Schermafbeelding 2021-12-10 104217

It is basically something bolted on the stock LR parts, and using the same principle for the Z/X axis. For the rails to mount they use this CNC alternative:
Schermafbeelding 2021-12-10 105211

Now, I am considering to tackle this by a different approach.
I was hoping to mount M8 bolts /threaded rods to the tube, and mount those to the table. That way I can create some overhang to reach the outer sides of the full sheet without making my table larger.
I would add nuts between the rail/table to stabilize the whole on my required height.

A sketch to make it more clear:

Like you can see, I would overhang the “rail” ± 20 cm on each side, that should be enough for the bit to go from 0 to 244cm (full plate lenght).

For mounting M8 bolts I contacted my local metal shop, they did an experiment for me, to check if they could mount blind rivet nuts to a 25mm round tube
This is their result:

As you can see they tried various options, and all with success.

So I believe my idea of mounting this using bolts is feasible. What do you guys think of it?
I am a bit worried on the distance I would choose between each of the holders (39cm) but since the X axis is longer and uses a similar principle, I believe that I might get away with it.

any suggestions?

barry99705 · December 10, 2021, 2:15pm

Running the vac for 20 hours straight caused the bucket to get warm. After that I double bucketed and it never happened again. I also don’t leave the machine running unattended anymore…

niget2002 · December 10, 2021, 2:30pm

So. What you’re saying is… you’re dust bucket needs cooling fins

ttraband · December 10, 2021, 3:48pm

That seems like a lot more complex, expensive, and fiddly solution to tacking or screwing down a strip of wooden molding or aluminum angle to keep the wheel running straight.

If you do go for the rail solution, you should only need it on one side. If one side runs straight then the other should stay parallel.

Olivier · December 10, 2021, 4:37pm

20 hours is long though! What were you making?

I still need to receive the quote, but I do imagine it’s “fairly” reasonable in pricing looking at other projects I´ve done with them.

The blind nuts are not really required, but I do feel more comfortable that I can screw it against the surface, but even more important, the additional overhang seems like a good approach.

The only thing that I am concerned with, is how to mount the belt. Didn´t think that through just yet.

I see, but wouldn´t that be difficult to align both sides in height?

barry99705 · December 10, 2021, 11:37pm

Gianpaolo · December 11, 2021, 8:30am

I agree with Tom, furthermore, the difficulty to align both sides in height of the LR2 is much less than the difficulty of having two perfectly parallel tubular guides.
if I can give you some advice I would use exactly the altertnative method of printed shims as shown in post 108 instead of rivets and screws.
B.R.
Paolo

Olivier · December 13, 2021, 2:49pm

@barry99705 beautiful !

Really? I would figure that this would be easier?
If you now the size between both rails, you could use a piece of wood, cut it to lenght, and screw down one side of the tubes with this piece of wood in between. Then redo exactly the same on the other side.

I believe that this is how the printed shims work. They have 1 mounting hole, so it can pivot in the needed direction. see;

Thing that worries me most, is the question if an M8 bolt would be strong enough to resist the moving force while milling (caused by X axis).

But you´re right Paolo, and maybe I should try it first with the shims, I can always upgrade afterwards.

Olivier · December 14, 2021, 8:29am

Another upgrade in place
It must have been a sign, as the local DIY shop had “gate hinges” in their discount folder. So bought one with the length of 1000mm, and it works just fine in my situation.

The vacuum hose pivots easily from left to right, and does not seem to hinder the LR2 during the milling process.

I am considering to reroute my power cables too, so they are mounted on the same hinge. But that’s not a prio atm

bitingmidge · December 16, 2021, 11:16pm

Am REALLY keen to see how the long vac goes - I have 6m hose and it works well but am a bit wary of extending it!

Olivier · December 17, 2021, 9:27pm

Well as far as I can tell, the suction isn’t decreased a lot. I am sure it will be a bit, but feeling it by placing my hand before the tube, or before the vacuum cleaner, gives the same feeling. But I know that’s not exact science:D

I still need to add some kind of dust shoe around the Z plate, to make the biggest difference to keep the dust away, but that’s still a piece that needs to arrive in the mail, and to be figured out on how to install

Olivier · December 23, 2021, 6:21pm

This week some parts arrived. I think Santa Claus must have had a bad day, and I was honestly concerned he would have lost some parts on his way to my home:-)

But no worries, somehow everything arrived, even with those large holes in the boxes

I got some cable chains, so I could secure my cabling and a vacuum shoe brush, or what it is called in English I noticed the brush is rather stiff, so I am not sure if this will work. Might have to cut it.

Another surprise was a little box with everything I´ll be needing to mount my upgrades:)

So, a third box arrived to with needed parts;

It contains parts for the skatewheel replacement, mounts for the Z endstops, an extension to mount the cable chain, replacement for the GT2 belt holder, etc…

I am looking forward on installing the following piece, it will replace the Y/X bridge with just 1 part. It´s solid as hell, and will make live easier as I don´t need to mount that many screws. However, I can´t just fit my tubes, as the Thingiverse note mentioned to heat the tubes and melt it in place. So that one will take some time before I will be installing it.
Maybe I´ll try to sand it somehow so I can just slide it in and secure it with a bolt, as that would make me feel more comfortable.

Now I only need to find the time to install those parts.
Anyways, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

vicious1 · December 23, 2021, 6:37pm

You got a full parts kit, printed parts and hardware?

Olivier · December 23, 2021, 7:09pm

No not exactly, I sourced some parts on Amazon like the cable chain and vac shoe.
Ordered the exact amount of hardware like nuts and bolts from a local dealer, after carefully inspecting what I exactly needed , and selected / downloaded the required upgrades from Thingiverse that will fit my ideas to finally complete my LR. I was lucky a friend of mine helped printing to speed up the process as I want to install some of the updates this weekend.

For sure I hope these parts will help to square my machine as it is painfully at the moment when trying to do a larger cut.

TBH live would have been easier if I could just order a full kit to begin with, but that might have taken the fun out of it I guess?

vicious1 · December 23, 2021, 7:51pm

Oh…cool. I thought someone was putting together odd kits.

Olivier · December 24, 2021, 1:10pm

No worries, I´ve should have made myself more clear

Olivier · December 30, 2021, 12:42pm

Got some of my upgrades in place JEEEEJ!

First I, finally, added the Vac Duct and this makes a huge difference (dust). Should have had in place much earlier.

Because I am still using the Dewalt base, I had to apply some duct tape to cover the space between the Katsu router and the Vac Shoe.
I installed the upgraded Vac Shoe from here, and I am very happy with it. Can´t wait to swap my Dewalt base to a Makita base so I can turn the router in the correct direction.

I also wanted to replace my screws on the base with countersunk screws, to have some more room for doing cuts with short bit. That was a good opportunity to add a permanent penholder. Still have to try it out, but it is now there when I want to try

Next I decided to replace the original part from Ryan with these upgraded endstops. It has a feature to align the wheels on both sides of the table. Since my LR2 isn´t completely squared just jet, it helps to start square and to keep running those wheels on the table surface.

One part of the end stop upgrade is the belt tensioner. Although Ryan´s part just works (perfect), it is a nice feature to tension those belts with a single screw.

I can say for sure now that my LR2 is now already better aligned then before.
Cannot wait to install the other upgrades

Olivier · January 7, 2022, 3:05pm

I finally found some larger (end) switches in a local shop. So I can start implementing those end stops for homing. Although these new switches are small, my older ones are even smaller as you can see
Unfortunately the coming days are pretty busy, so not sure when I will be able to install them.

Found some leftover 25mm rail, so I can have a look at what needs to change when converting skate wheels to a rail.

The height will definitely be an issue as you can see on the photo´s.
I plan to solve this with a new table design, as the current one is still not flat enough. My idea is to make a torsion box that will be thicker then the beam where I want to mount the rail. This will fit an idea I have, where I can easily mount a top onto, so I can quickly convert this to a workbench when needed. Will probably be slow progress too

Olivier · January 16, 2022, 7:41pm

Today, I finally managed to find time to mount my first endstop sensors. So I went on to install these Z-Endstops. Unfortunately I raised my Z much too high and broke one of my switches in the process, so will need to go back to the shop to replace it before I can actually try homing them.

During the installation I noticed there´s a play in the Z-tubes, it seems like 2 bearings don´t touch which is strange. Wonder if someone else has this issue too?

Because I was working on the machine I thought it was a good idea to test out the parts of my soon to install new Y rail that should replace the skatewheels.
But I hit an error and hope someone can help me out here…

So this beauty should be bolted on the YZ Roller.

but the issue is that one of the bolt´s doesn´t fit like you can see here;

another issue is that the parts are only available in 1 direction, and it clearly needs a mirrored version, because otherwise the bearing wont be centered above the tube, and this might cause issues on the long run;

Yet another issue is with the existing parts that have a bump so the skatewheels can roll, but this causes the parts not to align properly;

and last, I believe an ident is needed, so the Z carriage can go further, so one doesn´t loos to much space;

But further then that, it looks really good, and it might be a solutions for my skatewheels that keep on slipping. It rolls super smooth of the test tube.

Now, coming back why I would need help, it seems my skills are too limited at the moment to design a 3D part. I wonder if someone could assist me in merging the original part from Ryan with the other part (and making some minor changes for the issues), so it becomes 1 part I can just bolt on.

any help would be appreciated!