Hey everybody, I lurked about for awhile, ordered the parts kit from the shop, 3D printed everything else and it all sat around for some time. I finally got to building it and now I’m hooked.
I decided I wanted a 4x8 capable machine… because I thought it sounded neat, and I had the space. So that’s what I built. I set it up on a janky 2x4 frame with particleboard spoilboards that were probably the furthest from flat possible. And then got started on its more permanent home.
I wanted to learn Fusion since I hadn’t used it before - and really liked the bench designs Ryan had, so using those as inspiration I put together something pretty similar from scratch - and the joinery was a huge pain. I also learned a lot, because my model didn’t end up very parametric, which became a problem when I realized that a US sheet of 3/4 Ply is actually 18mm if I remember right. So all my fingers stuck through their counterparts some… oh well. The goal was to have enough space I can store all of my woodworking type tools under this bench. To keep it more separate from my mechanic/dirtbike type stuff. I’ve got shelves on one side, and sprung for some nicer drawer slides for the other. Once the drawers are done we’ll cut some inserts for tools/storage
Then came the torsion box. It was big at 61”x110” and the interior ribbing is ~11.5” apart I think (I’ve been going hard and figured I’d dump everything at once)
After I got the new top finished up and mounted, I moved the machine and tore down the janky temp setup, and got to work on a spoilboard. I had a sheet of 3/4 MDF leftover from something so that became the perfect donor. I grabbed some T Track from Amazon and cut my ribs to 10”x48” then ran t track between them all the way down the table. Of course I used the cnc to drill the holes and peck the 3/4 torsion skin, so I could come back through and put some threaded inserts in - hopefully they last longer that way.
(Before anyone mentions it… I am using 1/4 ply for my strut plates… I just need to find a material I like to switch it with and it’ll be one of the first follow up cuts. Harder to get things shipped when they have to be 48”+ it seems…)
And just because I’m in a tinkering mood I decided to build one of the CYD Pendants, I’m using an old MacBook Air for my cnc computer, and it’s kind of a pain to drag it around when setting up cuts or stopping things
And finally - today actually - I dropped in a Sienci AutoSpin T1. I’m using the Hercules Dust Extractor, and was pleasantly surprised to find out it doesn’t kick on until the router does, despite the router being “on” when in Spindle mode. Meaning the JackPot turns the router on when it’s ready, and then since the router is plugged into the extractor, it kicks on automatically too. And kicks off when the Jackpot turns the router back off. A bit of a freebie there.
Want to shout out Ryan and team, this has been an incredible project with so much thought and iteration behind it. It was painless pretty much the whole way through, and even when I did come to a hurdle there is plenty of information available that was able to get by it. MakerJim even helped me out today when I thought I cooked my controller - just by having me do the $SS I realized a config I thought took didn’t… and after swapping it we were running again and could move on. But I took the chance to cut out all the slack in my wiring and put new DuPont connectors on them so my control box isn’t so crowded.
Looking forward to using the machine for cabinets around the house, taking the place of a planer for now so I can tackle some hobby woodworking with hardwoods. And even looking at doing some acrylic for various saltwater aquarium gadgets, gizmos, and enclosures.
Huge thanks to the V1 team and everyone else who contributes
-apologies for any formatting, I typed this up on a phone because that’s where all my pictures were…
