New LR3 in Northeast Pennsylvania

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

This is my first venture in CNC. I started 3D printing with an Ender 3 about 3 years ago. I dabble in woodworking and electronics (ESP 01/8266/32, Arduino, etc) among other things. Professionally, I’m a software engineer. So, I have some useful related experience. If you ask my wife, my hobby is collecting hobbies.

Overall, this has been a lot of fun. Sure there’s some frustration mixed in there, but it’s wild that a person can have a machine with this kind of capability at this price.

Specs
Working Area: 34.5" x 75"
Table Size: 49" x 90"
Rails: 3/4" EMT
Board: Jackpot v1.1
Router: Kobalt
Parts: All sourced from V1 store (including printed parts)

Table Details

Table Ideas for those just getting started

Got my table built. Ended up 49" x 90". Bought some 2x8s and ripped them down but that was probably more work than necessary. I bought a sheet of 3/4" MDF and had them cut it in quarters so it fit in my car. I ripped them down a bit more on the table saw. I ended up basically building a torsion box anyway minus the bottom skin. I used pocket screws. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty flat (certainly more than the floor of my garage). Back to assembling the LR3 now that I’ve settled on the …

Status

• Table Built
• Gantry Assembled
• Wired
• Crown
• Router Mounted
• Squaring and Z Leveling
• Strut Plates Cut
• Strut Plates Installed
• Wiring

I did the crown before Z leveling so I expect it would be better now (the right side is a bit light).

I was super excited that after squaring, I can’t even detect a difference between the diagonal differences with a tape measure. Surely less than half a mm.

I was playing in foam. I created the letter Y in Inkscape and created the gcode in Estlcam. After I play around a bit more, I’ll cut the strut plates.

My Kobalt router seems to have an issue where the RPMs don’t stay consistent. They’re ok at setting 1 but they seem to waver at other speeds. It seems that it will stop doing that after a bit until you change the speed again. We’ll see if that resolves itself, otherwise I’ll swap it for a new one. I saw someone else had the same issue.

I need to sort out some wiring organization but I’m waiting until I get the strut plates cut before going too crazy. I’m curious how others are handling the power cables. At some point, I’ll setup a vacuum, but not ready for that yet. I want all the power cables and eventually the vacuum hose at the back (Y rail side).

I do think the instructions need to be updated to better document the Jackpot. Some of it is answered on the Jackpot specific page, but the main instructions don’t reference it and things like squaring and Z leveling work differently than how they’re defined in the main instructions. Commands like M114 and M666 don’t work on the Jackpot.

It took about 3 weeks working on and off to get to where I am now (playing in foam). I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it came together. I have about 2 weeks off work around the holidays, so I’m looking forward to diving deeper into this.

[aeversme (Alex Eversmeyer)]

@jeyeager

my hobby is collecting hobbies.

Sounds suspiciously familiar…

Nice work! Keep up the good progress!

[DougJoseph (Doug Joseph (design8studio))]

Looking good!

[dgkeith237]

Looks great! Basic black really works.

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Wow. Cut my first strut plate and am thrilled with the result. This is like experiencing the fascination of 3D printing all over again. I wasn’t winning any speed races but we’ll go down that path later.

Wow!

[DougJoseph (Doug Joseph (design8studio))]

Nice! You nailed the dimensionality!

[RockinRiley (Riley)]

@DougJoseph

dimensionality

^^^^ wait ^^^ is that a word?? Lol

[aeversme (Alex Eversmeyer)]

Nice start!

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

First thing that came to mind…

[Tokoloshe (Philipp)]

@jeyeager

This is like experiencing the fascination of 3D printing all over again.

Completely true. I bought a printer to build the Primo so it was close together for me, but I could watch both machines for ages.

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Struts cut and painted. Disassembly up next.

[DougJoseph (Doug Joseph (design8studio))]

Great job!

[waimea]

Looks awesome!

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Just adding some details on my Estlcam setup for cutting the strut plates since I was rather uncertain while doing this. I’m sure I could have gone deeper/faster but I wanted to play it safe for now. I got most of the settings from the Milling Basics “For the Impatient” section.

Milling Basics - V1 Engineering Documentation

This is dumb, but at first I didn’t realize there were more settings for tools than what’s in the tool list. Click the wrench icon on the left to get all the settings.

Tool Settings

Some notes:

• The RPM settings don’t matter if you’re using a trim router but I put it there for some kind of target. I used speed setting 1 on the Kobalt router.
• I used 1/4" MDF (6.35mm). I used a total depth of 6.6mm so only 0.25mm overcut. I probably should have doubled it to 0.5mm overcut. It was mostly fine but there were some minor spots on the bottom I had to cleanup a bit.
• Since I was using 6.6mm total depth, I just split that in 3 to get the 2.2mm per pass. I imagine I probably could have done it in 2 passes.
• Setting the “Depth per pass” on the Finishing parameters to 10mm was something I had to figure out since I wanted to do the finishing pass in a single pass.
• I bumped up the Finishing feedrate a bit from the default.
• I don’t think stepover matters since I was just cutting out single lines.

Hole/Part Settings

Notes:

• Based on the 10% recommendation, I used a 0.3mm finishing pass.
• By default, the tabs were full depth which are more annoying to remove. I changed it to 3mm (roughly half total thickness) and that worked well.
• There are no pockets, so those settings don’t matter here.

Tabs

• I used 2 tabs per triangle.
• For a ~42" strut, I used a single tab on each end, and 4 pairs of tabs for the length.

Once I get the LR3 completely finished, I’m sure I’ll be pushing it more. But this is where I landed for getting the strut plates cut.

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Do you actually need to separate the beam to install the strut plates? On both sides? I don’t think it’s necessary, but I’m not sure if that would make things easier or not.

[jhalye (Jeffrey Halye)]

You may not have to separate from the side plates, but I ended up pulling the X-belt, the LR core and the side plates to do mine. I have big hands so getting in behind the panels to hold lock nuts while threading in screws was a pain and having it totally separate made it simpler for me. My strut plate keyholes also weren’t big enough for my 8mm bolt heads, so I had to pull all of the top bolts completely and reassemble.

I think you’ll definitely have to pull the X-belt tensioner and then you might be able to sneak a strut plate behind the LR core. After that, the back should be straightforward but I’m not sure about leaving the LR core and side plates on while you fit the bottom strut plate.

Good luck!

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Ugh, I’m facing the same issue with the bolt heads being too large for the keyholes which defeats the whole point of the keyholes. At this point, I’m going to remove both side plates. I would have attempted this otherwise. It looks like if you remove the bottom inside bearings from the core, you can remove it without sliding it off the end.

Thanks for the input!

[jhalye (Jeffrey Halye)]

Quick note, do the front and bottom first and the back plate last. Assuming yours is the same orientation as mine based on the braces, the back plate has the nut slots so you can tighten without a wrench. If you do it in a different order, making that wrench fit is a total pain in the arse… Ask me how I know.

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

Yea, I’m headed in the right direction on that part. I’m doing the front first, since that’s where you get the spacing right for the strut holes. Then the bottom. It’s definitely important to super glue those nuts into the slots. It looks like I had forgotten to do that on a couple but at least I could fix it before it became an issue.

I’m also back to trying this without removing the beam. We’ll see how far I get that way. Being able to remove the core without sliding off the beam is the only thing that makes this still feasible. I believe I’ll be able to flip the whole thing upside down resting on the angled part of the YZ plate to put the bottom strut in.

[jeyeager (Jason Yeager)]

It’s “done”! Now the real fun begins. I intend on doing something with dust collection but for now am chasing it around with my shop vac. I also bought one of those 4 input boards to add to the Jackpot. I also plan on doing something more for emergency stop (tied to a power strip for now). I also might get a dedicated tablet. But all those things can wait.

I did install the struts without removing the beam. However, I removed the bottom inside bearings and I couldn’t put those back on once the bottom strut was installed. So, I put those back, removed the top inside bearings and then could reinstall the core.

I have both the Jackpot and router power connected to a Y cable inside the beam so it’s easy to disconnect and keeps it clean.

There are some wire organization crimes happening inside that beam but it still looks good from the outside.

Thanks to @vicious1 for making this possible and everyone else for the help along the way. This forum and community has been invaluable. More to come.