My newly built Low Rider has been cutting good but I wanted the squareness of the gantry to be a little easier to manage.
I decided to go a different route, I wanted the least amount of friction as possible, so I came up with this. I haven’t got to cut anything yet but it seems to be really rigid, with the motors off I can move the gantry by hand on one side and the other side moved and stays square.
I’ll keep this updated after some cutting.
Sweet!
I was thinking of doing the same thing once mine is up and cutting properly.
Did you do anything to increase the rigidity of the printed parts? I’ve noticed a little bit of flex between the X rails and Y plate when I try and move just one side (still using MDF side plates).
Where are you seeing flex? I have been trying to look at all issues but I am unclear of where you are talking about. X rails and Z rails, meaning the printed corners or is your actual MDF flexing? If the mdf is flexing you might want to tighten up the bolts that go through the spacers, that forms sort of a torsion box.
Yeah, a little flex in the printed parts, where the Z and X rails come together. Right at the Y plates. The MDF isn’t flexing at all (that I can tell) seems to be all in the printed corners (mine are PLA at 60% infill, if that matters). I’ll see if I can get a picture to better explain.
It isn’t massive, but I do notice it going out of square when I try to move the Y axis by hand from one side (have to push it from the middle of the X rails to keep everything lined up).
Well with a 5’ lever arm something will flex, you can’t actually expect the corners to support a pair of 5’ stainless steel rails by themselves right? I don’t move any axis by hand on the LowRider, always under power so I don’t torque it. At this size a small twist and something will break.
There should be no way that can actually flex while in use, both sides move at the same time so there is nothing to flex other that the X rails if you are too aggressive with your CAM. Or am I completely misunderstanding your issue?
Hello All,
New to the forum, Low rider assembled, getting my table setup(working on a collapsible all Unistrut table, but more on that later) and waiting for board and motor controllers etc. However in the meantime I am working on something very similar except I am not planning on using wheels like the OP, but just going with bearings seeing as I ordered 100 for the project so I have quite a few laying around.
My question is really for Ryan(original designer of MPCNC/Lowrider etc. ??? Forgive me if this is not correct). Are you willing to share the Solidworks files for all of the parts, assemblies etc, or is that something that your are not really willing to give out? I completely understand if you really don’t want to give away the original models that you no doubt invested thousands of hours in, but if possible I would like to pull some of the faces of existing parts for the part I am trying to design so that the asthmatics, flow and theme are reflected in this additional part. I tried importing the STL files but I am somewhat new to Solidworks and trying to convert and clean up everything is just a little overwhelming for my skill level at this point. I have done a good amount of STL conversion and cleanup in Sketchup using some of the little add on’s but even then it is fairly difficult and time consuming and with the level of complexity and accuracy between Sketchup and Solidworks makes me thing trying to do this in Solidworks is going to be too much at this point.
If you are willing to share those files it would be much appreciated and obviously I would be willing to share any work I do back with you for your use. If not I completely understand and will just figure something else out.
Thanks
Alan
I’m not a fan of sharing the files, I have some other reasons in the FAQ’s. Really though even I don’t reuse them, each design change I start fresh. Trying to use my files would not be easy, even if you had the exact same version of solidworks I use. It really is easier to just use my files as a reference. If you need a few specific dimension I will give them but I am not going to go through the entire designs dimensions.
Alan, What ever came of your “all Unistrut table”? I am starting to pencil out my own LowRider build and was thinking about using “Superstrut” from Home Depot for some parts or the frame. I would love to hear about your experience.
Darrell,
Would you be willing to share more information about your metal plates. I was thinking of doing the same thing. My friend has a CNC plasma cutter and I could use it to cut them out. What material and thickness is the metal? Are you using the V2 spacers?
Thanks,
Britt
