I have been reading up on the Lowrider line of cnc’s and followed the forum every now and then from the moment I noticed the V4 on printables, but did not have the space to make and operate one myself. Luckily things have changed and I now finally have access to a garage that I can use for my creative exploits. I do have experience with 3d modeling, printing and lasercutting. No CNC experience yet, so I’m looking forward to getting another tool in the toolbelt.
Not a lot of progress so far though, mostly printing all the parts and making a digital assembly in order to decide the color scheme. The hardware kit and aluminum XZ plates have already arrived as I ordered them in February, but wasn’t able to get started on building earlier. The package was delivered in a rough shape, but all the critical components seem fine, one or two of the bags of screws were ruptured but I think I should manage even if some got lost.
The plan for now is to stick to the golden path as much as possible and start with a full scale one with the possibility to downscale it in the future. The layout of the garage is still in flux so we’ll have to see how much floorspace I can dedicate to it.
So far I have run into one issue. For the first few components I had misremembered the recommended infill as grid instead of rectilinear or cubic. The core was printed before I noticed this, should I need to reprint it with the other settings, or is this a case of give it a try and see if it works and replace if it doesn’t?
Also, does anyone have a good source for the rails in the Netherlands? I haven’t taken the time to look for it yet, but it would be nice to not go into it blind.
This week I didn’t have too much time for assembly, but I printed most of the remaining stuff. Mostly a few of the brackets and the dust shoe still to go. The stainless steel tubing I ordered should be arriving next week.
I did get around to assembling the core and the process was pretty clear. There were only a few hiccups to far. The first was that it was a bit fiddley to get the filament to block the screws from falling out all the way trough into the lower hole. I had initially missed that it was there so I had to redo a few. And the touch plate was shown pre-assembled. I get that it is optional and it is not too difficult to figure out, but considering the detail the assembly focuses on this it felt as a weird omission at the time. Other than that everything went smoothly.
The design of the 3D printed parts is impressive for printability, I’m really impressed by the ways used to get around having to print using support and I love the little quality of life features for assembly like the depth indicators to attach the pulley at the right offset on the stepper motor.
First; very nice to see that another lowrider is being born in NL.
Not sure if it’s in your neighborhood, but I got my pipes from “Staalhandel Beek en Donk”. Later, I got the tip that there is a old guy and a younger one. The steel is more expensive when you buy it from the old guy.
Finally a bit of progress, I did end up buying the rails somewhere else before I noticed the reply.
They arrived but I have yet to unpack them because I’ll have to rearrange the space before I can determine the final dimensions. Probably just short of a full plate cutting area, though maybe with a bit of luck just enough to fit a plate underneath. Fingers crossed.
The sides are now mostly done, had a few struggles feeding some of the wires trough the channels due to one of the servo wires twisting in the channel. A bit fiddley but it worked out. The YZ plates are mounted but while I can move them smoothly up and down 90% of the time, every now and then there is a bit of resistance. Is this normal for these kinds of rails? Should I put some lube for the lead screw on these as well? Not too familiar with lubrication compatibility of different components.
Also started looking for a shop vac for the dust collection since up till now I only had a laser cutter and 3d printer. A whole new world to feed my analysis paralysis. Fun times.
