I'm building the highest quality CNC machine possible with a limited budget utilizing commonly accessible parts aimed to be a 3d printing companion machine. The main block has clever geometry allowing it to do double duty as both the rod holder as well as the gantry.
I'm trying to settle on a design, but I was advised to try all 3. The 3 designs are 1. round linear bearing (current) 2. Y- Linear bearing 3. U Groove wheels. Im almost ready to print a u groove wheel for a 1/2 emt, and 5x16x5 bearings. I found 8 x 16 x 5 are also cheap bearings that should be suitable for the Y linear bearing.
Drilled and bolted the frame. Cut the sub-board crooked :(. Getting binding and all sorts of twisting. I could get some movement for the sake of it, but this is definitely making it to a beta version. Need to spend more time in CAD. I do have parts for a brushless spindle on the way.
Finally got the print settings dialed in for the rod holder. In the future i'd like to test PLA as a bearing material. I tried nylon, but it was rather soft. Igus has some special filament that seems interesting.
This design was so that I didn't have to "dial in" on a 1mm print nozzle. I could get the majority of the structure there and print a more precise bushing with a 0.4mm nozzle.
Been working on this project for a couple weeks. Hope to have something that moves by the end of the month. See the different version iterations in the gallery. Original idea was going to be a one piece design. That evolved into 2 part, a block and a bearing. Then the bearing wasnt working out great so I got off the shelf bearings. Check points are: