Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
I realize there are a load of these kits around but the other evening i watched a bunch of this guys build videos. He is quiet the guy having designed this whole cnc and now offers it as a kit.
It has all the makings of assembling one of the old style rivet bridges with the amount of nuts and bolts one has to use to put it together. But this is a kit that uses worm screw drive (i think that's the correct term ) instead of belt drive.
Its a kit costing 4 times the Shapeoko or OX type but i guess that's due to things like the dual drive and using the Gecko drive controller and way more steel and parts. I think its also twice the surface area in being 48" long cannot remember width iirc its around 30"
http://www.grunblau.com/PlatformCNC.htm he says on his site that its around US $ 4K to complete the kit.
http://www.grunblau.com/Brian/Downloads/Bill of Materials Platform CNC.pdf Bill of Material shows full list of required bits. So i guess when all said and done and another say US $1k for software is added (Mach 3 and Vcarve Pro) for 5K one has a machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iWqHYoskI
What i am intrigued by is this is the first person outside people on our forum, that has upfont come out with a machine where the approach is of creating a "PLATFORM" for all sorts of CNC tool heads. What i mean by that is this guy has purchased a kit for 3D printing which he has a video attaching it to the same z Axis and then has a series of videos where he has made a drag knife kit for the same cnc head.
So thus far its doing 3D plastic, Wood routing Using Bosch router, aluminum routing and drag knife cutting.
What I thought was a clever approach albeit more costly is how he wired the whole thing. Its all using off the shelf cables making use of D sub 9 connectors and hooking up to motors and gecko drive.
Kit is around US $2K and then i think there is another at least US $1.5K of hardware and bits to be purchased.
I like the way he has finished the appearance of the design by powder coating the parts.
Then interestingly he has a video which some of you may want to look into with regard to spindle run-out and your collets. I have not seen any of you using routers like the colt or Bosch EVS but he has and obtains a special collet from Precise Bits.com which has an amazing effect on run-out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLWxyy5XKJw
This is an interesting competitor to the type of machines Rockler etc sell close to this price range.
So far he has sold 180 machine kits he claims. Produces them in batches of 12 and has just closed the spots for batch 15 now onto taking bookings for batch 16.
I would be interested in hearing opinions from those of you with machines. There sure is a ton of adjustment on this unit given how the rails are all made up and bolted together. I think you need a good mechanical flare to put this unit together such that you get smooth run of the x y and z axis. But its a fresh approach and no belts.
The bolt together with a ton of bolts is certainly one way to get rigidity without the cost of heavy steel. It worked for riveted bridges and ship builders in the past so i see no reason why it should not work for this design. Pretty clever legs too.
BY the way if you interesting in casting this guy has an interesting series of videos making a casting foundry from an Anheuser Busch beer keg. (lol about the only thing Anheuser Busch beer is useful for) .
It has all the makings of assembling one of the old style rivet bridges with the amount of nuts and bolts one has to use to put it together. But this is a kit that uses worm screw drive (i think that's the correct term ) instead of belt drive.
Its a kit costing 4 times the Shapeoko or OX type but i guess that's due to things like the dual drive and using the Gecko drive controller and way more steel and parts. I think its also twice the surface area in being 48" long cannot remember width iirc its around 30"
http://www.grunblau.com/PlatformCNC.htm he says on his site that its around US $ 4K to complete the kit.
http://www.grunblau.com/Brian/Downloads/Bill of Materials Platform CNC.pdf Bill of Material shows full list of required bits. So i guess when all said and done and another say US $1k for software is added (Mach 3 and Vcarve Pro) for 5K one has a machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3iWqHYoskI
What i am intrigued by is this is the first person outside people on our forum, that has upfont come out with a machine where the approach is of creating a "PLATFORM" for all sorts of CNC tool heads. What i mean by that is this guy has purchased a kit for 3D printing which he has a video attaching it to the same z Axis and then has a series of videos where he has made a drag knife kit for the same cnc head.
So thus far its doing 3D plastic, Wood routing Using Bosch router, aluminum routing and drag knife cutting.
What I thought was a clever approach albeit more costly is how he wired the whole thing. Its all using off the shelf cables making use of D sub 9 connectors and hooking up to motors and gecko drive.
Kit is around US $2K and then i think there is another at least US $1.5K of hardware and bits to be purchased.
I like the way he has finished the appearance of the design by powder coating the parts.
Then interestingly he has a video which some of you may want to look into with regard to spindle run-out and your collets. I have not seen any of you using routers like the colt or Bosch EVS but he has and obtains a special collet from Precise Bits.com which has an amazing effect on run-out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLWxyy5XKJw
This is an interesting competitor to the type of machines Rockler etc sell close to this price range.
So far he has sold 180 machine kits he claims. Produces them in batches of 12 and has just closed the spots for batch 15 now onto taking bookings for batch 16.
I would be interested in hearing opinions from those of you with machines. There sure is a ton of adjustment on this unit given how the rails are all made up and bolted together. I think you need a good mechanical flare to put this unit together such that you get smooth run of the x y and z axis. But its a fresh approach and no belts.
The bolt together with a ton of bolts is certainly one way to get rigidity without the cost of heavy steel. It worked for riveted bridges and ship builders in the past so i see no reason why it should not work for this design. Pretty clever legs too.
BY the way if you interesting in casting this guy has an interesting series of videos making a casting foundry from an Anheuser Busch beer keg. (lol about the only thing Anheuser Busch beer is useful for) .
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