EMG Precision Blog

DIY CNC Machine Base Design & Fabrication Part 3

Posted by Jonathan Gee on Mar 20, 2022

DIY CNC Machine Base Design & Fabrication Part 3

GOING THROUGH SANDING FLAPPY DISCS LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW!!

Machine Base Design & Fabrication Part 3

Posted by Jonathan Gee,

20 Mar 2022


This is a privately funded project that frequently sees shortage of funds delaying progress, If you are enjoying this build diary and would like to contribute to the completion of this project and all the future guides and video journeys it would be gratefully received and spent directly on this project. Donate through PayPalMe Here...

Machine Base Design & Fabrication Part 3

I am pretty happy with my welds now. They are not perfect but I think they will do. I found it really important to focus on your weld puddle and move it around as required. Great fun though! I am really enjoying welding.

I am pretty happy with my welds now. They are not perfect but I think they will do. I found it really important to focus on your weld puddle and move it around as required. Great fun though! I am really enjoying welding.

So it has been about three and a half weeks since I broke the foot and I have been itching to get out and continue with the build. But at least I used some of the time to start this build blog and get it up to date. Sometimes I am going to write articles of whats going on real time, like this post, and others I will keeping back tracking on work already completed. There is a lot to come yet about the design and build of the Y screw mounting assemblies. I am also going to try some videos in the future. It is not my cup of tea really, but I will give it a see if you guys’ n gals connect with the content and its delivery. My foot is still not healed properly but I can hobble around with some big steel capped boots on enough to start back doing a bit so here goes...

Primed and ready for paint side sections of the base.

I was really concerned about a choice of paint to honest. Specifically how it would interact and last while exposed a lot to coolant fluid. I had seen first-hand issues with enamel paint as shown to me by a friend I had heard mixed feedback on powder coating, but I did not really want to have to send off all this metalwork and pay for it powder coating. I was planning to make a stainless-steel drain tray and not painting it, so it was only really some certain elements I had to protect from heavy exposure, and in general the main framework from splash age etc.

I ended up settling for a paint sold on rawlinspaints.com. It is called International Intergard 410 and is described as 'Suitable for use as part of a high-performance coating system to provide an anti-corrosive barrier in areas where aggressive corrosion conditions prevail'. Specifically it is a high performance, high build two-component epoxy with excellent chemical and abrasive resistance. Here is the link to the exact paint that I chose. International Intergard 410 | 4,600+ Colours | Rawlins Paints.

It was not the cheapest option, but I would rather try something more industrial than slap some standard hammerite on it and then must redo it all later. It is available online at the time or writing at about £105 for five litres. The paint has not arrived at the point of writing this article, but I will cover what it’s like and if I learn anything about it in a later blog post.

 

International Integard 410 Metal Paint I ordered in Jet Black.

Preparing the parts for tack welding the next panel.

Preparing the parts for tack welding the next panel.

To be quite honest I would not normally have primed some of the parts at this stage, but I completed what I thought was a good enough clean-up of the side panels and I wanted to see what they looked like after a coat of paint. I wanted to decide on what level of tidy up I would need to do on the parts to achieve a level of finish with which I was reasonably happy. I am not an expert welder, so it was never going to look floorless. It looked OK and gave me an idea of how much I would need to tweak and clean up some of the other welds before a final priming with paint.

In the base design there was four panels that went from front to back as you looked at the front of the machine. Two outside panels and two inside panels. It was important that these panels be equal in length to ensure the final assembly was not binding anyway that made squaring everything up difficult. I abandoned the tape measure at this point and used the outside frames that I had made for a template for the inside ones. I cut all the pieces and aligned them with one of the end pieces which I already knew were of equal length. This way I could clamp everything up together and tack up before completing the full welds. It also helped to keep clamping the frame down to the table when I flipped it over to help the assembly not warp under heat.

 

Copying a panel by cutting the parts and clamping them together ready for tack welding in place.

Copying a panel by cutting the parts and clamping them together ready for tack welding in place.

You can see in the photo above that I did the same process for the second and last internal piece to mirror the sizes. The V-shape you can see in these assemblies as opposed to the end ones, is to accommodate what will be the stainless-steel folded sheet drainage tray. I did not chamfer the top corners of the assemblies because of the strange angle so I left the verticals with an open end on top and cut some pieces of steel plate to cover the holes and welded this on. At this stage I had realised I had forgot to put a few pieces in. They were not to add more strength necessarily to this panel but to allow the connection of some other frames I still needed to make. You can see these additions in the last photo of this article.

Two new panels almost compelted. Its getting heavy this set-up, which is what I wanted it.

Two new panels almost compelted. Its getting heavy this set-up, which is what I wanted it.

Image of the base assembled so far with clamps and just a few bolts so far.

Image of the base assembled so far with clamps and just a few bolts so far.

You can about see in yellow the parts I added in and the green where the other panels we planned to go to provide left to right lateral support.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave us some comments with your feedback or any questions... If you feel I have missed out some steps, please let me know and I can try to cover them in an update or a later article.

 

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Originally Uploaded On: 20/03/2022

Last Updated On: 20/03/2022

Estimated Date Period: : 20/03/2022

This is a privately funded project that frequently sees shortage of funds delaying progress, If you are enjoying this build diary and would like to contribute to the completion of this project and all the future guides and video journeys it would be gratefully received and spent directly on this project. Donate through PayPalMe Here...

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