The Frankenmaker

[edf]

I mentioned this mod back in spring, and never got around to uploading pics. Last night, I had the A350 out of the enclosure to work in it (sigh), and decided to snap some pics.

This is just an overkill version of the rails mod, but it might give someone an idea or two.

Part 1: The bed

I put linear rails on the base, attached some thick aluminum angle I got from my favorite metal guys, and used two pieces of 1018 steel as the cross-pieces. The cross pieces are unsupported, and they need to not flex, hence the steel.

I should note that the linear rails are for support, not for alignment; these are therefore serious overkill. It also means that there is some leeway in the mounting of them: I chose to tighten the center (3 ?) bolts of each rail, and leave the outer 4 (2 on each end) a little loose so the rail can move if it needs to. The important things is for the rails to be fixed on a pivot point where the toolhead is; if they move a few fractions of an inch at the extremes of travel, it doesn’t hurt anything. This greatly reduces the care that needs to be taken when aligning everything.

The steel has thru-holes under the A350 bed mounting lugs, which allows me to use some short M4 screws to connect the steel to the bed. The steel has additional threaded M4 holes to connect it to the aluminum angle. The angle bolts to the linear rail modules using two of the four holes.

A long M4 screw is used to connect the cross beams to the angle iron. I was going to use an aluminum block here, for stability, but realized I needed the adjustability of the nut-and-bolt approach. This turns out to be very sturdy, despite how it looks.

The magic here is in those four nuts. The one simply serves to discourage the screw from packing out (after all, the hole is threaded), and acts as a sort of cap. The two middle screws are used to adjust the height of the platform at that corner. These act as a jack, and make it possible to flatten an otherwise-warped bed (like mine). It takes a bit of time and a dial indicator with the machine on a table, but it works great.

Things I am not pleased with:

• I should have used wider aluminim angle cut to an L shape so I could bolt it to all four holes of each linear module.
• The crosspiece is not compatible with the quick-swap base, as it fixes to the platform. Have to think on that.

[edf]

Part 2: The Toolhead

I added linear rails behind the top of the toolhead to counter rotation around the X axis when using the CNC head.

I uput a nice beefy chunk of aluminum behind the toolhead. This only serves as a spacer between the toolhead and the linear rail, but I added a few threaded holes for stuff like dial indicator mounts.

The linear rail carriage is mounted to the aluminum block using 4 screws. The block then mounts to the A350 linear module with two long M4 screws.

The mounting of the linear rail looks straightfroward, but is quite finicky. Two endcaps have to be made, and bolted to the top and end of the linear modules. Getting the holes right, and adding clearance for the cable (I ain’t gonna lie - I hacksawed two slots and used a cold chisel to knock the space out so I wouldn’t have to set this all up in the mill and fire up the 3-phase).

[nweolu]

That hook in the back of X Axis - so many questions
Thanks for sharing, that is a beefy setup. I just installed the quick swap, now need to figure out how to do something with rails for it.

[edf]

Part 3: The Z axis

The Z axis overkill rail supplements the toolhead rail. The carriages on the A350 linear modules can rock side to side and forward/backware; the rails serve only to prevent that rocking.

More angle caps. This part was the easiest, though it did take a couple of tries with creative clamping to determine where to mount everything in order to have sufficient clearance.

The lower end of the Z axis is just some angle bolted to the base. Doesn’t take much, but be careful when you drill to avoid the ribs. I drilled the base first, then used a transer punch to mark the angle for drilling. Only room for one screw into the Z axis module here, but it is sufficient.

As you can see, things get pretty right. Definitely lay out this configuration before drilling or you’ll be left which a couple of spare pieces of aluminum angle like I was.

[edf]

Part 4 : The work platform

This was an idea I had that I executed poorly but have found quite usable.

I wanted to use T-slots and am too lazy to do that in the mill. I know, aluminum extrusion!

Yeah, look how ugly that turned out:

I mounted it to some MDF by drilling the MDF and using T-nuts to connect the two surfaces together. I then drilled through-holes using the CNC spoilboard as a template, so I could run long M4 screws through the work platform to the A350 platform. Well, I say “drill”, but it was really “use a drill to spot, then a 2-flute center-cutting end mill to make the actual hole”, as these holes are nt thruogh solid material and a drill would just bend (ask how I know!).

The holes in the A350 platform simply do not line up in a useful way, so you end up with stuff like this:

Have not tested this with any heavy CNC work but it lasers well enough:

Forunately this is easy to take on and off, so using the regular spoilboard is a possibility.

One more detail to note: I neglected to take a photo, but the rotary module lines up perfectly with the T-slots. Dunno what voodoo allowed that, but I’ll take it.

[edf]

Bonus round: Enclosure

Just a few photos of the enclosure I built into an existing perma-shelf.

The inside. Note the soundproofing panels, the vacuum outlet on the left, and the cutout for the heated bed cable (sheesh is that thing annoying) on the right. Pay no attention to that tench in the middle, I reused some old plywood. Though it shows off the EDM rubber I put underneath for no reason other than I had a lot of it after making some way-covers for the lathe and mill.

Filament drybox and A350 power module (cloaking mode: ON) sit on top of the enclosure.

It’s hard to tell, but Conan is smiling.

[edf]

I run the toolhead cable through it.

Bought a buncha m4-threaded hooks and eyes off amazon. Stuck 'em all sorts of places. They are all excessively long and need a good hacksawing, plus some jam nuts so they don’t go too far into the modules. Unfortunately they move quite a lot in use.