CNC Upgrade??

One final upgrade to put this debacle of a machine into a usable form. I wanted to get rid of the main wood frame and since the gantry was now so heavy (and my fasteners for the 8020 not used effectively), I wanted to make that fixed. I could simply turn the y-axis rails inwards and have the bed move.

I bought more 8020 a few weeks ago and just this last weekend put all the upgrades in place:

New bottom frame (upside down).

Old base removed.

Gantry corrected to maintain flush faces and fixed in place.

Functional. The block for the y-axis nut will need some work.

Everything has much less flex now and the envelope of the machine has shrunken.

After updating my LinuxCNC from 2.5.4 to 2.7.14, I cut out some samples to make sure it was really working:

LinuxCNC splash g-code.

Fractal example in LinuxCNC.

I also tested out some isolation routing for PCBs to finally put to use the copper clad board I've had for several years now; it turned out much better than I expected, and the base is significantly flatter relative to the router bit right of the bat than before. I used FlatCAM to generate the g-code:

First attempt with multiple runs of the code.

Round 2: really even cutouts and I run a cutting pass.

I have some thinner bits and drills on the way to make complete PCBs (and even double sided).