I just got my machine yesterday and unpacked it to set it up on my table. I must say the setup went very well and was quite straightforward. Great job 1F on careful attention to making the design easy to assemble and setup!! In fact, I think it took me less time to put everything together than I have be toiling over on my wasteboard!
My Journeyman is located in my basement in a sunken room that has a fireplace. Why they built the place like that, I have no idea…almost feels like the 70’s sunken living room era.
Here is a picture of what it looks like currently, but I still have yet to do the dust collection (waiting on my Laguna b|flux), and put on the enclosure panels, not to mention my spoilboard (which is still giving me fits). But it is operational!
The machine is sitting on two sheets of 3/4" MDF because the table top itself is 1" thick solid steel. Although, I could probably tap into it to mount the 1F, the problem is that I want my attachment components (screw inserts, t-nuts, and/or t-track) not to be installed in the wasteboard. So that means I had to double-stack my MDF or try to tap a ton of holes in the steel (and most likely fail).
I did end up flipping the y-axis rails so that the motors were in front and the cables were in the back. Even though I had holes in the front, I still prefer to keep it as clean as possible and not provide any chance for damage to those cables while inserting stock or moving things around.
Because the frame is extruded aluminum, I was able to mount the control box on the side and route all the cables through the slots, keeping it very clean. Even the power strip mounts to the aluminum. Only one cable comes from the table into the wall (power cable). All the rest is self contained in the rolling cart.
Cables in the back are routed in a channel and drop down below with holes in the table top (those already existed, whew!).
The thing that I messed up with, but gladly I was able to solve it by using a tie strap with tape to hold in the cables, was the amount of space required for the z-axis rail cables. I was cautious to give some extra space to the x axis motor, but didn’t even consider the cables. They need just as much room as the motor does, so for those of you building an enclosure, make sure you look closely at both sides of the x-axis rail to ensure proper clearance. My frame is 65 1/4" wide and I would say that is perfect (as long as you can mount the control box somewhere below the table). Here you can see how close I came on the left side to the frame:
When the gantry passes by the frame, I think I have less than a 1/2". Without the tie down in place, it would hit the frame.
Now, if I can only figure out the best way to mill and assemble my spoilboard.
My idea was to have the 1F bore all the holes as well as a 3/4" countersink for the flange on the bottom side that the 1F mounts to and then hammer in the t-nuts and flip it over.
The problem is, flipping the board over now causes alignment issues with top as well as with my wasteboard panels that I wanted to use the same pattern for. For my idea to work, the holes need to match perfectly from the top wasteboard all the way through the mounting board down to the metal table top.
I don’t know how to accomplish this with sufficient accuracy. Should I bore the t-nut barrel hole and then flip to bore the countersinks, then flip it back again? That seems to make the most sense, but it also means mounting and unmounting the 1F several times, and not sure if flipping it will also cause problems.
Anyone with a better idea?