CNC Router
Designing and Building the Y-Axis
I want my router’s axes to be driven with leadscrews rather than belts, and I want any sliding surfaces to be protected (as much as possible) from dust from the cutting procedure. I also want to avoid going up to NEMA23 motors as I already have plenty of NEMA17s and I don’t want to pay out for new motors, driver electonics, etc. I had the idea of replicating the C-beam style linear actuator for the Y-axis using some aluminium U-channel and a regular linear rail so came up with a simple design.
The main off-the-shelf parts are: 80x40mm aluminium U-channel, 10mm stainless rod, SC10UU bearings, leadscrew with anti-backlash nut, NEMA17 stepper motor and a flexible coupler.
After some design work in OnShape, here are the printed parts:
And here it is assembled:
Conclusion
I’m a little concerned that the linear rail isn’t stiff enough but it’ll be easy enough to replace it with either a stiffer 10mm rod or a supported rail. Little or nothing else would need to change in order to facilitate this upgrade but I’ll wait to see how much flex there is in the axis in real-world use first. Other than that, it looks like it’ll work nicely.
Posted on 16 February 2018
