Cutting Guide

I slept on the design - no changes.  Here is the cutting guide.  The whole router will fit neatly on a single 4x8 foot sheet of Baltic Birch 3/4" plywood ($64 USD).  I chose this plywood for a couple of reasons.  First it is a good looking wood.  It has a furniture-grade finish on both sides, no knots, no blemishes.  Second, it is made up of many more, thinner veneers.  On this website: www.leebarry.com is an excellent photo of "regular" 3/4 inch plywood next to the nice stuff.  More layers, better strength.  Also no ugly 'voids' in the inner veneers when you cut it.  Sand the edges, some polyurethane, and it's damn good looking.  3rd, I just like the idea of the CNC machine being made of wood.

Preparing for complete redesign

One learns so much from the "first time around".  I plan to take what I've learned, go a bit slower, use better materials (like 3/4 inch Baltic Birch plywood) and add the things I was missing - like limit switches and some better resistance to torque.  Here's the new design.  It's all on Google Sketchup in the event anyone wants a copy.  Just add a comment or send me an e-mail WoodWorkerB (at) gmail (dot) com.  Here's how the new design will look.

The new design provides additional strength (due to material selection), higher quality assembly practices, recessed lower bearing races (to hopefully minimize the amount of crap that gets on the bearings).

I am considering incorporating small brushes on the bearings to keep them somewhat clean.

I will "tear apart" the drawing and create my cutting guide.  I plan to start cutting and assembly this weekend.

Recent addition - a UPS

Simply plugging in my welder caused a power glitch in the middle of routing a PC Board - the glitch caused the computer to re-boot.  I was not happy.  I decided to purchase a Uninterpretable Power Supply from APC.  It only provides 10 minutes of backup - but that's plenty to make it through the occasional power glitch and even the careless tripping over the power cord.  I have both my CPU and monitor powered via the UPS.  The mongo power supply for the Steppers can ride through powerline glitches with ease.

I also isolation-routed another PCB, this one a simple linear-regulated 12VDC power supply to drive the case fans.  I was much more comfortable with Eagle CAD this time around.  I set up the raw PCB, hit "GO" and came back 45 minutes later to have it all perfectly done.  Sweet!