The SainSmart 3020 CNC Router (300mm X 200mm Table Size) Un-boxing and Assembly - Thibaultron

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Part 024 – The E-Stop Wire Plug, Continued

 

In the last part, I showed my failed attempt to cut out a plug for the hole I ran the E-Stop Button wires out.

 

The design.

 

The first results.

 

 

I changed the cutting order so the slot for the inner hole, and the one that separates the two halves was cut first, instead of last. I thought maybe the separating cuts were stressing the parts. The same failure occurred.

 

Next I thought slowing the cutting travel speed down might work. I changed the speed from 13mm/sec to the Carveco default of 7mm/sec. That worked much better! Out of 4 attempts (8 halve pieces), I got 5 good halves. The picture below seems to show all the pieces coming out, but 3 broke while I was removing them.

 

 

To strengthen the good pieces, I coated them with thin CA, while they were held in place on a piece of blue tape.

 

 

 

The coating increased the dimensions slightly, but they still fit in the hole, and tightly now. The white “Powder” in the pictures is the CA after I sprayed it with the accelerator. CA tends to do this, but I did not want to wait for the CA puddles to, maybe, set. A little sanding removed the roughness.

 

Because the CA also reduced the diameter of the center hole, I pushed the plug into a 3/8” hole in some scrap, and redrilled the hole to 1/8”.

 

 

 

I repeated this for the second good plug, and stored it away for future need.

 

Here is a picture of the plug installed.

 

 

After I had finished the plugs, SpindleJockey, who does CNC all the time, suggested the following bridge tab configuration.

 

 

I’ll file that away for future reference!

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Part 025 – The Vacuum System! Finally!

 

I bought some 1 ¼” OD Vacuum hose on-line. Fail, the hose had 1/8” thick walls, and while vinyl was way too stiff!

 

 

 

Our upright vacuum did not have much suction, so I convinced my wife to let me scavenge the hose from it. After much work, and some breaking of parts, I managed to separate the hose from the base. The wand end was too long to fit inside the enclosure, and the other end had a large fitting on it. I had to cut two slots in both fittings to free the two pins locking the hose to the fittings.

 

 

This left me with the hose with a removable hinged clamp on each end.

 

 

Now the fun began! The hose was 1 ¼” ID, so it would not fit in or over the dust shoe connector, which is setup for either 1 ¼” OD or 1 ½” ID hose. I sacrificed one of the straight hose sections on my shop vacuum (1 ¼” OD) and forced the tip section into one end of the hose. There was not room to use the clamp, so I wicked in thin CA to glue the tip in place.

 

 

The other end of the hose with the clamp attached just pushed tightly into a 1 ¼” PVC water pipe coupler (the coupler is a little over 1 ½” ID). The coupler keeps the clamp pressed tightly closed.

 

 

Then the next problem came up. I had purchased a length of 1 ¼” PVC pipe, figuring that the shop vacuum tip that fit nicely into the 1 ¼” ID dust shoe hole, would also fit nicely into the 1 ¼” ID pipe. Nope! The pipe is actually about 0.010” smaller in diameter than the 1 ¼” nominal size! Looking around I still had the rest of that straight shop vacuum section, with the flared end that, naturally, did fit the flexible shop vacuum hose, and a section of 1 ¼” thin wall pipe (this has a wall thickness about ½ that of the standard pipe). The thin wall pipe fits the coupler, but the flared section was slightly smaller than the ID of this pipe. So I had to fill in the gap. I cut the flare off, using a piece of tape to guide the cut.

 

 

Then I cut a strip of 0.40” styrene to fit inside the thinwall section. I used a heat gun to soften the strip, so I could bend it to fit.

 

 

Now the flair fit with a light push fit.

 

 

I use thin CA to wick into the joints between the parts. When that had hardened, I ran a bead of thick CA to seal both the exposed end, and along the inside seam, to seal the gaps. Now I had a strong connection for the shop vacuum hose, and a removable tight sliding fit to the other vacuum’s hose on the opposite end of the coupling.

 

I cut new centering jigs to fit the OD of the coupler, and used them to position the outer cutting guide on the enclosure.

 

 

I positioned it near the top front of the left side of the enclosure, as this was in line with the dust shoe fitting, thus keeping it away from the X/Z-Axis assembly. I once again used my Dremel with the router attachment, and a 1/8” SainSmart bit to cut the hole.

 

To determine the proper length for the internal hose, I set the spindle to the Home position, and using a spare 1 ¼” coupling I put the tip into the dust shoe, and fed the hose through the coupler. I tried various lengths, until the hose was just stretched when the spindle was Homed, but not laying on the bed when it was at the far left of the machine. I marked it and cut down the hose.

 

The fit between the modified coupler and the enclosure was tight, so I forced it in until the end was flush with the outside of the wall, and used thin CA to wick in, and glue it in place.

 

 

This left the rest of the coupler inside, to add some horizontal support for the hose.

 

 

This is a picture of the shop vacuum hose fitted to the outside.

 

 

Here is a picture of the finished vacuum assembly.

 

 

With the vacuum assembly completed, I was able to reinstalled the door and the window, and the enclosure is finished, for now. I may install a pulley system to raise the enclosure up off the bench, with a removable shelf section to support it when raised, but I have not decided yet. I also need to add interior lighting.

 

I also have to install some sort of support for the door when it is open, and magnetic fasteners to hold the front and back doors down on the weather stripping. I may also mount a computer style 120 Volt fan over the inlet filter, to insure cooling air for the spindle, when I’m not using the vacuum.

 

There is enough room in the front to store the boxes I have that hold the bits, and other relevant stuff, when the router is not in use.

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Part 026 – Door Supports.

 

I found some cabinet door supports in my junk collection, so I used them for the enclosure door. I used the setup measurements on the package for a 90 degree opening, but as it turns out the supports are designed to close toward the hinges, and I needed them to open away, to clear the vacuum hose. It took a bit of fiddling, but I managed to find the “Sweet Spot” using the same mount location on the cabinet side, and moving the door mount location. It doesn’t give me a full 90 degree swing, but it is sufficient to allow free access.

 

In the picture, below, I had to add spacers on the cabinet side mount to clear the ¾” square sidewall support. Then while the instructions show that end being flush mounted to a cabinet, the hinge section was hitting the support, and I had to add an additional ¼” spacer. Cheap manufacturing.

 

 

Here is a shot of the door, after I finished installing the supports on both sides. The brown board on the far side of the cabinet is simply a temporary view block, to hide the clutter on the back wall.

 

 

The supports open easily then use an internal friction lock to hold the door up. You press down on the door to close it. Not as nice as a physical interlock, but it works. I’m sure that if I left it open for a few hours, I’d find the door closed when I came back. What the heck, at least they were “Free”, in the sense I already had them laying around.

 

This will probably be the last part of this thread, the enclosure is pretty much finished. All I have to do to finish the enclosure is add magnetic catches, toggles to hold the top of the door window, and a light. Nothing very interesting, or difficult.

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Part 027 – “Let There Be Light!”

 

One quick update. I added a light to the inside of the enclosure. I had been waiting until I could get a LED light, but time passed and I already had a spare fluorescent one lying about, so I installed it.

 

 

I was going to install it under the top of the enclosure with the light pointing forward. The top of the door would have shielded it from glaring into my eyes. After some consideration though, I realized that when I was working on it, with the door open, it would be shining right into my eyes.

 

Looking at the door, I realized that I could mount it between the supports, and then it would both well light the machine, with the door closed, and shine the light down past me with it open.

 

 

 

I originally had it mounted parallel to the upper window support, but the light case hit on the vacuum connector, when I tried to close the door. By lowering that corner to touch the support, I got just enough clearance. For now I’m running the cord out through the window opening. I need to stop by the hardware store, and pick up some cable clamps. The wire is long enough that I can extend it out through the back door area.

 

If I was going the build another enclosure, I would move the vacuum connector back a bit to clear the light case.

 

With the light added I defiantly need both of the door supports, due to the weight of the light. The one support is not attached in the pictures, as the light blocked access to the mounting screw. I’ve fixed it since then.

 

The difference with the light is amazing! I can now clearly see the work pieces during carving, and when changing bits, etc. Before I had to shine my modeling lamp into the case to see some areas.

 

The first picture shows the enclosure without the light. The camera is more light sensitive than my eyes, so it is even darker in real life.

 

 

 

Here is it with the light on.

 

 

 

It makes me want to get a new piece of Plexiglas for the window!

 

The vacuum hose was a little too short, after I trimmed it, and it kept popping out after 10 minutes or so, during the cuts on this piece at the far right of the machine. I was able to fix it by wrapping a layer of tape around the nozzle. This had the added benefit of allowing me to put a slight twist in the hose, to make it fold into a little better configuration, when the spindle was at the extreme left.