CNC Repair Project
Here are some pictures of a CNC Repair Project. The Y-axis was giving me some trouble. I'll try to show what I did.
These shots show the two bearing assembles. The bearings are 26mm OD and 3 MM ID. I though they would be hard to find, but fortunately Amazon had them ready to ship.
These two show where one end mounts. The grease built up over the years. It cleaned up nicely with some grease remover. Not much effort really.
This one shows the first assembly remounted. The second pictures shows the second bearing assembly. That one has 3 extra fasteners. Interesting. It turns out this one has two bearings. The first one only had one and a lip. The second one needs the fasteners because they had a looser fit.
Here is the second assembly mounted. The serpentine shaft is shown before it is secured. That twists and moves the router on the X-axis.
Here is the smaller assembly mounted. The drive portion is mounted too. I really don't know all the technical names, but hopefully you get the idea.
Here is the drive assembly re-assembled. Then the stepper motor mounted. The weight of the stepper motor is likely why one side had two bearings. Only one of the two was in really bad shape. Since I need three bearings, and thought I only needed two, I put the best one back in. I might re-do that side on another pass.
This is the final assembly. The machine now moves very smoothly in the x-direction. It is so smooth that now I think the Y is a bit rough. So I ordered more bearings to give the whole machine a refresh. Running a CNC to cut guitar bodies uses many different skill sets. There is a computer - in a dusty environment. Then there is the management of hundreds of G-code files. This project shows mechanical issues. This is all separate from true guitar issues - like getting nice wood. Modifying programs is a whole other story. It is all a challenge.
I did do the bearings on the Y axis too. That one moves even smoother than the X. I was a bit surprised that sone sections still cut a bit rough. The edges mainly. So I did a replace of the main router. This piece:
After replacing the router, things are running as goo as they ever have. I did a huge overall cleaning of the router room today. Then finished up a few projects. Now its time to make more Ibanez style replacement Guitar bodies.