The gantry is homemade out of layered 3/4 Birch plywood. The rails are all vslot extruded aluminum. Drive system varies by axis, belt drive in the y and lead screw in the x and z.

No, the lettering was done during the red step after the black flood fill.

Ty, what was your final sanding grit on the epoxy? BTW, if you are in the SoCal area our CNC Inland Empire Woodworking club would love for you to give us a presentation.

@Mattvalor I think I took the epoxy face to 800g on this one. 220-400g is usually about as far as the wood needs to go but the epoxy can benefit from the extra attention. Then again in this case the real life patches are not glossy so there was no need to polish all the way to 3000+ Wow, I am very glad to hear that your group is enjoying my work. I am not in California but I am more than happy to chat any time. There was another person on here asking about some of my fusion360 settings for this project and I was planning to punch it up in the video description. Maybe you all will find that useful as well.

@@TyMakesStuff Yes sharing files would be great...as a newbie to CNC using VCarve Pro, I am still struggling with the cad/cam. thanks Ty

Ty, I mixed translucent yellow dye with epoxy to fill small flowers, but after curing you can see straight to the bottom of the mahogany. What dyes to you use that are not translucent?

Yes that's right. I bundled each machine opp by color.

I designed the tray in fusion360 and the rank insignia and squadron patch were converted to svg from regular images. You can probably find nice sharp svg's of your unit patches on etsy for a few bucks If you want to save some time.

It is a custom built Cnc. It is ridged enough for my needs but thats highly subjective. I use it almost exclusively for wood carving and pattern cutting sheet goods. Plenty of stiffness for that even with the large size.

@@TyMakesStuff Oh ok. Well it looks very nice.

I converted the original images into svg's and cleaned them up a little using Adobe Capture and then imported to fusion360.

@@TyMakesStuff thanks so much. Just started w/my CNC gathering as much info as I can. Great job, air wing Devil Dog, I’m assuming

Once upon a time.

Total boat general purpose epoxy and a combination of mica powder and alcohol inks for the pigment.

This is a great point. The Marine Corps is known for many things but not for their taste and skill in the arts. I'm kicking myself now that you pointed this out because what matters in these epoxy inlays is how closely it matches the original. I should have made a point of showing the original squadron patch in the video for comparison. Won't make that mistake again.

Material cost? Maybe 10 bucks. I get the walnut from a local hardwood supplier. Straight from the scrap offcuts bin for $3/lb. Epoxy isn't cheap but probably just a few dollars worth is used here. Labor cost? Well.... 😂

Thanks yea just a shop best to keep it utilitarian. Link to clock mechanism below. TIKROUND Youngtown High Torque Long Shaft Clock Movement Mechanism with 12 Inch Long Spade Hands a.co/d/097DpKZw

CNC Spindle CNC Motor 110V 1.5KW 1500W Quiet Water Cooled Spindle Motor 65mm 4 Bearings 24000RPM 400HZ for CNC Router Machine a.co/d/hiVr0zc

It can machine aluminum in small amounts. Certainly enough for small prototype work. But as it is with nearly all of these non-professional machines the lack of what I would call extreme rigidity causes tools to age rapidly.

@@TyMakesStuff may I ask u to share stl`s for your custom aluminum profiles stands, and belt tights?

I did not manufacture the entire machine. Many of the parts were purchased online. Fasteners, linear rails, aluminum extrusion, stepper motors, drag chains etc. All off-the-shelf. But I did manufacture a lot of it. The gantry was designed by me and cut out of sheet stock plywood by an older iteration of this machine (which was itself built with traditional wood shop tools and a 3d printer). All of the structural hardware is 3d printed and designed by me. The spindle mount, bearing plates, and belt tensioners were also produced this way, and so on.

Exactly right, and also standing boards and panels on edge for joinery etc.

No I got the file from etsy. Mostly a shakedown of the new machine.

Yes that's right, off the shelf aluminum extrusion rails and delrin wheels.

The machine is currently controlled by the Openbuilds Blackbox system and the linear rails are 20x40mm VSlot extruded aluminum with 3d printed mounts. The 3d printed mounts are filled with epoxy.

The Y axis is belt drive because the machine has a 9 foot run in the Y direction and I could not find/afford lead screws or ball screws that large.

Yes, great work. Looks really beautiful. i mean that left and right sides of Y has different mounts and mechanisms in total. Can u share technical details why did u make it this way? @@TyMakesStuff

@user-do6co4fi7r Oh ok I understand the question now thank you! So this design has evolved a lot since I first started building the machine. Originally, the plan was to make a router that would travel along the entire length of any wall mounted workbench without being in the way. So the reason for the front edge (camera left in the video) of the gantry sitting lower than the back edge is to keep everything below flush. This allows me to use the workbench when the gantry is stowed away. Right now the spoilboard is a bit thinner than I anticipated so the Y2 belt sits just above flush, but I am still able to slide heavy sheet goods onto the workbench without the drive system getting in the way. If you watch my other video showing the first prototype you will see the y belt resting well below flush at the forward edge. (Edited to add the following) Another initial consideration was modularity. The router system is fastened to the pre-existing workbench, rather than being fully integrated into it if that makes sense. Because of this it is necessary to establish a reference datum to square the machine relative to itself. In this setup the front rail is fixed and the back rail slides free in the XY plane until square is found using the gantry as a spacing jig. Then the back rail is screwed down.

​@@TyMakesStuff thanks for your time. are u calling back rail the upper rail (right side) from camera view?

Yes that's right

Yep. It's all layered 3/4" Birch Plywood.

​@@TyMakesStuff, painted yellow? It looks like solid piece of cast iron!!!!

This was an early prototype of my CNC that I unfortunately did not capture much video of

So can you show the current diy version? Like a product review.

Box Elder.