Aluminium Bed and panels for Railcore II needed

[PaulHew]

Admins - If this post is not allowed, I apologise in advance. Just struggling to find people to perform this task.

At this moment in time I am preparing to build a Railcore II ZLT.
I live in the UK, Bracknell in Berkshire to be precise.

I was wondering I could buy someones skills in milling the bed for me and also laser cut the panels.
I have the DXF's for the panels but for the bed I think it needs a different file type and do not know how to pull it from the Main DXF file in Fusion360

All files are freely available from the Railcore github so I am not stealing!

If anyone would like quote me for supply and time, it would be appreciated or point me in the right direction to someone who can help, it would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Paul.

[deckingman]

@paulhew What needs doing with the bed? You can buy aluminium tooling plate, cut to size from here (that's where I bought mine) https://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/. Ecocast is the stuff you want.

Is it just a matter of drilling some holes in it? If so, I did all mine with a hand held power drill. You can get within a mm which is usually accurate enough for fixing holes. Sorry but I design all my things using OpenScad so DXF files and Fusion 360 are a complete mystery to me. I do have a small milling machine (as well as a lathe and band saw) but no laser cutting gear. I live near Northampton which is a fair way from Bracknell but feel free to PM me if you get stuck.

[A Former User]

Can't help with UK suppliers, but for the .dxf files you should be able to import the .dxf file as sketches in fusion360. It may even separate into several sketches for each of the different layers if layers were used in the original file.

Then you can just either hide unwanted sketches, trim the lines you don't want or project from different sketches into one sketch to form the profile you're after. At that point you can either save the sketch as a .dxf file, or extrude it to the thickness and export the body as a .step file. Both formats should be perfectly acceptable by anyone who does CAM

(but using something like Draftsight is better suited for editing .dxf files, however fusion should get the job done in a way)

[PaulHew]

Ian, thanks for your reply, I will bear you in mind.
Northampton is not that far, just over an hour depending what car I use!

I might build most of it so I can see how the bed is connected to the Z rails or dig into the CAD file for it and go from there.

Luckilly it is one of the last parts to go on!

[PaulHew]

@bearer Thank you for your suggestion, i will try again.
I have been able to get the file into Fusion, turn off all the light bulbs so only the bed is displayed but do not know how to create the step file from there.
I will do a bit of googling again, maybe I was seaching for the wrong thing!

P.

[A Former User]

If you see the shape of the bed like an orangey/yellowishy colour like in my picture you just go to Create -> Extrude, then select the shape and drag it to your thickness. (or press E on the keyboard, select the shape (aka profile) and enter the thickness on the keyboard)

Tried it with the prusa file, but it had the inside and outside shape on different layers so either have to export as a single layer, or project them into a 3rd sketch, or extrude the outside and cut out the inside. It depends on how the layers were used in the first place.

[deckingman]

@paulhew said in Aluminium Bed and panels for Railcore II needed:

Ian, thanks for your reply, I will bear you in mind.
Northampton is not that far, just over an hour depending what car I use!

I might build most of it so I can see how the bed is connected to the Z rails or dig into the CAD file for it and go from there.

Luckilly it is one of the last parts to go on!

No worries. Just bear in mind that my milling machine is both small and fully manual. It'd be OK for drilling a few holes and the like but nothing too complex. Oh and I'd need a dimensioned drawing - cad files are no good when you have turn wheels by hand

[PaulHew]

@deckingman Nice one Ian, I will definately have to learn some more Fusion to get the dimensions out or the DXF.
BTW I looked at that site for Ecocast and it was wanting a username and password!
I will call them tomorrow.

[PaulHew]

@bearer I have been able to create a step of the bed for the Railcore.
A combination of yours and googles help!

Thank you.

[A Former User]

@paulhew said in Aluminium Bed and panels for Railcore II needed:

learn some more Fusion to get the dimensions out or the DXF.

two options,

use the dimmension tool in the sketch editing, fast and easy, but really only good for screenshots + print
.. or ..
learn to make "drawings" in fusion, a bit of a learning curve, but makes "professional" work drawings (although how to dimension a part for work is an artform in itself beyond just the software)

[mrehorstdmd]

When I'm going to make a part on the milling machine, I typically pick a corner of the part as a reference and then dimension everything to that corner. When I put the workpiece on the mill, I just zero the DRO at the reference point and then start cutting/drilling.

[deckingman]

@paulhew I think I probably created an account the first time, but it's OK - they deal with the general public (I think). If not just call yourself "PHew Services" or some such. Funnily enough, I've just ordered some other Aluminium flat bar and mild steel rod from them. They seem fine to deal with. Delivery is reasonable I think, if you consider the weight involved. I can get 2 metre lengths of flat bar delivered from them for the same price as a cut 300mm length from ebay (I need to build up a bit of stock).

[Dougal1957]

@paulhew I use a local water jetting company in sheffield that do my stuff there is a minimum charge they make and it is when the machine is not so busy but it may be worth your while doing a search for similar in your area and getting a quote from them to do the work for you.

Oh and Aluminium warehouse will let you register with no problems that way they are readily on tap for you

Doug

[T3P3Tony]

@PaulHew We have used a local laser cutting/waterjetting place close to Peterborough a few years ago. Generally all these services are expensive for single runs. Might be worth seeing if you can get a group of people in the UK who want to build a Railcore II?

[deckingman]

I had a quick gander online and there seems to be a bit of an assortment of sizes and shapes. It looks like the lead screw mounts stick out from the main body in a kind of complicated boss type arrangement that would likely need CNC milling or water jet cutting because of the curves. I'd be inclined to tweak the design and maybe make the mounts as separate items that would bolt onto the main body. Then you could just use a rectangular piece of aluminium that is easily obtainable cut to size. Just a thought......

[T3P3Tony]

at this point worth getting @kraegar involved as the will know the design decisions used.

[deckingman]

@t3p3tony Yes, I'm surprised he hasn't jumped in sooner - must be busy elsewhere......

[PaulHew]

I messgaged him the other day as Misumi do not deal with the 'public' and was asking if there was another rail I extrusion I could use.
Someone kindly offered to get the extrusion from Misumi for me, so that comes this week I hope.
The corner cubes were delivered today.
Carbon Fibre PET-G is being delivered tomorrow with hardened nozzles.

I have found someone who can watercut the panels with the holes in 3mm ally and a 6mm for the bottom, also they can mill the bed, so thank you @deckingman for your offer, it is appreciated.
Would of been nice to meet up with you so I could admire your beast of a machine, maybe another time.

Its going well, just finding it hard to nail down the Hiwin rails as CRD are the only UK supplier and not knowing what is good and what is not, I do not know what else to use to save some pennys. £420 for 6 rails and carridges, ouch!
Zyltech only have the 400mm rails.
Might post a question in the FB page.

I was going to order the Halo and the other nice ally parts but due to the exchange rate and trump tax i am holding off, so CF PET-G it is, for now.

[A Former User]

Its not the worst price for the rails tbh.

I paid $30 shipped for 200mm MGN9 with 1 block, and $54 shipped for 500mm MGN15 with 2 blocks from China; as far as I can tell they're genuine, but could be factory rejects even tough for my use they run smooth.

The only reason I gabled on Chinese markets is taxes and fees cost an arm and a leg if using legit distributors and couldn't find any local vendors that had anything near those prices.

[deckingman]

@paulhew said in Aluminium Bed and panels for Railcore II needed:

.............. so thank you @deckingman for your offer, it is appreciated.

No worries. TBH I've got plenty to occupy my time just at this moment.

Would of been nice to meet up with you so I could admire your beast of a machine, maybe another time.

There is a reasonably strong possibility that my machine and I will be at the TCT show this year so.........