Im looking for any suggestions on how to modify an existing AVIDCNC design. One main concern is I need to use water to cool the diamond cutter. How do I keep the drive rails and electronics high and dry.
Im hoping to make a machine with a cutting area aprox 6ft x 4ft with about a 12 or more Z height
Here is a video of a smaller unit that is made to cut sink holes.
Our customers run plasma machines using our rails, bearing blocks etc and they get very wet from all of the water in the water table.
The linear guides are steel so keeping them greased is key.
I used to sell granite counters, and I’m curious what this machine would be for… just faucet holes? Are you getting in pre-cut slabs and then just putting the holes in based on customer requests, or are you going to fabricate the whole top?
Hi Eric,
I would use this machine to make a custom shower pan out of stone. I have to carve the slope and drain. We do it with a jig now and it’s slow and time consuming. I could also cut sink holes, but my primary need is the shower pans.
Can I use a larger 8020 for the sides and a longer/deeper z to keep the wet area lower in relation to the drive rails?
I think so, your best bet is to contact support for this one. They put together custom machines/orders on the regular and could better help you get setup with what you need.
What I can say is that this is far from the weirdest machine/part combo we’ve put together so you may be pleasantly surprised at how straightforward this might actually be
I saw an AVID (I think it was a 48x48) for sale a few years ago that had been used to 3D carve stone. The picture was funny because the whole thing was covered in stone dust, so I’m not sure it was even running the cutter in water. It was definitely a mess.
So it has been done. I’m sure you could make some kind of “dust boot” thing that would catch the splatter around the cutting area and let it drip down into a pan that is similar to the plasma cutting pan.
I think I’ve seen boots like this used around water jet cutting.
If you do stone cutting, you know how dangerous the dust tends to be. Tradespeople are not always great about protecting themselves. I can’t imagine running a stone cutting machine dry.
I would also try to shield the linear rails from getting the stone dust on them if possible. Metal and wood dust isn’t great for them, but I feel like stone dust could act like sandpaper.
I’m by no means any kind of an expert in stone cutting machines but when you see those big water jet machines that can cut stone, steel, etc they always have TONS of bellows over the rails, my guess would be for that reason.
