Hi all! I finished a video on how I built my steel base table for my Pro 4896 machine. I’m sharing the info in case anyone else wants to do the same thing.
The Fusion 360 model for the legs is here: Table Model – feel free to download it and tweak it for your particular setup!
Video:
Great video! I did something similar years back and may post that sometime. Course I don’t have any video. Stuff moves when you weld it. Sometimes bolts might be better?
Awesome! Do you have any pictures you can post?
Yeah, I am thinking of adding some more braces on some other feedback; I still get some shaking movement, particularly on the y-axis, and some people on Facebook think I can eliminate this by adding a lower brace and a 45 or two. I might just go ahead and tack weld it and not do a full bead, to help avoid movement. Or bolt it!
Yes I have pictures, however they aren’t digital. Will have to experiment with taking a picture of a picture.
I had a welder fabricate a table like that. I put jack screws around the perimeter. They are great for easily leveling the table. I have braces on it. It only moves when the gantry stops after manual rapid move. Never does when gcode is running.
Cool - did you do any tuning on the acceleration curves? Mine does still get more movement than I’d like…I’m going to add some 45s and another bottom brace. The screw feet I got are cheap ~$9 ones from McMaster Carr
No, I haven’t tuned the acceleration curve. How do you do that? The inertia from the gantry does bug me. A graceful slowdown would be nice.
I bolted the welded table to the floor, which my or may not have eliminated some flexing.
Jim did a good video on it:
I haven’t done it yet myself, but reducing the acceleration can definitely clean up chatter. His video is a bit long; I might try to make a shorter version when I end up doing it.
I went straight to the steel table, so I don’t have a direct comparison. I know a lot of people don’t have problems with the aluminum table, and beef it up by adding on MDF sides. I was pretty close to doing that, but thought it’d be better to weld up my own.
I do see some chatter in parts, particularly when the y-axis does a short fast move. I’m planning on adding a bottom lengthwise piece and some 45s, based on the suggestions of some other people.
I also plan on doing a before-and-after comparison of the mod; I’ll measure deflection on the table top when doing a pre-canned GCODE move using a dial test indicator, and then compare it to what I get after stiffening it up. I roughly do see up to .010" of movement at the top of the machine.