willing to barter for Bosch extrusions

[Protobot]

I just found out about this group from Marcin over at Openfarmtech.org
and want to contribute.

I have a ton of Bosch aluminum extrusions, lots of C frame type 1+hp
motors and some time on my hands. I need some NEMA motors that will
work for this project and some ballscrews/nuts/brackets. Any interest?
I am willing to augment the trade either way with other things, pay
some cash, accept a little cash etc to get the parts. Most of the
extrusions are 1530, 1515 or 2020, 2040 ( 80/20 equivalent.)

Thanks,

JOSH

[Data Pathway]

Hi Josh,

I'm open to any equitable trade...

from my side, I don't know what I'd do with bigger motors at this point - but that doesn't rule out an interest  ;-)

At present I have paid an average of $125 each for the custom parts - I think there is about $8-$20 worth of materials in each part - so the goal is to bring the finished part cost for purchased materials as close as possible to material cost - once we are melting aluminum (sooner than you think!!) the cost should fall to scrap prices for material - but right now thats all in the future...

I had tentatively advanced a 3 for 1 trade of materials for finished parts to Marcin - and I always disclaim it thus: for simple parts, like structural members - this ratio seems pretty high, but for complex brackets etc it seems pretty low - so I think it balances out...

In this way, I get materials for a cube to return to you (or trade for parts - whichever...

a cube to keep - to expand my capabilities or trade for parts I CANT make  - and, in this case, add a Bosch based design to the pool, and lastly - a cube to give to a Hackerspace or Fablab - so that THEY can add some engineering or design work or software development to the pool

As to the ball-screws and nuts - I'm just buying them off Ebay - I'd be happy to do that, fit them to a Bosch cube ( my machinist  will soon own my children AND my camel) and send them to you for some aluminum - we simply need to coordinate on the timing and the details - I'd want to try to stick to stuff that'll work with the existing brackets and such - so I don't have to re-design a bunch of parts...

Anyhow, thats my take on it - everything is negotiable - this is just an Idea of how to proceed - I'm open to any suggestions you may have as well.

Always looking forward,

James

PS. - after this light CNC mill cube is done, the next machine on my drawing board is a CNC lathe - which should facilitate altering ballscrew to correct lengths and turning the ends down...

Machine #3 will likely be a surface grinder... ;-)

[Joshua D. Johnson]

These are not stepper or Servo motors just plain old AC italian units, they would be used for small machine tools, repowering drill presses, saws. etc.

We need to find a regular/replicable source for parts. I prefer not using asian materials but am open to it if I don't have to pay through the nose for shipping and there is some guarantee. I just gave away a bunch of NEMA 24's as a trade that I wasn't able to collect on.. those were Kelings and looked pretty decent.

I guess I don't want you to go through the trouble of having to modify designs for Bosch extrusions just because. I'll keep them and use them to support the cause on my side.

I'd like to see more info on this project in terms of recent activity.. Where does development currently sit? what types of goals/metrics have been set?

JOSH

[CubeSpawn]

Well, Spindle motors, saw arbor motors etc are always useful - as to
re-designing stuff - I don't mind, since that opens the door for a few
more people to use what is available to THEM to get a working design
as opposed to whats been specc'd so far- the only hitch is, I'm not
very fast - since I have the usual excuse of too many Irons in the
fire...

I'm neutral on purchased parts at this point - a lot of the stuff the
project needs, it cannot make, and no open source equivalent is
available.

In the long term goal is to make every part the system needs ON THE
SYTEM. I expect this to take several years at best.

Here are the prints for the parts I have designed, had made, and
validated so far:
http://www.cubespawn.com/625Motion.html
its actually a pretty short list since I'm trying to keep it simple
and re-use part # wherever possible (design one part to do multiple
things)

A design philosophy rule I'm also applying is simple parts that can be
made with simple shop tools in the initial efforts - with more
sophisticated designs coming later.

The basic premise of the whole system is the cubic frames, they
fulfill 5 basic machine requirements:

A structural Framework

Power and data connections, so that several cubes can be linked

a pallet transporter - so that workpieces can move from one cube to
another without manual intervention or an external handling system
(here is an (incomplete) sketch showing how a system can be composed
of a few cubes) http://www.cubespawn.com/designs.html#System_Concept

Modularity - all the cubes have the same external and interface
dimensions regardless of the materials they are constructed from so
that regardless of the designer - they are inter-operable by nature

Scaleability - they are based on "modular coordination"
http://www.cubespawn.com/index.html (middle of the page)

so the prototypes are being built at 600mm but they could just as
easily have been 1200mm- the smaller size was felt to be a reasonable
balance between usefulness and cost.

And, lest you think is all hypothetical here is a pic of the motion
module a couple days ago: https://picasaweb.google.com/cubespawn/Apr192011CubeSnaps#

So the bottom line is I'd like to draw up a Bosch design, probably
just modify the 80/20 drawings dimensions, but I'm not certain how
quickly I can get it done.

the last couple weeks have revolved around jelling up the concept for
the first implementation of the motion control electronics

-snip-
...the setup is EMC on a dell GX620 in Ubuntu LTS 10.4
the breakout board is this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170534793516&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
(we'll roll our own when we decide what the controller should be)

I'm using 4 of these motor controllers
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10267
(might be a little light duty) 2 are slaved to Y's outputs
and this motor:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/8927
spec sheet here
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/products/pdf/57BYGH207.pdf ...
-snip-

Sorry for the "wall of text" but without voice and arm waving its hard
to describe ;-)

James









On Apr 22, 10:48 am, "Joshua D. Johnson" <objectsunlimi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> These are not stepper or Servo motors just plain old AC italian units, they
> would be used for small machine tools, repowering drill presses, saws. etc.
> We need to find a regular/replicable source for parts. I prefer not using
> asian materials but am open to it if I don't have to pay through the nose
> for shipping and there is some guarantee. I just gave away a bunch of NEMA
> 24's as a trade that I wasn't able to collect on.. those were Kelings and
> looked pretty decent.
> I guess I don't want you to go through the trouble of having to modify
> designs for Bosch extrusions just because. I'll keep them and use them to
> support the cause on my side.
>
> I'd like to see more info on this project in terms of recent activity..
> Where does development currently sit? what types of goals/metrics have been
> set?
>
> JOSH
>

[Joshua D. Johnson]

No problem on the large data.. I dish it out regularly.

I'll donate some extrusions to the cause if the need arises, same with the motors. I disassembled a Hair sorting machine earlier in the year and got them for free.. I also have tons of acrylic sheet (used.) and metric fasteners, PLC's a few Allen Bradley variable frequency motor controllers etc. I'm willing to part with creatively.

I was telling Marcin about my design ( https://sites.google.com/site/protobotindustries/projects/protobot-bv0-1 ) and he mentioned you. I like the cubical idea because it is modular/expandable and has an open base ( I had developed mine with a dual Y motor design like yours.) when it comes to expanding however the 80/20 is prone to flexing/distortion and thus loss of precision with really big, heavy items or big/heavy spindles/motors etc or long Z axis. So I see both sides.. For the purpose of creating a modular low impact system I think 80/20 is best although it isn't purely replicable.. I had hoped with mine to route wooden parts and have them sand and/or investment cast depending on size/finish eventually doing all of the casting etc. in house making the full loop truly open source and more importantly well documented.

Thanks for your time today, I'll continue to peruse your site.

JOSH

[Data Pathway]

Thanks for your interest!

Looked at your site, you appear to be some sort of professional, I, on the other hand am "just some Guy" ;-)

I'm in the process of substituting one frequency drive for another and translating the function of the old one to a new one (not necessarily skillfully)

I'd like to stay in touch - since you seem to exhibit the modern renaissance of skills that creative people tend to acquire...

As to the design rule for the cubes regarding structural integrity - if flexure will be a problem in a large design, the frame is treated as non structural and internal support would be used - at some point I hope to have an "applied metrology" section in the website - so that machines created with the system can have accuracy that improves (or is improvable) with each generation, rather than machines that make slightly degraded copies if themselves

Anyhow, nice looking projects on your site.

If I find a deal on (stepper) motors or ballscrews, I'd like to swap for aluminum - but at present I'm still just scratching them up in small batches...

I'm using a lot of M3, M5, and M6 fasteners for the cubes made from 25mm extrusion

the 1 inch and 1-1/2 inch take 1/4 - 5/16 and so on

If I can be of assistance please ask.

Happy building

James

[Joshua D. Johnson]

I'm no pro, I'm good at scrounging and trading.. I traded for most of the stuff I have and paid very little for everything else.. I made it with a hand grinder and hand drill. etc. the motors are from Keling and the drives from Gecko.. I'll probably go with EMC2 on the software side. I am a tenderfoot machinist sans mill.

I agree with the structural vs non-structural outer "cube" I had thought about putting an aluminum frame around mine just so I could put plastic up and control dust, light etc depending on the process.

I have a couple of drives that I won't be using, all Allen Bradley. one is 1.3kW and the other 2kw I think.. I'd be glad to trade them for something, they look new. I am really only looking for a 3+HP Router for the machine.

I'll keep in touch.

[Data Pathway]

Hey! Nice Work on the Aquaponics system - its everything I haven't drawn yet!! I, too like the optimizations of aguaponics and vertical gardening etc. one of the motivations behind cubespawn is pumps, tubing, sprayers et al. I'm setting up my little 8 acre place outside San Antonio as if its a sci-fi colony on a semi-arid hostile planet... ;-)

(Texas IS a (mildly) hostile planet)!!

 Well done!

James

[Joshua D. Johnson]

If you are talking about my Aquaponics design, I did that for Will Allen and Dan Dimitri at Growing Power and an offshoot effort here in Philly. I have several shipping containers (cubes!) and about 40 huge pieces of insulated glass if anyone is interested. I also have a design for a tensioned hoop style house that is very simple to put up and maintain as well as piles of billboard Vinyl from a project.

Texas is Hostile!

JOSH

ObjectsU...@gmail.com