www.TK560.com

LaughingCheese · Expert Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 138

Since I don't have a whole lot of space for say for a 6x6 CNC, I was thinking that it might beinteresting to put a programmable robotic arm that carried a drill on wheels.

This would make base dimensions irrelevant, as the wheels could simply rotate around the mould and go wherever the drill bit needed to be.

Of course, this would increase the complexity of programming, however, it may be possible to streamline the process if the base of the machine is told to move wherever the drill bit needs to be for a certain step in the milling.

Thoughts?

trapperdale · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:42 pm Post subject:

LC,

I am thinking that the accuracy of the machine would not be very good.
it would have trouble holding it's X-Y zero!!!

how if the arm was bolted to the floor it would work fine.
you could have several locations around your shop it could bolt to.

but working out the rigitity of a two or three joint arm with no end play would be a nightmare!!!

just my 2 cents..
dale

jdougn

You've got an interesting thought but I agree with TrapperDale. I've built the mechanics for robotic arms in the past and the more articulated the arm the more difficult to maintain accuracy. Keeping a robotic arm stable while on wheels would be impossible. Any variation in the floor or even a little spec of drilling debris under a wheel would drastically multiple error in the arm. In fact, I bet you'd have a hard time even getting wheels that were perfect enough to accurately accomplish reliable cnc. In short, I think every time the machine moved that the reference points would change significantly. The only other thought is that maybe you could design some type of reference system that allowed the arm to always reference three dimensional points on the cutting table but that is way beyond me.
just my .o2, DougN
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LaughingCheese · Expert Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 138

Aww, crapola.

I guess I'll have to move to the midwest where houses are cheaper so I can have a ton of space. Laughing

Although its a little flat for my tastes, I've grown up around mountains and hills so that would be quite a shock.... Very Happy

Culvan · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:38 pm Post subject:

Have you considered anything besides wheels?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4JJEazpb_g

It's a cool idea, but I don't think it solves the problems listed earlier.

Andy