The Dude
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2010
- Location
- Portland, OR
I need to make a single-axis indexing drill press gauge for positioning 2x4's for holes to be drilled. The total length of the indexing will need to be from about 1" to 80" (i.e. total travel length). Just doing some initial research on ball screws, they are available on McMaster Carr (not that I'd necessarily purchase from there) for about $1500-2K for the screw, nut, wipers and supports. That's within budget.
The initial setup for this will just be to provide a stop. The nut will travel to a programmed distance, stop, the operator will position the end of the 2x4 against the nut (with some type of stop mounted to it, that travels through some type of guide), manually drill the hole, tap a foot pedal to index, and repeat until the part is done (anywhere from 1-3 holes).
The main goal is to eliminate the use of templates which result in poor hole location quality and longer setup (there are over 50 templates). A PLC with a touchscreen will select the program (I'm good on all of that).
Three questions:
1. I assume there has to be some type of linear rail/guild that has a bearing that moves with the nut to keep the ball screw from vibrating? Seems like that distance would be way too long for a nut to travel with little support.
2. Aside from the ball screw, is there any other technology that might be better? I was thinking maybe cog belt drive, but a bit concerned about the integrity. Occasionally, and operator might "bash" the end of the 2x4 against the stop.
3. Is there anyone that makes an off-the-shelf unit for this type of operation? It has to be "programmable" (pull up a program # with per-programmed stops). The only close thing I've found is the Tigerstop but their smallest unit is still kind of "big" and I'm not sure it can do the incremental step programming (which can occur at increments that aren't equal to each other).
Thanks for any input.
The Dude
The initial setup for this will just be to provide a stop. The nut will travel to a programmed distance, stop, the operator will position the end of the 2x4 against the nut (with some type of stop mounted to it, that travels through some type of guide), manually drill the hole, tap a foot pedal to index, and repeat until the part is done (anywhere from 1-3 holes).
The main goal is to eliminate the use of templates which result in poor hole location quality and longer setup (there are over 50 templates). A PLC with a touchscreen will select the program (I'm good on all of that).
Three questions:
1. I assume there has to be some type of linear rail/guild that has a bearing that moves with the nut to keep the ball screw from vibrating? Seems like that distance would be way too long for a nut to travel with little support.
2. Aside from the ball screw, is there any other technology that might be better? I was thinking maybe cog belt drive, but a bit concerned about the integrity. Occasionally, and operator might "bash" the end of the 2x4 against the stop.
3. Is there anyone that makes an off-the-shelf unit for this type of operation? It has to be "programmable" (pull up a program # with per-programmed stops). The only close thing I've found is the Tigerstop but their smallest unit is still kind of "big" and I'm not sure it can do the incremental step programming (which can occur at increments that aren't equal to each other).
Thanks for any input.
The Dude