JoeCNC Hybrid build

Since I have welder and CNC router available I have done a lot of thing different from standard JoeCNC Hybrid build. The plans for this machine comes from www.joescnc.com . Plans cost $100 and gives you access to the forum. Plans are very detailed with bill of material with sources. The forum is very active and everyone will be glad to answer any questions. It is $100 well spent. The Hybrid was designed for the guy with limited tools and no CNC experience. It is a great machine for the hobbyist or small shop. As a personal opinion the best two machines on the web are the Mechmate, www.mechmate.com and the JoeCNC Hybrid, www.joescnc.com. The Mechmate is a true commercial machine designed to run 40+ hours a week and the JoeCNC Hybrid as a low use hobby/small shop machine. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in CNC first build the Hybrid and then if you need an industrial machine build the Mechmate. It is a lot easier and cheaper to correct your mistakes with the Hybrid. As to the accuracy of both machines, my MM is good to at least .01" which is as close I can measure accurately, and the Hybrid will be at least that good.

The frame is from 1" square stock and will have cross bracing added when I finalize the cabinet work that will go under the bed. I have used the #3 V rollers instead of the recommended #2 because I have 20 left over from another project.

Burney and I finally finished the rotary axis for Joe's 4X4 Hybrid. I've included lots of pictures that I hope make it clear how it was built. The rotary axis is hung between the first and second unistrut so that it is parallel with the X axis. The second unistrut is pushed back up against the third unistrut so that there is about 15" between the first two unistruts. The table has been cut off at the third unistrut. The fact that the second unistrut is pushed back against the third unistrut makes it easy to put the cut piece of the table back on when the rotary axis is not being used.

The rotary axis consists of the headstock and the tailstock. The headstock shaft was made from 1" diameter drill rod. It was threaded 1-8 at one end and turned down to 3/4" at the other. The 3/4" end holds a 30 tooth pulley. The motor is mounted on a 12" X 6" aluminum plate milled with the appropriate features to mount the motor. Slots are also milled into the plate so that it can be mounted in a way that allows the belt to be tensioned. The motor pulley is a ten tooth pulley giving us a 1:3 ratio. The stepper motor is 1200 oz/inches giving us a lot of torque for larger work pieces.

From personal experience the chuck on head stock needs a lock nut or locking set screw Art Ransom

The tailstock was purchased from Grizzly for $50. Both the headstock and tailstock are mounted on 3/4" plywood. The plywood is bolted to 2" X 2" X 1/4" aluminum angle. The angle is bolted (using slots for adjustment) to another piece of angle that rides on the unistrut and is held to the unistrut with 5/16" bolts, unistrut nuts and handles with threaded inserts. This all sounds complicated, but it is a really clean and easy to fabricate design. The rotary axis can be pulled off the machine in seconds and the table top returned to its original size in a couple of minutes. Please look through the pictures to understand how it was all done. BTW, as designed the rotary axis will handle a work piece up to 41" long and 12" in diameter. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Here is my Z axis done from .75" PVC. The pieces are first bolted togeather and then when welded together. I will do the same on the gantry pieces once the machine is up and running. There is a 640 oz/in stepper now but it will be replaced with a 200 - 300 oz/in double shaft with a knob for Yodo to sit on.

It is Murphy's Law that junk expands to fit the available space. The keyboard and monitor are mounted on a swing arm that rotates 120 degrees. Instead of using 1" angle iron I used 1/8" by 2" flat iron which cuts down on vertical bow.