Do any of you see any issues if I store my OX vertically if I make sure the X gantry is not resting with tension on the belts?
I’m planning to make it into a flip-down wall in my man cave as I don’t really have space for it elsewhere. My garage (where it is currently) is not conditioned and everything in it rusts and corrodes so I’d prefer not to keep the CNC in there (assuming the tinyg hasn’t been destroyed yet).
Have any of you built complete housings for it for dust / noise?
I don’t see any reason not. I don’t think you need to take tension off the belts either. Just my opinion
I built a complete housing for dust and noise. My enclosure has two wall of a 1/8" fiberboard covered in acoustic foam with the other two walls clear acrylic. The acrylic walls are removable as they slide into slots in vertically mounted V-slot 20x20’s that are allowed to rotate at the corner. The top is just a big sheet of particle board with acoustic foam. Here is a link to some pics.
https://openbuilds.com/builds/ox-cnc-build.4523/
@Mark_Leino I just don’t want the belts to stretch or loosen if the X carriage’s weight is constantly on them.
@Michael_Forte Very cool. I’m going ahead with my flip-down wall despite having to have it be 20" deep due to the OX height plus a few inches for the torsion box. Do you find the single acrylic walls still a bit noisy? I was considering using 3/4" MDF and routing out rabbits on both sides for 2 1/8" or 1/4" plexy sheets to sit in, but they wouldn’t be as large as yours.
@Jace_Richardson I thought my setup would reduce some noise but in fact it’s very quiet. I’m guessing the acoustic foam on 3 surfaces absorbs sound propagation in all directions. It’s definitely below speaking levels. Except for the bottom of the enclosure which is 3/4" MDF for strength, all other walls and ceiling are 1/8". If you want it to be really quiet then I would use two 1/8" with a small gap between them instead of a single 1/4" sheet since the sound is dissipated every time it passes through different materials. So instead of air-wall-air which has 2 transitions, you would get air-wall-air-wall-air which is 4 transitions. Anybody with hard numbers on these sound calculations please feel free to give real numbers.
My 1500x1500 OX is mounted to my garage wall in a flip-down configuration. I built a shelf behind the unit using V-Slot that is attached to the wall and then the OX is attached to the front edge using a heavy duty piano hinge across the entire back width. The shelf houses the accessories and such. Before lifting up the table, I make sure that the gantry is all the way back. Once I get it up to about a 20 degree angle or so, the weight pretty much shifts to the rear and it is a breeze to go almost vertical.
@Jace_Richardson it really doesn’t matter since there is already always tension on the belts. Flipping it up wouldn’t cause any extra tension, it would just be hitting the “hard limit” on the x end. Still the same tension.
If you were running it standing up, this would be a different answer
You will get really frustrated getting the tension just right every time you use it
@Nathan_Lucier Very nice. I see you’re not using a torsion box or anything - do you find any warping issues with just the aluminum extrusions without a full base?
Vertical side pic. Note the board that the energy chain is sitting on for vertical (another is mounted on the other side for the front legs to mount). Pics were taken before mounting them, but I am using Lehigh Valley Folding Leg Brackets for the front legs ( http://www.leevalley.com/us/hardware/page.aspx?p=40035&cat=3,41306,41309 ) which are amazing with 1 1/2" legs that fold across the top of the table when it is up. I have the floor marked with a couple of circles where the feet sit when table is measured to be level.
@Nathan_Lucier That’s a nice setup. You basically built a Murphy bed in your garage with an OX instead of a mattress. You have room to actually add side panels for an enclosure so when it’s down you just drop a cover over the top. I wish I had the wall space cause it’s a great way to have your cake and eat it too.
@Jace_Richardson I haven’t had any issues so far. It has been mounted this way for well over a year and I check the bed level each time I bring it down before doing any work on it. The ribs underneath seem to be doing their jobs so far. I have thought about doing a torsion box but I would want to figure out how to lower the bed height in order to do that. Currently I can work a 1.75" thick piece before the bottom of the spindle holder would touch.
