Hi, guys!
Waiting to receive my Liteplacer and in the midtime I am doing some thinking, where to put it. I would like to have a compact "workspace", where there would be PnP, computer and reflow oven.
I was thinking of dimensions 90x60 (workspace), which is supposed to be enough (?). Material will be steel profiles (30x30 mm), which will give solid feel and no vibrations. (there will be profile around table bellow liteplacer and bellow lower shelf)
At 60 cm there is first shelf, where liteplacer electronics will be on the left (as well as uplooking camera) and on the right there will be place for reflow oven.
At 95 cm there is main liteplacer's working area with liteplacer on it.
At 140 cm there is another shelf for computer (I have one spare all-in-one computer, which I can use, so no need for computer casing, just "monitor"), keyboard and mouse.
I would be glad to get some suggestions from current Liteplacer's users, especially if 45 cm height between liteplacer and shelf above is enough? (I wouldn't put shelf too high, because display is in bad position for looking)
Regards,
Gregor
Liteplacer table
Liteplacer table
- Attachments
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- table.jpg (93.42 KiB) Viewed 13707 times
Re: Liteplacer table
Hello Gregor and welcome 
I think 45cm vertical clearance should be enough. It depends on how you route the cables and tubing along the X-axis.
In my case I put a custom drag chain upside down to avoid bending. That leads to the chain being about 43cm above the table surface.
I found it easier to use aluminium extrusion profiles for the table construction but if you are good at welding steel will work as well.
I also mounted monitors above the table and am happy with that solution.
I have to slideouts / drawers at the back of the table which I mounted power supply, electronics, wiring etc. to.
For the table top I used 19mm MDF and glued a anti-static ESD mat to that. That is something I would not do again. Next time, I would use a thin magnetic (!) stainless steel sheet (like 1.4104) and bond it to the MDF using PU glue. Probably another MDF plate opf same dimension and weights would be required to properly press it.
Advantages:
- likely ESD safe if connected to ground via a resistor
- magnetic so you can easily attach magnetic part holders, PCB holders etc.
- rigid and (if properly glued and pressed) very even surface
- much cheaper than ESD mat
Disadvantages:
- metal structure and reflections confuse computer vision
On the other hand, almost all computer vision happens in small, predefined areas - very easy to cover those with a different material. In many cases, that something will be placed there anyways (e.g. strip feeders, PCB holder, sticker for homing mark, etc.).
Here is a picture of my table (and LitePlacer):
Have fun and success with your build!
Malte
I think 45cm vertical clearance should be enough. It depends on how you route the cables and tubing along the X-axis.
In my case I put a custom drag chain upside down to avoid bending. That leads to the chain being about 43cm above the table surface.
I found it easier to use aluminium extrusion profiles for the table construction but if you are good at welding steel will work as well.
I also mounted monitors above the table and am happy with that solution.
I have to slideouts / drawers at the back of the table which I mounted power supply, electronics, wiring etc. to.
For the table top I used 19mm MDF and glued a anti-static ESD mat to that. That is something I would not do again. Next time, I would use a thin magnetic (!) stainless steel sheet (like 1.4104) and bond it to the MDF using PU glue. Probably another MDF plate opf same dimension and weights would be required to properly press it.
Advantages:
- likely ESD safe if connected to ground via a resistor
- magnetic so you can easily attach magnetic part holders, PCB holders etc.
- rigid and (if properly glued and pressed) very even surface
- much cheaper than ESD mat
Disadvantages:
- metal structure and reflections confuse computer vision
On the other hand, almost all computer vision happens in small, predefined areas - very easy to cover those with a different material. In many cases, that something will be placed there anyways (e.g. strip feeders, PCB holder, sticker for homing mark, etc.).
Here is a picture of my table (and LitePlacer):
- mrandt_liteplacer.jpg (63.36 KiB) Viewed 13702 times
Malte
Re: Liteplacer table
Malte, that's a very clean setup you created there! Thanks for sharing it.
I'm thinking about getting a LightPlacer also after having bought and built a 3x4 foot Laser Cutter & 3x4 foot CNC machine for work which have been low cost and worked perfectly. I'm hoping I can get the same kind of performance out of the Light Placer since it looks pretty good and is priced lower than anything else in its capability range.
How long have you had your machine and what has your experience been with it so far?
Do you have any pictures of boards you have populated with it?
I'm very curious to hear how the whole experience has been.
Thanks for your time!
I'm thinking about getting a LightPlacer also after having bought and built a 3x4 foot Laser Cutter & 3x4 foot CNC machine for work which have been low cost and worked perfectly. I'm hoping I can get the same kind of performance out of the Light Placer since it looks pretty good and is priced lower than anything else in its capability range.
How long have you had your machine and what has your experience been with it so far?
Do you have any pictures of boards you have populated with it?
I'm very curious to hear how the whole experience has been.
Thanks for your time!
Re: Liteplacer table
Please see my post here:
http://liteplacer.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 1563#p1572
http://liteplacer.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... 1563#p1572
Re: Liteplacer table
Malte, how much did that table cost you and where did you buy it? What size extrusions are those? I'm thinking of building something similar. Anything you would do different now that it's built?
Re: Liteplacer table
Hi,
I used sturdy 40x40 extrusions. Might be overkill but this way the whole assembly is rock-solid.
Alumium extrusions, brackets, screws and feet were about 120 EUR in material but I had a few parts already, so maybe 150 if you need to buy everything. I don't remember what I paid for the MDF table top but that should not be the biggest cost driver.
I buy all extrusions from a German manufacturer - they cut to order and are *much* cheaper than Bosch, Misumi or the like:
http://easy-systemprofile.de/
They will also do the drilling and form threads for you, naturally that will cost extra.
If you want adjustable feet, I suggest you at least have them cut the necessary M12 threads into the vertical poles - almost impossible to do at home as the profiles core isn't round but rectangular.
For connecting the extrusions you have many options; from angled brackets and hammer-nuts being the simplest over self-tapping center-core-screws being the cheapest to quick-locks being the most sophisticated. Any connection other than angled brackets will require drilling, milling and maybe tapping the profiles. If you have little experience with alumimium extrusions, I suggest you go for angled brackets.
What would I do differently?
My table top has changed from the one in the picture. The ESD foam matte does not work well; I exchanged the MDF board for a new one to which I laminated / glued a 0.8mm sheet of magnetic (!) stainless steel.
Probably I'd not go for a solid table top if I built my machine again, but for an "open frame" machine. But this only makes sense when considering fully automatic reel feeders... Also, this would require siginifant changes to LitePlacer as well; and some clever system of smaller extrusions to fix PCB holders and part trays.
The table itself is fine and I use a similar construction for all other machine tables in my shop.
Here is another picture that might help you with the design - this is not LitePlacer table (which is wider) but a smaller one with same construction:
I used sturdy 40x40 extrusions. Might be overkill but this way the whole assembly is rock-solid.
Alumium extrusions, brackets, screws and feet were about 120 EUR in material but I had a few parts already, so maybe 150 if you need to buy everything. I don't remember what I paid for the MDF table top but that should not be the biggest cost driver.
I buy all extrusions from a German manufacturer - they cut to order and are *much* cheaper than Bosch, Misumi or the like:
http://easy-systemprofile.de/
They will also do the drilling and form threads for you, naturally that will cost extra.
If you want adjustable feet, I suggest you at least have them cut the necessary M12 threads into the vertical poles - almost impossible to do at home as the profiles core isn't round but rectangular.
For connecting the extrusions you have many options; from angled brackets and hammer-nuts being the simplest over self-tapping center-core-screws being the cheapest to quick-locks being the most sophisticated. Any connection other than angled brackets will require drilling, milling and maybe tapping the profiles. If you have little experience with alumimium extrusions, I suggest you go for angled brackets.
What would I do differently?
My table top has changed from the one in the picture. The ESD foam matte does not work well; I exchanged the MDF board for a new one to which I laminated / glued a 0.8mm sheet of magnetic (!) stainless steel.
Probably I'd not go for a solid table top if I built my machine again, but for an "open frame" machine. But this only makes sense when considering fully automatic reel feeders... Also, this would require siginifant changes to LitePlacer as well; and some clever system of smaller extrusions to fix PCB holders and part trays.
The table itself is fine and I use a similar construction for all other machine tables in my shop.
Here is another picture that might help you with the design - this is not LitePlacer table (which is wider) but a smaller one with same construction:
- aluminium_extrusion_table.png (856.82 KiB) Viewed 12651 times
Re: Liteplacer table
Found out that Misumi gives a 30% discount to new customers for the first 30 days, a suitable table using 40x40mm extrusions will run around 160USD including leveling feet (I went a bit larger, at 71x122cm for the table). We use extrusions quite a bit at work for test fixtures, so I'm familiar with them but never had to order/pay myself as we just keep a stock of them. I didn't see if the site you linked will ship to the US, but I'll keep them in mind for when my Misumi discount goes away.
Re: Liteplacer table
Malte,
how did you laminate the steel to the MDF? I'm currently waiting for my kit and your magnetic work top sounds like an excellent idea to me.
Also, how did you connect it to ground? Is is isolated from the machine and then connected via a resistor? Or straight to the machine or ground?
Cheers,
Hendrik
how did you laminate the steel to the MDF? I'm currently waiting for my kit and your magnetic work top sounds like an excellent idea to me.
Also, how did you connect it to ground? Is is isolated from the machine and then connected via a resistor? Or straight to the machine or ground?
Cheers,
Hendrik
Re: Liteplacer table
Misumi is great; especially as they supply identical parts virtually all over the world and only have high quality parts.dmwahl wrote:Found out that Misumi gives a 30% discount to new customers for the first 30 days, a suitable table using 40x40mm extrusions will run around 160USD including leveling feet (I went a bit larger, at 71x122cm for the table).
However, this comes for a price - many parts are rather on the expensive side.
I however don't think that sourcing aluminium extrusions from Europe would be any cheaper. Shipping heavy / bulky stuff abroad is prety expensive. I am pretty sure though that you would be able to finde local manufacturers / distributors of extrusions.
Re: Liteplacer table
Hi Hendrik,hendrik wrote:How did you laminate the steel to the MDF? I'm currently waiting for my kit and your magnetic work top sounds like an excellent idea to me.
I used an industrial-grade PU (Polyurethane) based glue. Here is a link to the product I used:
http://www.otto-chemie.de/de/startseite ... ocoll-p-84
I did the following:
- slightly sanded the MDF with fine grained sanding paper
- thoroughly removed all dust using a vacuum cleaner
- rubbed the steel sheet with Acetone
- applied glue to MDF and evenly distributed it using a squeegee
- put metal sheet on top and aligned it
- loaded all sorts of heavy stuff (weights, books, tool boxes, you name it...) on top to create enough pressure and ensure a perfectly flat bed
- waited a few hours and got a very nice result
Liteplacer frame, steel table top and table itself are all interconnected and connected to my grounding point via a 1M resistor.hendrik wrote:Also, how did you connect it to ground?
Cheers
Malte