XY Table for Laser Cutter, Plotter etc

After being disappointing with the XY table in a K40-esque laser cutter (it wasn’t even square..) I decided to design my own, I have experience with CNC machines so I knew the concept I was aiming for.

For this I used for the X axis a stepper motor per arm rather than a rod linking the two, the disadvantage to this is it takes up a bit more room but driving two stepper motors at once works fine just like on the Z axis on most 3D Printers. All the aluminium elements are 2040 V Slot so the design is entirely scaleable so it could be made much bigger than it is now for a larger machine. Also the Y beam is laid flat so when used as a laser cutter it allows a path for the beam and also the Y Carriage is flat so it doesn’t foul the focal length of the material beneath.

You will need some items to make it work apart from stepper motors, belts and 20T pulleys. I used V Slot wheels (qty 11) five of them used the eccentric nuts to adjust the pressure of the wheels on the V Slot so the larger 7mm holes are for the eccentric nuts and the other wheels are just use 6mm spacers. All fixings are M5 bolts with hammer nuts to secure to the V Slot. On the idlers a free pulley with an M5 bore is used to allow the belts to pass back.

I printed in PETG and the carriages were all rigid and glided smoothly. There is a toothed lock on each carriage to allow the belt to be looped through and then the ends secured with a zip tie. Similar to the arrangement used on 3D printers and makes securing and applying tension to the belts easy.

Printing, you’ll need to print 3 motor mounts, 2 Idlers and then one of everything else.