Hi Everyone,
I've been lurking the cnczone forum for about a year and a half now, and this is my first post.
Over the past four or so months, I've been building a CNC Router of my own design. Over the course of the project, I've read a lot on cnczone and other forums, and what I've read has helped me iterate the design quite a few times, so thank you to everyone who's posts and discussions I've been reading.
My initial interest in CNC began many years ago, when I was interested in RC cars and planes, and wanted to design and build my own parts. With this current project, my aim is to build a machine that can:
- Machine aluminum and brass fairly well, though not necessarily at production rates
- Cut wood, acrylic, HDPE, etc
- Have precision of about 0.001" and accuracy around 0.005"
- Have a work envelope suitable for small to medium sized parts
- Be built for around $1000 including electronics, steppers, router, etc
Some of the constraints on my design were:
- Shipping to Canada can cost an arm and a leg
- I only have a drill press and hand tools
- I have a very small space to work in
I actually started designing this machine in the summer of 2011, but gave up during the school term (I'm a student) and started again in the summer of 2012. I've gone through about 5 versions of the mechanical design.
In the end, the design I settled for was:
- frame made of aluminum extrusion (not 8020)
- flying gantry
- 24"x12"x6" work envelope
- cold rolled steel rails with homemade ball-bearing trucks
- Bosch Colt for the spindle
- TB6560 stepper driver and 166oz-in Stepper motors from AutomationDirect
- 1/2-10 2-start ACME Leadscrews (from ENCO) with DumpsterCNC Nuts
- Thrust Bearings from vxb.com and homemade motor mounts
- LinuxCNC machine controller
At this point, I'm nearly finished the build. I had planned on starting a build log but never got around to it. So now I'll post what I have, a little at a time to keep it interesting.
First of all, the design:
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You can see from these pictures some of the features of the design. CRS rails, homemade trucks. Flying gantry, aluminum square tube extrusions mostly for the frame. The overall size is 24"x36"x18". The base and bed are both made of two layers of 5/8" MDF.
The design of the trucks (which I will post more pictures of) is my own, and I haven't come across anyone making them like this so far. Mine are similar to momus and cncrouterparts trucks in the sense that they use skate bearings, but the design and construction are fairly different, and mine don't use set-screws.
I hope people on the forum find this thread interesting and useful.
I'll post more soon. Feel free to ask questions or tell me what I did wrong.
Ali
I've been lurking the cnczone forum for about a year and a half now, and this is my first post.
Over the past four or so months, I've been building a CNC Router of my own design. Over the course of the project, I've read a lot on cnczone and other forums, and what I've read has helped me iterate the design quite a few times, so thank you to everyone who's posts and discussions I've been reading.
My initial interest in CNC began many years ago, when I was interested in RC cars and planes, and wanted to design and build my own parts. With this current project, my aim is to build a machine that can:
- Machine aluminum and brass fairly well, though not necessarily at production rates
- Cut wood, acrylic, HDPE, etc
- Have precision of about 0.001" and accuracy around 0.005"
- Have a work envelope suitable for small to medium sized parts
- Be built for around $1000 including electronics, steppers, router, etc
Some of the constraints on my design were:
- Shipping to Canada can cost an arm and a leg
- I only have a drill press and hand tools
- I have a very small space to work in
I actually started designing this machine in the summer of 2011, but gave up during the school term (I'm a student) and started again in the summer of 2012. I've gone through about 5 versions of the mechanical design.
In the end, the design I settled for was:
- frame made of aluminum extrusion (not 8020)
- flying gantry
- 24"x12"x6" work envelope
- cold rolled steel rails with homemade ball-bearing trucks
- Bosch Colt for the spindle
- TB6560 stepper driver and 166oz-in Stepper motors from AutomationDirect
- 1/2-10 2-start ACME Leadscrews (from ENCO) with DumpsterCNC Nuts
- Thrust Bearings from vxb.com and homemade motor mounts
- LinuxCNC machine controller
At this point, I'm nearly finished the build. I had planned on starting a build log but never got around to it. So now I'll post what I have, a little at a time to keep it interesting.
First of all, the design:
You can see from these pictures some of the features of the design. CRS rails, homemade trucks. Flying gantry, aluminum square tube extrusions mostly for the frame. The overall size is 24"x36"x18". The base and bed are both made of two layers of 5/8" MDF.
The design of the trucks (which I will post more pictures of) is my own, and I haven't come across anyone making them like this so far. Mine are similar to momus and cncrouterparts trucks in the sense that they use skate bearings, but the design and construction are fairly different, and mine don't use set-screws.
I hope people on the forum find this thread interesting and useful.
I'll post more soon. Feel free to ask questions or tell me what I did wrong.
Ali