This is the second CNC machine i'm trying to build.
The structure is mostly aluminum plates and extrusions with a few exceptions. The main X-axis work table is cast iron. It is a commercial extension table for a manual milling machine. I have some videos with the modifications i have to make to it to accept the linear rails i intend to mount on it. The machine will have linear ball bearing rails and ball screws on all axis for reduced play and backlash. These parts are very expensive new, so i have them all used from ebay.
I'm using Sketchup to design and make the sketches. I like this tool a lot, intuitive, very easy to use and, very important, free.
CSC2-1.jpg CSC2-2.jpg CSC2-3.jpg CSC2-4.jpg CSC2-5.jpg
I've got almost all materials and parts needed, maybe except some small things that i can decide on later like shaft couplers and other things. Some of the parts need to be machined, and i'm trying as much as possible to make them myself, not because it is more economical, but because i am learning. The main tool i'm using is another CNC machine i built which atm only has stepper motors mounted on XY axis. Z is manual. Even if it would be nice to have motion on Z as well, somehow it feels safer not to have it yet, as i don't have to care about accidentally typing a wrong Z value in the commands. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the balcony shop where i'm working:
IMG_5541.jpg IMG_5542.jpg IMG_5550.jpg
Daniela, my wife, filmed the shop here, i think she liked how i rearranged things to get more work space on the table. Sorry for the combination of romanian and english.
The most interesting thing here maybe is the software. I completely rewrote it from scratch. It's running under Linux real time (Ubuntu). It is based on a server-client architecture. The server is written in C++, and is capable of interpreting basic commands like motion in a straight line between two points, pause, resume, set parameters and so on. It controls the machine trough the parallel port, and controls speed and acceleration of the motors. The user interface (UI) is the client, it connects trough TCP-IP, and is written in Java with Eclipse. I chose this architecture for several reasons. I tried very hard to use a RTOS (Real Time Operating System) because i was very disappointed by the performance of the old software under Windows. I can easily get 5x times the speed in the motors now. I get no more hickups and stalls in the motors. The reason i split the application in two, is i wanted to have the UI not interfere with the delicate process of controlling the motor pulses. So i can theoretically run one part on one computer, dedicated to controlling the machine, and another one dedicated to showing the eye candy on another computer. Even though atm i'm running both on the same computer which makes the UI less responsive because it's a single CPU core machine. The UI can also run on another OS, since it's based on Java. I chose Java for the UI because it's portable and easy, and this is what i know best. On the server side C++ gives me easier access to resources like parallel ports and other things. I'm thinking in the future to change it again to support G-CODE since this seems to be the standard. Atm it supports some custom formatted commands i invented myself. I could make this an open source project and this could be the biggest contribution from my side to the community if i see the interest out here. I know there already is free software for Linux, which most likely is much more advanced then what i did. Anyway, it seemed much more interesting and fun to try and write my own as i liked, since this is what i'm doing for a living too, writing software. My impression is that there is still missing a good simple free open source CNC software for homemade machine enthusiasts like myself, who like it simple.
One of the most complicated tools i made is this fly cutter made out of a big block of aluminum. Got the idea from someone else, but i don't remember exactly the link.
I worked very hard here to get the surfaces smooth and on the same plane for the linear rails. The milling job that was originally there was a bit disappointing. I had to mill it first, then using sandpaper and repeated measurements, i managed to get it down somewhere close to 0.005mm deviation. In the video i'm mentioning 0.05 but this was because of the stress of talking in a video.
This is one of the most complicated parts of the entire project. It's a block that goes at the end of the X-axis to support the ball-screw and the motor. It will be attached with screws directly to the table. The milling cutter used here is a 16 mm roughing cutter, a bit on the big side for this machine. It's held in an ER32 collet. The spindle and the motor are from an sieg X2 mini mill. I hope to get a bigger motor someday for the new machine, you can see this one doesn't have enough torque.
Some pictures of the main support plate of the X-axis. Drilling the holes for the screws that will hold the rail blocks and the ball screw nuts of X and Y.
IMG_5554.jpg IMG_5555.jpg IMG_5556.jpg
And that X-axis end part again. There was and still is a lot of material to remove in there. It is still far from finished.
IMG_5562.jpg IMG_5563.jpg
Thanks for watching and reading, hope you enjoy. I'll try to keep posting as i move along with the build. It's going slowly atm.
The structure is mostly aluminum plates and extrusions with a few exceptions. The main X-axis work table is cast iron. It is a commercial extension table for a manual milling machine. I have some videos with the modifications i have to make to it to accept the linear rails i intend to mount on it. The machine will have linear ball bearing rails and ball screws on all axis for reduced play and backlash. These parts are very expensive new, so i have them all used from ebay.
I'm using Sketchup to design and make the sketches. I like this tool a lot, intuitive, very easy to use and, very important, free.
CSC2-1.jpg CSC2-2.jpg CSC2-3.jpg CSC2-4.jpg CSC2-5.jpg
I've got almost all materials and parts needed, maybe except some small things that i can decide on later like shaft couplers and other things. Some of the parts need to be machined, and i'm trying as much as possible to make them myself, not because it is more economical, but because i am learning. The main tool i'm using is another CNC machine i built which atm only has stepper motors mounted on XY axis. Z is manual. Even if it would be nice to have motion on Z as well, somehow it feels safer not to have it yet, as i don't have to care about accidentally typing a wrong Z value in the commands. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the balcony shop where i'm working:
IMG_5541.jpg IMG_5542.jpg IMG_5550.jpg
Daniela, my wife, filmed the shop here, i think she liked how i rearranged things to get more work space on the table. Sorry for the combination of romanian and english.
The most interesting thing here maybe is the software. I completely rewrote it from scratch. It's running under Linux real time (Ubuntu). It is based on a server-client architecture. The server is written in C++, and is capable of interpreting basic commands like motion in a straight line between two points, pause, resume, set parameters and so on. It controls the machine trough the parallel port, and controls speed and acceleration of the motors. The user interface (UI) is the client, it connects trough TCP-IP, and is written in Java with Eclipse. I chose this architecture for several reasons. I tried very hard to use a RTOS (Real Time Operating System) because i was very disappointed by the performance of the old software under Windows. I can easily get 5x times the speed in the motors now. I get no more hickups and stalls in the motors. The reason i split the application in two, is i wanted to have the UI not interfere with the delicate process of controlling the motor pulses. So i can theoretically run one part on one computer, dedicated to controlling the machine, and another one dedicated to showing the eye candy on another computer. Even though atm i'm running both on the same computer which makes the UI less responsive because it's a single CPU core machine. The UI can also run on another OS, since it's based on Java. I chose Java for the UI because it's portable and easy, and this is what i know best. On the server side C++ gives me easier access to resources like parallel ports and other things. I'm thinking in the future to change it again to support G-CODE since this seems to be the standard. Atm it supports some custom formatted commands i invented myself. I could make this an open source project and this could be the biggest contribution from my side to the community if i see the interest out here. I know there already is free software for Linux, which most likely is much more advanced then what i did. Anyway, it seemed much more interesting and fun to try and write my own as i liked, since this is what i'm doing for a living too, writing software. My impression is that there is still missing a good simple free open source CNC software for homemade machine enthusiasts like myself, who like it simple.
One of the most complicated tools i made is this fly cutter made out of a big block of aluminum. Got the idea from someone else, but i don't remember exactly the link.
I worked very hard here to get the surfaces smooth and on the same plane for the linear rails. The milling job that was originally there was a bit disappointing. I had to mill it first, then using sandpaper and repeated measurements, i managed to get it down somewhere close to 0.005mm deviation. In the video i'm mentioning 0.05 but this was because of the stress of talking in a video.
This is one of the most complicated parts of the entire project. It's a block that goes at the end of the X-axis to support the ball-screw and the motor. It will be attached with screws directly to the table. The milling cutter used here is a 16 mm roughing cutter, a bit on the big side for this machine. It's held in an ER32 collet. The spindle and the motor are from an sieg X2 mini mill. I hope to get a bigger motor someday for the new machine, you can see this one doesn't have enough torque.
Some pictures of the main support plate of the X-axis. Drilling the holes for the screws that will hold the rail blocks and the ball screw nuts of X and Y.
IMG_5554.jpg IMG_5555.jpg IMG_5556.jpg
And that X-axis end part again. There was and still is a lot of material to remove in there. It is still far from finished.
IMG_5562.jpg IMG_5563.jpg
Thanks for watching and reading, hope you enjoy. I'll try to keep posting as i move along with the build. It's going slowly atm.