Thank you very much for the entire CNC construction series. Your work was an inspiration for me to create my own CNC. Based on your videos and technical support from CNC forum, I made similar machine myself. It was an incredibly interesting project :) Some photos of my machine: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HZWSlpznN6NWYypdG-XDolIAkp5Wf7T-?usp=sharing
Thanks for kind words. My machine was created thanks to your work and guidance. Otherwise, I would not know how to start. Your work on YT is very inspiring, you're doing a great job.
I'm just working up to converting my Sherline mill over to CNC control. I can already program CNC mills, so that's no mystery, but retrofitting one with the motors, and then putting in the electronics and making the whole thing work is quite another matter. I spent approximately 13.72 milliseconds pondering how to go about it before I recalled: hey, Steve has probably already done it, so just do what he did! And here I am.
@@iforce2d I meant Chris. Sorry. I'm not really Reach41, the name is Gary. But you can call me Phillip for revenge! Someone is giving me a control, a TinyG, along with a power supply. Apparently G-M codes can be loaded into it directly using a terminal program with CTS set. If that's the case, getting started should be very easy (famous last words). I'm not going to spring for ball screws, since they want twice the value of the basic mill for the conversion kit, so might have to invent something to reduce backlash to an absolute minimum. In the process of looking for your videos on CNC, I passed a few of the old ones on Big Red. Kind of made me sad. I trust she is hanging from a wire in a nice, warm spot in the den.
Interesting, I bought an OpenBuilds C-Beam machine, I think I mentioned this before, it is a very capable CNC router if you want to cut wood or plastic. I certain it would slice up CF sheet without trouble, but trying to cut Aluminium was beyond it. Just not stiff enough. I've bought a much larger mount for my router but have yet to drill the holes ready to attach it to the gantry. I have it in mind, should the "new & improved" model struggle with Al, to "double" the gantry such that the router is sandwiched between supports. It will cut down some of the work area on the Y axis but if it turns out to be rigid enough to cut soft metals extending the Y axis won't be a problem. Good things to mess around with, I haven't been giving it the attention it deserves though, got a new toy a 100W cheap Chinese CO2 laser. Good luck with the build. Merry Christmas, somewhat belatedly, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to you.
I've been designing a CNC that happens to look an awful lot like the design you show at 10:40. I'm planning on using a cast aluminum t-slot bracket to hold the Z axis up (all plates are MDF). Also, I'm going to try using only one X axis lead screw placed in between the rails. I think there's enough space between the spindle and rail for it to fit. To help with the spacing issue, I turn the Y and Z stepper brackets around and bolt them to the underside of the plates. I arrived at the same idea of using two opposed lead screw nuts to preload and eliminate backlash. I probably won't build it because I have no self confidence.
Thanks for this series of videos. I am making a similar build and these were very useful. Mine is intended for wax carving so it will require less structural rigidity. but your videos were very helpful. Thanks very much,!
Great project!you must have soent so much time modelling! what spindle are u planning to use?and what size are your Linear rails?having built many cnc's I can say that 600mm is about the limit for unsupported rails of 20mm, but not knowing what u will be cutting its hard to say, if you are milling PCBs you might be OK if you are trying to cut wood or plastic you might have to take very small passes without any deflection.if you want a cheap bombproof linear rail consider v bearings and angle iron!again depends what u are cutting but your steppers look a bit small you might want to consider nema 23 size. Welcome to CNC, just remember your fiurst machine will probably be proof of concept and it will still be fun!
LOL, your like me. I think I had about 10 different designs drawn out before I decided to build. Thank goodness for 3D software. It would of been a frustrating disaster if I just winged it !
I suggest you to use fully supported rails instead of unsupported rails because unsupported ones would cause lots of vibrations and will definitely affect final finish of the work piece.
iirc cutting carbon fiber is easy on home machine. just use a bit made for composite materials. also make sure to build a box for electronics. carbon fiber is conductive
Use a powerful enough laser and sure you could use one. Hell in theory you could focus enough photons that the energy density would result in the formation of a black hole. Well, maybe. Might be a few properties of the physics not allowing a laser to still be a laser at the point where energy density begins to approach levels that could form a black hole. Probably be cutting whatever it is you wanted to cut before you punch a hole in space-time though. Anyway with a powerful enough laser you can cut anything.
I wouldn't use wood as a spacer for a precision result. Wood expands and shrinks under different humidity conditions. Not to mention wood under constant pressure from a tightened hold down bolt can become lose over time by the wood fibers collapsing/crushing. The motor cutout idea without the wooden spacers is much more elegant and solid. Curious as to the costs for this build.
Looks good so far. Just to ask a few questions/observations sir. 1) Are you aware that banggood now do an ant-backlash nut for the 8mm thread? 2) what size are your steppers? They look like NEMA17's to me. 3) Do they have enough torque to move the weight? 4) What Drivers are you using? I personally went with the 5 Axis breakout board with individual drivers, then made my own MPG. Will watch the rest of your videos when i can.
Hello, your project is very successful. Congratulations. There is something I want to ask you. Wouldn't it be better if we use the fixed coupling instead of the flexible coupling you used for the Nema 17 motor connection? When we use the flexible coupling, there is a possibility of flexing a turn of seconds when the nema 17 motor generates power when trying to cut or drill. In such a case, it seems to me that there may be millimeter deviations in the workpiece we are working with.
If you mean the linear rails, yes they would be much better if they were supported all the way along. When cutting hard materials like carbon fiber or aluminium this machine has to go veeeery slow. If you mean the spiral coupling connectors between the motor and the screws, I'm pretty sure they are designed specifically to not have that problem much. Certainly the flexing of the linear rails will be a bigger problem.
Just curious, but would there be any technical difficulties in sitting your Z axis motor on top of your X axis, then translating that into Z axis movement with perpendicular gears? It would lower the height profile of the entire setup.
I have a crazy question, in all these videos that electricians are posting, there is this green mat under their work, could you please say what is this about? Any wikipedia page or something about it?
can I have the design and software for below changes :: can we implement feedback positions for stepper motors in case they miss steps, can we get 10 micron accuracy in all the axes.
I build a machine like that with unsupoorted rails like you have. I can already tell you that the unsupported rails will bend/flex too much. You'll need something that has support like SBR12, SBR16 or MGN12.
iforce2d i have to agree that entire x axis and z axis setup will cause flex/bending on the linear rods, you might want to consider changing to some sort of extruded aluminum rails and use v wheels or something along the line where you get a larger cross section on that sliding rail so theres no flexing.
My rails were 10mm for x and y and 12mm for the z-axis. I don't know the exact weight. Actually I think the weight isn't the biggest issue. The force that is needed to push the spindle thru the material you are cutting will be the biggest problem. The spindle will flex. As someone else suggested, use a (gt2?) belt and pulleys for the x and y. The leadscrews have backlash. On my first machine I also found that the nema-17 steppers weren't strong enough. They ran very hot. I had to run them slow not to loose steps. B.t.w, you don't need a grbl shield. I ran it with an arduino nano and put the nano + the stepper drivers on a prototype board to keep it small. If you already have everything to build it like you planned, I woukd still build it as a "learning" project. I threw everything in a corner and got sbr16 rails, backlash-free ballscrews and bigger nema-23 steppers.
You have one 3D model of the basic components mounted to a board. Is it possible to get a copy of this 3D model code so I could use it in my own 3D modelling?
What a stupid question. As all human artifacts were made by someone. Whether that someone was yourself, or not. But that guy is a bit of a moron. Duh I have a fully equipped shop, can I make something?
Paul Frederick You missed it all together, it wasn't a question. Add the word "showing" in front of how. Clearly not a question but an answer. Who are you saying was the moron, this guy or John?
I tweeted about SketchUp not working on Linux the other day. Sketchup replied that they have SketchUp web app that works across platforms. my.sketchup.com It does the job. Has most of the features that the desktop ones has, although it is a bit tricky learning where everything is again.
You can buy laser cut steel parts up to 3 mm cheap and easy from lasergist.com. Or any other material from ponoko.com. Just a note to anyone else who wants to repeat this project.
The distance per rotation depends on the pitch of the lead screw. The one I bought is made to move 8mm per rotation. In the GRBL settings I then need to tell it that information, I looked at the details in part 4: czcams.com/video/OuhgZMDXDdY/video.html
And then everybody would want further instructions on how it's supposed to fit together, and more and more... I've done this before. I would not recommend making this, I would not do it again like this, and I don't know where the files are now anyway, sorry.
Well it's definitely not made for crashing, that's for sure. A couple of light crashes and the front section was toast.. The whole nose area is very flimsy, I'm thinking about just making it a slope soarer...
I know you already have the rails, but is there any reason why you did not go for the supported type. With all other things being equal, I think that change alone would make the machine much more rigid. www.banggood.com/SBR12-600mm-Linear-Rail-Shaft-Rod-with-2-SBR12UU-Block-p-1053640.html?rmmds=category
I keep thinking about designing something similar, but get lost running away looking for stiffness. Just last night I was watching a video on cast epoxy granite composites. It quickly snowballs into something way too expensive. I am looking forward to seeing how your build goes. Maybe it will inspire me to spend some money like your cheap-ass quad-copter did! :-)
Unsupported round guide rails are notoriously flexible. They would have worked for your pen plotter project, because there is not much force there. But over a span they will reduce the rigidity of your machine in more demanding applications.
Check out openbuilds.com a great site for homebrew CNC machines. Looking forward to watching this build. I've just got a Chinese 3020. Love it! Changed aluminium bed to mild steel plate so I can use magnetic hold downs, so much easier and more z height for greater depth of cut.
That's very vague, what do you mean by 'bad'? What will I thank you for if I use Fusion360? I'm only using Sketchup to visualize how things will assemble together, not to make CAD designs for cutting...
iforce2d was a bit drink when i grote that. i tought you'd be using sketchup for 3d drawing your parts. sketchup is handy to visualise a room or somthing like that but thats it. it doesnt really have much power. fusion 360 is a propper cad software that is parametric on a timeline, meaning if you change one step in the beginning of your drawing the whole drawing changes accordingly on how you constrained them. also assemblies are way easier and it can generatie gcode.
I have looked at TinyG's. They're OK for the 3D printing crowd I suppose. Pololu chip carriers have a major shortcoming that dramatically limits their performance though.
Thank you very much for the entire CNC construction series. Your work was an inspiration for me to create my own CNC. Based on your videos and technical support from CNC forum, I made similar machine myself. It was an incredibly interesting project :)
Some photos of my machine:
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HZWSlpznN6NWYypdG-XDolIAkp5Wf7T-?usp=sharing
Cool, looks like you did a tidier job than mine too :)
Thanks for kind words. My machine was created thanks to your work and guidance. Otherwise, I would not know how to start. Your work on YT is very inspiring, you're doing a great job.
Can you share your blueprints of project ?
can u share the solidworks file
if possible please share a Metal Solid Cutting parts.
You are killing me! First an electric bike, now this. I really need to get down my shed.
I'm just working up to converting my Sherline mill over to CNC control. I can already program CNC mills, so that's no mystery, but retrofitting one with the motors, and then putting in the electronics and making the whole thing work is quite another matter. I spent approximately 13.72 milliseconds pondering how to go about it before I recalled: hey, Steve has probably already done it, so just do what he did! And here I am.
Who's Steve? :~) I think part four of this is where I started looking at the control stuff.
@@iforce2d I meant Chris. Sorry. I'm not really Reach41, the name is Gary. But you can call me Phillip for revenge!
Someone is giving me a control, a TinyG, along with a power supply. Apparently G-M codes can be loaded into it directly using a terminal program with CTS set. If that's the case, getting started should be very easy (famous last words). I'm not going to spring for ball screws, since they want twice the value of the basic mill for the conversion kit, so might have to invent something to reduce backlash to an absolute minimum.
In the process of looking for your videos on CNC, I passed a few of the old ones on Big Red. Kind of made me sad. I trust she is hanging from a wire in a nice, warm spot in the den.
Interesting, I bought an OpenBuilds C-Beam machine, I think I mentioned this before, it is a very capable CNC router if you want to cut wood or plastic. I certain it would slice up CF sheet without trouble, but trying to cut Aluminium was beyond it. Just not stiff enough. I've bought a much larger mount for my router but have yet to drill the holes ready to attach it to the gantry. I have it in mind, should the "new & improved" model struggle with Al, to "double" the gantry such that the router is sandwiched between supports. It will cut down some of the work area on the Y axis but if it turns out to be rigid enough to cut soft metals extending the Y axis won't be a problem.
Good things to mess around with, I haven't been giving it the attention it deserves though, got a new toy a 100W cheap Chinese CO2 laser.
Good luck with the build.
Merry Christmas, somewhat belatedly, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year to you.
I've been designing a CNC that happens to look an awful lot like the design you show at 10:40.
I'm planning on using a cast aluminum t-slot bracket to hold the Z axis up (all plates are MDF).
Also, I'm going to try using only one X axis lead screw placed in between the rails. I think there's enough space between the spindle and rail for it to fit.
To help with the spacing issue, I turn the Y and Z stepper brackets around and bolt them to the underside of the plates.
I arrived at the same idea of using two opposed lead screw nuts to preload and eliminate backlash.
I probably won't build it because I have no self confidence.
Great video! We just love our DIY CNC Router we made with simple off the shelf supplies.
What more do we have at the end of days but fun? I sat in the Homebrew club and watched an industry born. Great fun!
Thanks for this series of videos. I am making a similar build and these were very useful. Mine is intended for wax carving so it will require less structural rigidity. but your videos were very helpful. Thanks very much,!
cool project do remember to change the ball bearings inside with plastick ones the precision wil multiply by 10
Really you did greatly hard work for your fun project
Great project!you must have soent so much time modelling!
what spindle are u planning to use?and what size are your Linear rails?having built many cnc's I can say that 600mm is about the limit for unsupported rails of 20mm, but not knowing what u will be cutting its hard to say, if you are milling PCBs you might be OK if you are trying to cut wood or plastic you might have to take very small passes without any deflection.if you want a cheap bombproof linear rail consider v bearings and angle iron!again depends what u are cutting but your steppers look a bit small you might want to consider nema 23 size. Welcome to CNC, just remember your fiurst machine will probably be proof of concept and it will still be fun!
LOL, your like me. I think I had about 10 different designs drawn out before I decided to build. Thank goodness for 3D software. It would of been a frustrating disaster if I just winged it !
I suggest you to use fully supported rails instead of unsupported rails because unsupported ones would cause lots of vibrations and will definitely affect final finish of the work piece.
hey you can strip those $50 step motors from photo copier's and old printers :)
Best off using pulley / belt to go from stepper motor to worm drive - height offset / mismatch super easy to fix with no slop :)
Yeah because pulleys and belts are so much more simple than complicated spacers are. Wait, no they aren't.
iirc cutting carbon fiber is easy on home machine. just use a bit made for composite materials. also make sure to build a box for electronics. carbon fiber is conductive
David Serrano can laser be used?
shubham saxena you can engrave with a laser.
Use a powerful enough laser and sure you could use one.
Hell in theory you could focus enough photons that the energy density would result in the formation of a black hole. Well, maybe. Might be a few properties of the physics not allowing a laser to still be a laser at the point where energy density begins to approach levels that could form a black hole.
Probably be cutting whatever it is you wanted to cut before you punch a hole in space-time though.
Anyway with a powerful enough laser you can cut anything.
One idea to better balance your gantry would be to have the motor (or even motor and linear guides) at the back.
I wouldn't use wood as a spacer for a precision result. Wood expands and shrinks under different humidity conditions. Not to mention wood under constant pressure from a tightened hold down bolt can become lose over time by the wood fibers collapsing/crushing.
The motor cutout idea without the wooden spacers is much more elegant and solid.
Curious as to the costs for this build.
Looks good so far. Just to ask a few questions/observations sir.
1) Are you aware that banggood now do an ant-backlash nut for the 8mm thread?
2) what size are your steppers?
They look like NEMA17's to me.
3) Do they have enough torque to move the weight?
4) What Drivers are you using?
I personally went with the 5 Axis breakout board with individual drivers, then made my own MPG.
Will watch the rest of your videos when i can.
Buy your fasteners from someone like United Fasteners, or another dedicated fastener store- it's MUCH cheaper than a hardware store per unit.
I got sketch up to work a few years ago through wine with Ubuntu. I had to remove something on the shortcut to do with ruby.
I have an old version of SketchUp that works in Linux.
I'm from BRAZIL
Amazing
Thank you my friend
Hello, your project is very successful. Congratulations. There is something I want to ask you. Wouldn't it be better if we use the fixed coupling instead of the flexible coupling you used for the Nema 17 motor connection? When we use the flexible coupling, there is a possibility of flexing a turn of seconds when the nema 17 motor generates power when trying to cut or drill. In such a case, it seems to me that there may be millimeter deviations in the workpiece we are working with.
If you mean the linear rails, yes they would be much better if they were supported all the way along. When cutting hard materials like carbon fiber or aluminium this machine has to go veeeery slow.
If you mean the spiral coupling connectors between the motor and the screws, I'm pretty sure they are designed specifically to not have that problem much. Certainly the flexing of the linear rails will be a bigger problem.
I've had good luck with Chinese parts distributors. I'm all for buying domestic, when I can afford, but... single income... it's tough.
Merry late Christmas.........SUBSCRIBED!!!!
Supported rail would be nice.
thankyou i have found this video informative and helpful
Know the feeling. This will be cheap and quick. Much ,much later. How much!
Just curious, but would there be any technical difficulties in sitting your Z axis motor on top of your X axis, then translating that into Z axis movement with perpendicular gears? It would lower the height profile of the entire setup.
Hallo, welche Stepper Diver willst du verwenden?
great ! my fist machine i built the same machine like your
thanks a lot. nice video.
Some good ideas. Will be interesting to watch, I've looked into this myself. You thought about using the tiny G controller?
Cool stuff!
CZcams's having a bit of a hiccup. It's a 19:06 video but the thumbnail info says 3:10. Tried it on 2 devices.
Thanks for a nice video
You presented a nice CNC design frame.
How can i get the solidworks designs
I have a crazy question, in all these videos that electricians are posting, there is this green mat under their work, could you please say what is this about? Any wikipedia page or something about it?
They are self healing cutting mats. I think you can get them in craft and fabric stores?
Saeed Mardani it's good if you don't want to scuff up your table
I think the HobbyKing Cutting Mat is quite popular among RC people.
hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbyking-cutting-mat.html?___store=en_us
Thanks Paul for your answer. :)
can I have the design and software for below changes :: can we implement feedback positions for stepper motors in case they miss steps, can we get 10 micron accuracy in all the axes.
Does all the Nema17 motors support both rotations or selected ones??
Will you be sharing your design plans? Dying to build one..
I build a machine like that with unsupoorted rails like you have. I can already tell you that the unsupported rails will bend/flex too much. You'll need something that has support like SBR12, SBR16 or MGN12.
hmm.... I was wondering about that
You mean for the two bottom rails right? Do you know how much weight your rails were supporting? What diameter were they?
iforce2d i have to agree that entire x axis and z axis setup will cause flex/bending on the linear rods, you might want to consider changing to some sort of extruded aluminum rails and use v wheels or something along the line where you get a larger cross section on that sliding rail so theres no flexing.
My rails were 10mm for x and y and 12mm for the z-axis. I don't know the exact weight. Actually I think the weight isn't the biggest issue. The force that is needed to push the spindle thru the material you are cutting will be the biggest problem. The spindle will flex. As someone else suggested, use a (gt2?) belt and pulleys for the x and y. The leadscrews have backlash. On my first machine I also found that the nema-17 steppers weren't strong enough. They ran very hot. I had to run them slow not to loose steps.
B.t.w, you don't need a grbl shield. I ran it with an arduino nano and put the nano + the stepper drivers on a prototype board to keep it small. If you already have everything to build it like you planned, I woukd still build it as a "learning" project.
I threw everything in a corner and got sbr16 rails, backlash-free ballscrews and bigger nema-23 steppers.
+1 on the motors, nema 17 were getting super hot on my x and y axis so i switched them to nema 23 for my x and y and nema 17 on my Z
You have one 3D model of the basic components mounted to a board. Is it possible to get a copy of this 3D model code so I could use it in my own 3D modelling?
+NYC CNC is getting ready to do more with arduino. His main point in that video series was repeatability, how accurate can something DIY really be.
What a stupid question. As all human artifacts were made by someone. Whether that someone was yourself, or not. But that guy is a bit of a moron. Duh I have a fully equipped shop, can I make something?
Paul, you make no sense. I didn't ask a question.
SoundsFantastic
ah, "how accurate can something DIY really be." is a question. Whether you asked it, or realize it.
Paul Frederick You missed it all together, it wasn't a question. Add the word "showing" in front of how. Clearly not a question but an answer. Who are you saying was the moron, this guy or John?
SoundsFantastic
who's John?
motor are strong for pcb milling? motor rated at 0.4Nm 4kg/cm?
how connect 6 wire stepper motor in cnc shield
I really like the way you made your own CNC machine. Can I get your SketchUp skp file please ? :) Thanks.
nice wow
BIG UP NYC CNC
I tweeted about SketchUp not working on Linux the other day. Sketchup replied that they have SketchUp web app that works across platforms.
my.sketchup.com
It does the job. Has most of the features that the desktop ones has, although it is a bit tricky learning where everything is again.
you upload sketchup files of drawings I want to know what measurements are for the goods
Try Fusion 360 its free for hobbyists and really great
And he posts this on Christmas....
What is the software to use with this type of DIY CNC?
any chance of sharing build plan and part lists ?
You can buy laser cut steel parts up to 3 mm cheap and easy from lasergist.com. Or any other material from ponoko.com. Just a note to anyone else who wants to repeat this project.
yep you have to have a 3D printer for that
may I take a look at these files you used for this
What drill will you be using?
Do you have bunnings snags in NZ? Popular question.
Yep!
build yourself a lowrider. cnc. perfect for your planes. cheap to build dont need lots of space
Can you please share the SketchUp file of your final design ? Will be very helpful if you do. :)
hi, can you please provide dimensions and parts links for the build? it would be great if u leave in video description
I put parts links in the description on this video, please watch from 26:33 czcams.com/video/JPPj_SRyKx8/video.htmlm33s
How to calculate rotation of motor to distance and design power screw
The distance per rotation depends on the pitch of the lead screw. The one I bought is made to move 8mm per rotation. In the GRBL settings I then need to tell it that information, I looked at the details in part 4: czcams.com/video/OuhgZMDXDdY/video.html
Thanks :)
What diameter rails did you end up using and what lengths?
10mm, 40cm
everybody wants the CAD/Solidworks files, could you upload them please???? Great job btw.
And then everybody would want further instructions on how it's supposed to fit together, and more and more... I've done this before. I would not recommend making this, I would not do it again like this, and I don't know where the files are now anyway, sorry.
@@iforce2d that's cool man, thanks anyway!
Do you know how to wire an arduino cnc?
but where to buy this parts...??
Can you upload the designs please ?
Which software are you using for contracting a model
sketchup, qcad, estlcam
08:24 You missed one base item (the one before the last one)
which software used
Hi! How are you making out with you Eagle EPP Mini Slow Flyer 1200mm Wingspan RC Airplane KIT?
glue is drying now
cool, weather is bad here...it's winter so I can't test mine
Well it's definitely not made for crashing, that's for sure. A couple of light crashes and the front section was toast.. The whole nose area is very flimsy, I'm thinking about just making it a slope soarer...
:( that's not good... I wonder if I should take the leftover plywood from the parts and re enforce the front some how?
Is there someone who can show me how to get a green graph table like that?
www.google.com/search?q=cutting+mat
Hello, Looks like Sketchup. Aye?
Sar moter kitne ki milengi
How much did it end up costing??
Discussion and links in part 15: czcams.com/video/JPPj_SRyKx8/video.html
iforce2d thank you
Who did the waterjet stuff for you ?
czcams.com/video/TOyLzIvXET8/video.html
THIS IS CLEARLY IN THREE DIMENSIONS! >.
Yes, but the third axis is very limited (only 3cm or so of travel). It's only really intended to lift the tool in and out of the workpiece.
I was joking that I subbed years ago for box2d tutorials. Perhaps your are now iforce3d? lol
lol
Way not just bend the plate and mount the stepper onto that, remember if you bend a plate its stronger.
Bending the plate by hand it would be difficult to attain the accuracy he needs.
I know you already have the rails, but is there any reason why you did not go for the supported type. With all other things being equal, I think that change alone would make the machine much more rigid. www.banggood.com/SBR12-600mm-Linear-Rail-Shaft-Rod-with-2-SBR12UU-Block-p-1053640.html?rmmds=category
I didn't really think I'd need them, and I wanted a 400mm size which I couldn't find on BG.
I keep thinking about designing something similar, but get lost running away looking for stiffness. Just last night I was watching a video on cast epoxy granite composites. It quickly snowballs into something way too expensive. I am looking forward to seeing how your build goes. Maybe it will inspire me to spend some money like your cheap-ass quad-copter did! :-)
Unsupported round guide rails are notoriously flexible. They would have worked for your pen plotter project, because there is not much force there. But over a span they will reduce the rigidity of your machine in more demanding applications.
Check out openbuilds.com a great site for homebrew CNC machines. Looking forward to watching this build. I've just got a Chinese 3020. Love it! Changed aluminium bed to mild steel plate so I can use magnetic hold downs, so much easier and more z height for greater depth of cut.
Just be careful about cutting CF.
mhmm, you should never cut in CF, because that will destroy it...
dont use sketchup. its bad ti say the least. try fuion 360 its a real 3d program. thank me later :p i made a few cnc machines.
That's very vague, what do you mean by 'bad'? What will I thank you for if I use Fusion360? I'm only using Sketchup to visualize how things will assemble together, not to make CAD designs for cutting...
iforce2d was a bit drink when i grote that. i tought you'd be using sketchup for 3d drawing your parts. sketchup is handy to visualise a room or somthing like that but thats it. it doesnt really have much power. fusion 360 is a propper cad software that is parametric on a timeline, meaning if you change one step in the beginning of your drawing the whole drawing changes accordingly on how you constrained them. also assemblies are way easier and it can generatie gcode.
Well, I will do it better :-)
Woah 2 views haha
Some good ideas. Will be interesting to watch, I've looked into this myself. You thought about using the tiny G controller?
I have looked at TinyG's. They're OK for the 3D printing crowd I suppose. Pololu chip carriers have a major shortcoming that dramatically limits their performance though.