Thread: CNC Router with DC Spindle

Does this one have a pacific purpose?

Not really as it can be used for any machining of wood, plastics and aluminum that fit within the cutting envelope. I expect accuracy of one to two thou as it has ground ballscrews.

It has the advantage of being portable and quiet so I am hoping to move it inside and trial new designs. A hood would be fitted if I do this but I haven't asked for approval to do this yet.

Rod
What is the brushless motor you are using, is it 36mm dia x 76mm long like these. http://www.fastelectrics.com/brushlessmotors.asp

What is the speed controller you are using and what are they worth ?
Mark

Hi Mark

It is a Walkera 380 Brushless with a Tower Pro 70A ESC and purchased from Hong Kong through Ebay - watch the freight

Amongst others we have an electronics engineer in our CNC group who made and programmed the controller to make it variable speed. All jiggery pokery stuff to me.

Am I unique or not?
I read all this thread, hoping to learn something.
I have finished the reading and now, would be happy to say I understood something.
Okay, I knew "router", but after that?

Originally Posted by Harry72

Does this one have a pacific purpose?

I don't think it would work in any ocean Harry

(Sorry mate, it was too tempting)

Rod,
now that you have had plenty of experience and you seem to be in the mood, could you build me one

Regards
Vasco

Hi Vasco,
Good so see you are still around and interested in woodwork.

Sea Dragon,
CNC stands for computer numeric control so these machines are operated through a computer. Do a search on this forum and you will see my first two builds and a video showing one moving about. CNC equipment is not new and is in most major cabinet shops now. Entry cost is high for this equipment so fortunately there is still a place for hand made wood products.
To give you an idea of cost that little machine in this post will cost me about $1,500 to finish and all of the components with the exception of the spindle (small router) and the aluminum are second hand.

Rod, Just curious about the $1500 u mentioned. I take it that most of that got gobbled up by the ball screws and stepper motor drivers and interface???? or have u reused them form previous CNC's????? Am asking from a point of view of makeing one myself and seeing that a ballscrew and rail setup would be soo much easier and more accurate than making it all from scratch.

Mick

All of my three machines are independant and do not share anything including the computer so the $1,500 is for a stand alone machine.

Having built skate bearing rails on my first machine i do not recommend it. There is a lot of effort required and they are still not as good as linear rails.
The actuators I have used on this machine have a ground ballscrew and four linear rails built into each unit. They are very strong and provide excellent rolling motion as well as strong radial loads.

I got all three actuators for about $500 Australian landed. Sounds expensive but you get ballscrew and linear rails in the one unit for this price.
3 axis Driver Board and power supply made local by electronics engineer $190
Aluminum - $200
3 x Motors - 276oz Nema 23 - $172 Australian
Computer - $150
Spindle - $300 including motor and electronics.
Total $1,512
A few cap screws, wiring and hardware items thrown in will add another $100 to this price.

Ebay is you avenue to getting these bits and you will likely have to purchase overseas.

It is expensive but you get used to it. I justify it because I get the equivalent of a table saw, bandsaw, router table and engraver and more in one machine and to a far greater accuracy than I can do by manual methods. Sounds like I need to chuck in a set of carving knifes.

The mechanicals are finished so I have added another photo which might make it easier to see how this works.
I have fitted a 10mm aluminum plate for the table top and knurled knobs to the motors. I also tidied up the odd bit here and there and mounted the spindle switch box.

I have also included a photo of the driver board and power supply. An engineeer here in Perth makes these and they have proven to be rock solid. Full opto isolation as well as 5, 12 and 24 volt outlets and heaps of great features. The electronics is all a bit mumbo jumbo to me so excuse me glossing over the details. The front and rear panels were cut on my first machine - Obott.

Very interesting machine. I'm considering building one myself. Just trying to think of enough useful projects to justify the investment.

What do you make with your machines?

These machines are very versatile and I have done a wide variety of work.

Engravings, Carvings, cutting out shapes, pockets, inlays, drilling hole patterns in materials such as wood and wood composites, plastics, aluminium and brass.

I work mostly in timber but I have done a bit of work for a local car club on custom dash inserts and grill features. I have also done a lot of aluminium plate work making parts for other CNC machine builders.

The work just rolls in by word of mouth once you have a machine running and can produce a reasonable quality product.

To give you an example a fellow forum member who finished his machine two weeks ago already has orders for 26 items. He is still learning to use the machine and the software so this is a good indication of the ease in producing quality products as well as the potential market for CNC machined goods.

I gave it it's first run today and was very pleased with the little spindle.
I'll let the video show it all.
http://users.tpg.com.au/leerod/jabott_001.wmv