Thread: Hobart Hackerspace - 6040

I just attended my first meeting of the Hobart Hackerspace. They already have a Makerbot 3D printer and a laser engrave/cutter is on it's way next week.
Tonight someone turned up with a brand new 3D printer (or so they thought). On getting it out of the car, I thought that the two boxes looked just like the ones my 6040 CNC router came in. We opened it up and sure enough, a brand new 6040 (or 4060 as it's labelled). Guess who got to put it together?

It's a much better made version than the one I have. Aluminium parts seem to be anodised and the metal ballscrew shields are stainless steel. The Z axis has a different size motor, it's still a NEMA23 but mcuh shorter than the others. There is a problem with the Z axis as it's very rough when turning the knob compared to the other axis. I think it;s a bearing problem.
The controller is quite different too. I openbed it up and there's a single board for the stepper drivers and interface. The VFD is a very small unit and as you can see, is in the same enclosure. The spindle wiring still lacks an earth wire.

Depsite have no shortage of computers in the building, none had a parallel port so no chance to check out the pirated copy of Mach III

Chances are I'll be cutting in this one long before I get my own set up properly.