Thread: Homemade CNC Router

Hi Bob
David's machine is going to be very strong and as good as any commercial machine built. You will get good qualtiy parts from him.
I hope it all comes together for you.

Hi Rod,

After quite some weeks of trying to get some parts made, without success, I have decided to try and go it alone and see what I can come up with. I got the motion technologies cd catalog today so I have somewhere to look now

Expect some questions as I progress!

Hi Bob
There is a machine nearly completed about 30km from your place. Go to your CNCZone post and look up a reply from Greolt. He is a lot closer to finishing now and might be able to help so talk to him.
I am happy to help out with information or any lathe or mill work for items that would be economical to send by Australia Post for you. I machined all the motor mounts and ballscrews, etc for a CNC builder in Sydney and the postage was about $140. Not cheap because of the weight and location of Perth.
Having your project stall is a good thing. It takes a while to get your head around a lot of this and the more research you can do the better your machine will be. The BBQ's they have over your way would be good to go to as well.
If you are after parts and don't mind buying overseas I have a list of contacts who we have found to be the best for servcie and price. Items such as $18US for 276oz steppers, ballscrews for $1.25US per inch and ballnuts $26US. Freight kills those prices a bit but still less than half price for anything in Australia. Just PM me with your list and I will provide contacts.

Hi Rod,

I have put a CNC router for the disabled in the new disabled area got to get a CNC area on this board

Greolt has been a real champ for me and has nearly got everything done......

Hi Bob
I read your post and your machine is coming along nicely.

I think CNC lends itself well to people with creative minds and limited movement so it is good to share your experience in that thread.

Knowing Greg he will be doing a great job on your machining so you will not have a problem there.

I think there should be a CNC topic on this board but there is not a lot of interest here yet so maybe not for the moment.

I have nearly completed machine number four and have another two machines ready to follow on with. I sold three of my machines recently so what else was I to do.

Hi Rod,

I have already had a query from Les who want's to build one for PCB's so there is plenty of interest in the CNC part of it and we really do need a CNC Router topic on this board. The main reason I go to cnczone is it has the topics that I need to read and of course it has a place to put the cnc router log there because there is not one here. I think I will write to the admin and make a suggestion for a CNC Router topic.

Number four, you're certainly a glutton for punishment<sp>

Greg is doing a TOP job , he sent me pictures last night of my y-axis and it is basically complete now and he is very pleased with it

I have a shuttlepro2 usb on the way over from the states and they have a mach3 plugin for it so it will be even easier to control and I have pretty well got the software sorted out now.

Hi Bob,
The shuttles are good and I have been using one for quite a while now.
I get emails quite regularly from prospective builders but I am never sure where they come from so maybe you are right about a CNC topic on here.
Here is a sneak preview of number four.

Originally Posted by rodm

Hi Bob,
The shuttles are good and I have been using one for quite a while now.
I get emails quite regularly from prospective builders but I am never sure where they come from so maybe you are right about a CNC topic on here.
Here is a sneak preview of number four.

I see it's Rocket too

I like the gantry design too, not much wasted space with it like that. What cutting dimensions are you going to have, it looks like the length will not be a problem .

I have written to ubeaut about a CNC Router Forum and even suggested he can make me a moderator if he wants to, just to be sure we have decent content in there. I run a couple of bbs systems over here, www.aus-cartalk.com is one of them. Deals mainly with mazda mx5 convertibles. Well see what happens, he should see quite a few CNC users

Hi Bob
You would make an ideal moderator if they decide to go ahead with a CNC topic area.

The cutting envelope of this machine is 500mm by 500mm by 110mm approx. The cranked gantry is designed to centre the router over the X axis rails. A straight sided gantry has all the weight forward of the rails. It also has the advantage of being able to reduce the table lenght by the amount of offset.

Notice also that the ally table stops 50mm short of each side. This allows for cross clamping and I pinched this idea off Greg. There are a few new design features I am trialing on this machine. I'm not going to do a build log for this machine as it takes a bit to document and take photos of the build. I have done this three times already and I thought it a bit of overkill if I do it again.

G'day anyone who is out there-look I'm so new to this I don't even know what a thread is-and a darksider ?-sounds like Harry potter to me-so in case I lose my way around could anyone who would help me write to my email address which is: [email protected].
What I want to ask is: should I buy a xylotex controller and motors or is there something cheaper/better/locally that I could get?
I have just made one of those MDF cnc machines from Rockcliff and am ready for motors etc.
Also a question for anyone else who has made the same machine: I have been immensly carefull to get the bushes well aligned on the shafts and they slide with firm finger pressure-would that be o.k. for the motors to operate against?

Originally Posted by vaughan green

G'day anyone who is out there-look I'm so new to this I don't even know what a thread is-and a darksider ?-sounds like Harry potter to me-so in case I lose my way around could anyone who would help me write to my email address which is: [email protected].
What I want to ask is: should I buy a xylotex controller and motors or is there something cheaper/better/locally that I could get?
I have just made one of those MDF cnc machines from Rockcliff and am ready for motors etc.
Also a question for anyone else who has made the same machine: I have been immensly carefull to get the bushes well aligned on the shafts and they slide with firm finger pressure-would that be o.k. for the motors to operate against?

This might be a bit off topic, but how did you go making the thing from the plans, have much trouble getting all the bits (apart from the MDF I mean)? I've been very interested in building one myself to make wooden clocks but when I try and get the bits locally they are difficult to find or so damn expensive that it's just not worth it.

Ciao,

M.

Hi Martink-I think I'm getting the hang of this-anyway to answer your question-I went to a firm called onesteel for the shaft rod and blackwoods for the bronze bushes-(these two firms are in most major cities and larger regional centres) but then had to find someone with a lathe to take some metal off the inside of the bushes to make them fit. For whatever reason the same firm doesn't sell the two items that logic would suggest go together-might not matter to a skilled engineer but to us beginners it can be a nightmare. Also make sure you go either metric or imperial right from the beginning-I went metric.
Half way through the construction I felt that a better method of construction would have been to use High quality ball bearing drawer runners and/or ball bearings with aluminium angle -it would have resulted in fewer alignment problems and less friction-just the same I am happy with the result for my purposes.

Hi Vaughan,

Xylotex is a winner if you don't know your way around

You will be amazed at how much pulling/pushing power the motors have, mine are only little 269's and the are certainly strong enough

Fire any question you want, someone will answer them. My build log is http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35996 because there is no place for it here.

Originally Posted by vaughan green

G'day anyone who is out there-look I'm so new to this I don't even know what a thread is-and a darksider ?-sounds like Harry potter to me-so in case I lose my way around could anyone who would help me write to my email address which is: [email protected].
What I want to ask is: should I buy a xylotex controller and motors or is there something cheaper/better/locally that I could get?
I have just made one of those MDF cnc machines from Rockcliff and am ready for motors etc.
Also a question for anyone else who has made the same machine: I have been immensly carefull to get the bushes well aligned on the shafts and they slide with firm finger pressure-would that be o.k. for the motors to operate against?

thanks crocky-appreciate your info-will order xylotex controller and motors-guess I can use them on the bigger better machine I plan to build down the track. I've noticed a lot of talk about the sensitivity of these systems to crossed wires frying them-so: why don't they have some form of overload protection?- is the xylotex system colour coded for example to protect us electronic tragics against our ignorance?
Cheers Vaughan