Thread: If you haven't seen or know what CNC is

For forumites who wonder about sail track it is what I used on the table. It has filleted (rounded) corners about 2 mm on the underside , (can't be seen anyway). That lot cost $10.00 from Capral, good for hold downs,much cheaper than the alternatives, but possibly not useful as mitre track.

Hi Rod,
The phillby username was taken on the forum so I took up Outsider (He who is always outside rather than in the house with SWMBO she probably likes it like that any way).

The screws are still 8mm allthread. The Y-axis is on the other end and has been change over to the 425 oz inch. I have the cables made for the other two but the mounting needs screws rather than nuts not enough room for a nut on the beefed up motors.

As Phil says too many things to do not enough time.


Cheers

Brian

I have just read through your build log on CNCzone. Enjoyed following along your journey.
Thanks for taking the time.

I have used epson photo paper for toner transfer with mixed success, will see if I can find that paper you used and give it a try.

Greolt

Brian

I saw on CNCzone that you were looking at the little carbide drills that Harbour Freight sell for $12.99USD but they wanted like fifty bucks shipping.

Well look at this ebay store http://stores.ebay.com.au/ONE-PASSircuit-Store
50 drills for $17.95USD and only $13USD shipping. They come in specific sizes too not just pot luck as from HF

By the way was it you who got a 1/4" to 1/8" sleeve to put them in your router? If so where did you get it?

Greolt

Greolt,

Yes it was. I had a friend buy it off Ebay in the states and picked it up off him when I was over there. I seem to remember that Lee Valley may have reducing collets for routers. Im sure Rocklea have but am not sure of there postage policy. By the way another friend of a friend bought those bits from harbour Freight and some other bits from another supplier and I'm sure I will get the lot for $A50.00.

Ok I have been playing again with the 425 Oz Steppers I thought I had a disaster on my hands and the y-axis was stalling but I accidently found that I had not sufficiently tightened up the motor to lead screw couplers (tiny hose clamps on reinforced pressure hose). I say accidently because it was just by chance that I turned the lead screw by hand with the holding power on and it rotated. There is no way my little pinkies( all right great big mits) could turn against the 425 oz inch (3.0 newton metre Steppers). So it was great luck. I was worried that all the effort in building this machine was worthless if it was still loosing steps.

Now for the reason I was playing. Among the things that I bought at the Working with Wood Show was a Red Mallee Burl. I wanted to surface it. It's too big for the 6" Woodfast Jointer even if I give it two passes. It's about 400x 350 mm Its also to big and too wabbly for the new GMC Thicknesser. The darkside planes are blunt ( haven't been game to have a go at sharpening them (One day I'll get a round tuit). I suppose I could have used the plane with a tail.

NAH I have started to use the the really Lightside Beast (opposite of darkside). (AKA the CNC Router) I bought a 25mm 1/4" router bit at the Show too. I realy think it should have been a 30mm bowl bit but we'll see.

Here's a piccy in progress

Catch Ya.

Hi Brian,
Flattening a burl is a good use of a CNC router. Nice and safe and you can have a cuppa at the other end of the shed while it does its stuff. For roughing out I think the bowl bit would be easier on the little Ozito. I finally killed my first Ozito but the second one is going strong and I have hundreds of hours on the machine now so I can't complain. There are currently four Ubeaut members in various stages of building a CNC Router so it is slowly gaining momentum.

Some photos of a job I did for a local Mini Truck Club today.
I made 16 of them out of 6mm aluminum checker plate using Vcarve Pro. These are 70mm by 20mm and the text is less than 4mm. Vcarve handled it well including the points on the star. The text was done with a 1/2 inch 90 degree V bit and the drill hole which is a new feature in Vcarve and the cut out was done using a 3mm carbide end mill in the Ozito router. The checker plate was salvaged and heavily stained but a quick buff made it like new. This job landed me another job for 50 keyrings for a clothing retailer. If this keeps up I can leave my day job.

I have also included a photo of my second router which is completed except for the vacuum hookup. I have enclosed it in a sound box so I can work later at night without upsetting the neighbours.

Machine number three is about to be started and will have a 300mm by 200mm by 70mm cutting envelope. More of an engraver than a router and it will have a three bearing spindle and 12 volt DC brushless motor driving it. Should be fun to make and I will post photos when it is finished. This one I can run on the computer desk inside but I haven't told SWMBO about this yet.

Ok we are on a roll here.
I started work on a vacuum shute for my machine today. Designed in Vcarve in about five minutes. Two through holes and then a pocket joining the two holes in 10 mm aluminum plate. I put tabs on the through holes to stop them hitting the cutter on the final pass. This was all done with an Ozito router and a 1/4 inch carbide miil bit. Feed rate for the pocket was 1.2 metres a minute and at 3mm depth of cut. It was a mistake I made in the code but it handled it ok.

Hi guys, i'm designing a big cnc unit myself althought really just the mechanical design. I'm useless when it comes to the electronics so that is being done outside by another company. But i think after reading what you have all done i might give it a go.
Just curious as to how you get your design into the machine for routing??? Are you punching in point to point data or are you drawing your 2D shape on a simple CAD package then transfering it via a simple machining package such as Enroute.
Also are you finding the cost to go from stepper motors to servo just to high?
And are you doing just 2D or the so called 2 1/2D or even 3D. Sorry to be so nosey but it seems a lot of fun what you guys are doing.
Sinjin

Hi Sinjin
I am doing 2 1/2 D work as to do proper 3D you need 4 or more axis. I do my designs in Turbocad, Corel Draw 12 or by converting jpg, bmp, etc to a vector drawing with Inkscape. You will need something like VCarve Pro to write the code for 2 1/2 D. There are packages that do both CAD and CAM but expect to pay well for these.
To move up to servos is a big leap in price and steppers are getting bigger and better all the time. As you would have seen in Outsiders post they now have a 425oz Nema23 stepper motor.
Most home shops use Mach3 or TurboCNC to run the GCode for cutting.
You can buy the electronics and motors in a box that has everything including cables.
If you have a look at CNCZone Forum you will find a lot of information on building machines, electronics and software.
Keep us updated with your progress.

Hi Rodm, The Z arm as i call it is just about finished. Ball screws for the rise and fall will be assembled in the next couple or weeks. The stroke in the Z-arm is 1.8m and the unt itself weighs 700kg. The rest of the structure x and y axis weighs in at about 10,000kg give or take a bit. i'll keep reading the info you suggested as i said sounds really cheap for what you can potentially do.
Sinjin

Hi Sinjin
That is huge and heavy. Forget steppers you need a turbo diesel to run that.