Hi everyone,

I was hoping somebody here might be able to help...

I was introduced to CNC machining several years ago at my school/college which has this machine - Here

Although they do let me use it a lot for my own projects, it simply isn’t enough any more, especially as I have to keep an eye on it all the time while it's milling in case some other kid comes along and fiddles with it.

My hobby of combat robotics (Battle bots/Robotwars) requires ever increasing amounts of CNC'd parts but after finding out the price of the things i thought about building my own, which is how I found this site.

I'm not too worried about the mechanical side of things. I'm confident it would not take me long to construct a machine suitable for the job but the electronic side of it has already got me confused.

I need motors which will happily mill through thick mild steel plate, or possibly even stainless. So where do I start?

Servo motors or Stepper motors? What controllers and where from? How to connect it to the computer and what software to use?

Also, a rough idea on how heavy I ought to make the machine, the thickness of steel/ali i should use to construct it, and the size/type of threaded rod to move the cutter I should use would also be very usefull.

I've read a lot on these forums about converting CAD files to G-Code so they can be milled out. Does this have to be done with all home built CNC mills? - Despite using the college CNC mill for several years, I have never come across any G-Code. You simply draw what ever needs cutting in the CAD software (Techsoft 2D Design) set the cutting depth, tool, and speed for each line and shape, click 'plot' and the machine cuts out what I’ve drawn on screen.

What motor would you recommend for the spindle motor ? I assume this doesn’t have to be a stepper or servo motor.


Also, I know this may be a stupid question, but what is the difference between a CNC mill and a CNC router?

Apologies in advance if some of my questions are rather vauge but I am new to this stuff! Any help would be much appreciated.


Regards,

Dominic

http://www.ukrobotics.com