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Yes, it's an engineering polymer. There is no ground or earth required on the low voltage control boards – each has a 24V input with no support for grounding. All the high voltage equipment has been...

A friend of mine laser cut a panel that I can attach the boards to. I don't have a lot of spare time, but I test-fitted it to the mill case today. All fits great, so in the oddments of time that I...

We have lights!

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Thank you. I called Denford before your replied and they confirmed exactly what you said. A chap named Jay Summet is also helping me out (being by default the Denford go-to man from his excellent...

No problem DB, I'll just finalise what I do and don't need first then you're free to make me an offer on the pile.

Having thought about placement of parts I still need a bit more room than what is...

Thanks Iron, I have all of those but don't understand electrical diagrams at all. I'm going to try to do this with a bit of logic, a sprinkle of common sense and a truck load of help from all of you....

I've been able to snatch a few minutes here and there to almost completely strip the interior of the Denford MicroMill ready for installing new parts. There are a lot of relays used in this machine,...

Thanks both. Regarding injection moulding machines, I have built up a shortlist as follows (if anyone has experience with any of these I'd like to hear):

The 20t version of this...

My designer uses SW so I just have to get another license. I should be able to pick it up to do simple tasks (relatively speaking!) like making tool inserts.

The finest detail on our models will...

Thank for the help. I have the stepper controller and the Acorn on their way. I just have to get myself a PC to run it, and being a Mac person for just about the whole of my life, this is going to be...

I may need to use the relays relating to the speed controller and spindle, but apart from that I can strip everything else out entirely. If anyone is interested in the parts please let me know.
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I forgot to mention red lines are power and blue are control. Also, the grey box are parts I may replace in the near future. I need a higher rpm spindle to do what I need. If anyone has any...

I've drawn up a quick and basic schematic of everything I need to strip out the existing electronics and replace with new. Am I missing anything, or have I made a mistake somewhere? I would be very...

Thank you LeeWay, I ended up buying a slightly used MX3660 for about half the price of a G540. I only need 3 drivers so it was perfect.

I have 3.1A stepper motors and I'm finding the Gecko G540 a bit pricey to buy and get shipped over to the UK (the UK supplier is even more expensive!). Is there an alternative for a budget build, but...

Thanks Mactec

This is only a temporary machine so I don't want to spend too much on it, but if I get it working to a reasonable accuracy I could keep it for smaller jobs.

Thanks. Is there not a one board solution to this? It seems a bit nuts to me as a newcomer, that a drive board (which is VERY simple compared to a controller) is not included? I can't work out why...

Thanks John.

As far as the mill is concerned, I'm going to use the motors connected to it for now, as well as the spindle, but I will need to upgrade the spindle to a faster one pretty quickly. If...

Hello, firstly apologies for my ignorance.

I have an old Denford CNC mill that I'd like to strip out and replace the legacy control hardware with newer hardware, software and connectivity. I have...

By the way, feel free to message me at any time. Several already have and I appreciate the advice and pointers.
Steve

Thank for all your input, I have quite a bit of research to do. The SkyFire looks interesting and accommodates my budget pretty well. The CM1 is the cutest and most capable machine I've seen for a...

I'm afraid I can't provide sample models or parts for confidentiality reasons. If you could imagine that we produce highly detailed scale models which are fully assembled by hand and range from...

Hello, my company produces high quality scale replicas. We are planning to introduce a new range of small models that require wall thicknesses of ~1mm. What materials should we use for detail...

Thanks Mactec, I've been looking into them. Which machine would you recommend as a minimum starting point? Although I am determined to bring production in-house, I don't want to spend too much at the...

Thank you Andrew.

The fine detail work is typically not deep – usually radiator grills or door gaps, that sort of thing, so only the tip of the tool will usually be used. It's not often we go...

This project is very interesting. I like your use of materials to solve problems, and the modular aspect.

Would you be interested in building a custom CNC mill built for our specific needs (high...

Thanks again Gerry, much appreciated.

Apart from specific choices of controller and software, I think we've covered question 1.

Question 2 is about the mill – the machine that will do the work....

Thanks again. As I'm starting from scratch, what would you recommend for the controller? I'll buy a basic small case PC to run it, but what software will I need, or will the controller come with its...

Thanks Gerry, so if my designer were to instal VisualCAM and output the G-code to send over, I could then import it into the CNC controller to produce the tool?

Cheers, Steve

Thanks all very much, I appreciate it.

To clarify a few points, my designer works in a different part of the country to me, where the milling will take place. If she generated the CAM tool paths,...