[robedney]

I've been lurking here for sometime now, while building my own machine. Even though you don't know it, I couldn't have done this without this forum! I didn't have enough time to do a build-thread, but here's the nearly finished product. I still need to add limit switches, and E-switch, dusters for the rails/threads, etc. I wanted some mass in this machine, but I also built it on a shoestring. So, most of the green parts are MDF laminated and glued up. All the metal bits (generally painted silver) are steel. In fact, this machine resides in the engine room of a 60' steel trawler (a big boat), and the refurbishing of the boat contributed plenty of plate steel to use. For those who care, there is a Detroit Diesel 8V-71 living under my CNC.

The X axis rails are black plumbers pipe, polished. Riding on these are welded steel spiders holding 4 skate bearings each. The gantry cross sections are adjustable to take out any play in the Y axis. This thing is about as rigid as I could make it on my non-existent budget.

Steppers, drivers and breakout board were purchased as a group from Long's Motors (EBay). They were great to deal with, shipping was fact, packaging was excellent and everything worked out of the box. My only criticism (so far) is that they don't include any documentation. However, send an email off the China and you get links back quickly to PDF's with all the required info. I bought one more stepper and driver after I decided to drive the X axis with two motors. I also bought a spare so I can eventually build a fourth rotary axis.

So far -- in early testing -- the thing seems very accurate and solid. I'm having to learn all this new software, of course, but it's lots of fun. I've wanted a CNC machine since I first discovered that they existed, so this is the fulfillment of a long-time tool acquisition syndrome craving Now that I've got it running, I'm sure I'll be back with all kinds of new questions -- and will hopefully be able to answer a few as well.