[Coydog]

I have had some idea of making a CNC wood working router since 2000. I even bought the stepper motor, power supply unit and some XL belt drive.

I made my 1st machine some time last year it had a cutting area of about 15x18 inch. Had a 1 inch emt conduit for X rail the Y and Z was just roller skate bearing riding on the wood. With a 1/4x20tpi threaded rod for the drive system.

It was my first machine. It was slow at 15 ipm for some reason my 269 oz in Stepper will not go over about 300 rpm reliably, because every few minute it will just stop and buzz if I was moving over 300 rpm on the stepper. The machine was not rigid at all. Just from the flexing when I am cutting the head can move up to 1/8 of an inch from the force of the cutter in the wood material. if I forget to torque every thing up tight. and even then at best the cutter give about 1/16 on a cut with 1/4 cutter at 1/8 inch deep

My 2nd machine Is belt driven 2x4 ft cutting area . It is again build from scrap wood. This time scrap from some busted furniture and a 1.5 inch emt Conduit. The machine is faster. Capable of cutting at 80 ipm and rapid to 150 ipm. On this machine I still have problem with flex at the Cutter head with 1/4 bit cutting 1/4 inch deep it has a flex of about 1/32 inch. And it don't give a clean smooth cut no matter what the depth of cut is. It has some chatter mark on all cut.

This will be my 3rd machine. This one will be made with 2x4 lumber from Lowes and Home Deapot instead of scrap lumber. I am not a great wood worker. I might be able to put basic wood deck together but fine wood working is beyond me. With my lurking around CNCZone for the past couple of month to learn what I did wrong my hope is that this one will be stiff and solid enough to give me a clean cut and no chatter mark in my VCarve cuts.