[largede]

I’m new to all this but have been reading and learning for quite a while. I’ve got experience with Arduino, programing, some robotics, have a fully outfitted woodshop, and am a avionics tech by trade so I’m pretty confident that I can accomplish building a CNC. I’ve decided to go with Dave Gatton’s design over at www.sidewindercnc.com. Not only does it appear to be a very solid design but with Mr. Gatton’s YouTube videos, this should be a relatively easy build for my first CNC.

At this stage I’ve ordered all the parts needed, except for the lumber, and just waiting for it all to arrive. I’ve stuck with using two of the suppliers Mr. Gatton recommends. Dumpster CNC offers a kit that I couldn’t beat in price by more than a few dollars and since this is custom made for the machine I’m building, it’s what I went with. I also stuck with McMaster-Carr. The plans reference McMaster part numbers and I couldn’t find another one stop shop. Shopping around would only end in an increase in cost of these parts. The only exception to that may have been the aluminum angle, but the couple dollars saved didn’t seem worth the road trip to get it.

There are a few design changes I’m going to make. The first is to add some bearings to the motor side of the ACME lead screws. I’m just not comfortable with having the motor support the weight of the lead screw. I’m not going to use the Xylotex control. I’d rather not have to deal with maintaining a computer with a parallel port and if I end up taking the machine somewhere, I’d like to just use a laptop with it. Also, using the Xylotex control would add about $200 to the build that I feel is better used in other places. In its place I’m going to try an Arduino with DVR8825 steppers. If this fails then I’ll probably just build my own H-bridges and control them with the Arduino. Finally, I may end up beefing up the motor support mounts in some way. The motors aren’t exactly light. Please don’t interpret these changes to flaws in the design. Mr. Gatton has designed what I feel is an excellent machine and these changes are merely my personal preferences.

I’ll add to this thread as progress is made and will post an Excel with total cost that will be updated as things change. I am open to any constructive criticism as I’ve still got a lot to learn.