[Loffie Botes]

We do the Alphacam Software.
All planit And Vero Products.
Cabinet Vision, Alphacam, Radan & Edgecam.
We supply the South African and African Market.

[fransfourie]

Heya guys

My telphone cables has been stolen so many times, telkom refuses to repalce the lines anymore as such, the only internet access i can get is with 1 of those dongles. Suffice to say its really expensive compared 2 adsl

well....Enough complaining. How is every1 doing ? any Updates ? Ill be getting my 20mm shafts soon from China. O ye...im looking onto importing larger quinty's of it 2 south africa. would anyone be intressted ?

20mm Sbr supported rails. they cost around R1000 to R1300 per meter here in south africa. Im checking in to a few things but should be able to sell them for around R700 per meter. maybe less.

Let me know

Kind Regards
Frans

[edmond]

Hi Im from Welgelegen, Cape Town.

Nice to see some fellow South Africans on this forum.

Im in the process of building a 40W CO2 cnc laser cutter its about 95% done, I had a 1220 x 610mm homebuilt CNC router but sold it to fund the laser build.
You can check my buildlog at buildlog.net • View topic - Edmond's Buildlog.net Laser Build in SA

I imported most of the parts for the laser, tube,bearings,electronics etc.

I have a good local source of s/h but tested stepper motors, I paid R20 each for nice Nema 17 steppers, the guy has some nice Nema 23 steppers at R150 ea, the guy is based in Plattekloof, Cape Town.

Regards
Edmond

[alufly]

Hi I have been lurking around the zone for a number of years now I live in Durban but work overseas so time for building machines is valuable.

To date I have built a desktop router first out of MDF then redid it in 16mm aliminum plate and have modified it a number of times and have more plans for it.

I also got my self a RF45 clone and have CNC'd that the Z has a ball screw X and Y still got the origional lead screws works pretty well so far, still lots of tweaking to do.

I am also busy with a small desktop router made out of PVC which I want to produce for sale just trying to keep the price reasonable so more people can afford it.

I have an emco lathe I bought as scrap and CNC'd that ball screws and a three phase motor and VFD.

I use Mach3 for all and various stepper drivers the mill and Lathe have Gecko 203V's the router has some drivers I picked up in Shanghi when I was there they work really well. The plastic router is using a 3axis Xylotex driver.

Last week I recieved some drivers I founf on ebay for $9.99 each they have the Toshiba TB6560 chip and seem to work nice smooth so in future I might use them for the plastic router.

Most of my stuff I get off ebay, the Geckos I get directly from Gecko(great service and quick) breakout boards I get from Homan designs Australia.

Computers I buy by the kilogram from recyclers they get them by the pallet load nothing fancy but fine for Mach3 and they have parallel ports.

I will try put up some picks I am having no sucess at that yet.

Keith.

[wilsonbuilt78]

Nice to know someone from Durban is doing this. I am principally a designer and prototyper for a wide range of products and would be most keen on seeing your machines and maybe trade some ideas.

I would also be very interested in purchasing your desktop router.

By the way have you considered building a 5 axis router, is it even possible?

PM me if you would be happy to let me drop by

Regards
stephen

[fransfourie]

Hello guys.
Its been a while since my last time here ^__^ my machine is running now and pumping out wood clocks and signs for a start. Ill post some pics later on, its not a looker though lol. but money has dried up ;p.....will finish it once i get some money in. accurate to about .1mm atm with my shoddy garage door lead screws More then good enough for wood work

Will be upgrading it 2 helix 1.5 / 1 module on x/y...ballscrew on z...
and a 3kw flea-bay spindle or might just make my own.

Any new builds going on ? if so post some pics guys. also ill be making a new thread soon where every1 can post the things they cut.

Well...have a good 1 guys
Laterz

[Quentinb]

Hey Guys,

Same for me, been tied up a little (not sure if that is good or bad )

I have also finished my machine... well except a alli bed and I still want to add ballscrews for the X and Y. At the moment it is acurate to about 0.01mm give or take a little here and there.

Pics included.

[megeshg]

awesome stuff there quentin!

Did you import most of your parts?

[fransfourie]

Wow !

Nicely Done !
Makes me kinda shy now about uploading pics of mine lol. But ill post some pics soon. Btw guys ....Post ur Jobs/tests/hobby cuts..etc cuts on the new threat i started ^_^

@Quentinb
What you using on x/y axis atm ? specs. and what's ur max cutting speed atm ? im at 2000mm/min atm but aas stated before my accuracy is abit shoddy atm xD but my repeatiblity is spot on atleast. Just sold a few more clocks as i right this post...20 more clocks and ill have some cash again to finish my machine rofl. i had R100 bucks left in my bank account once i finished my machine, with no income. But hey....i made it through the worst of it and theres only going Up now


Guys Post your builds !

[drieslaas]

Been lurking for a while.

Has anyone bought a high speed spindle and VFD over Ebay?
If so, what were your experiences?

I've been through the whole route of cheap prototype machine, and I'm now beginning the process of upgrading to a proper build.

For some examples of stuff that came off the John Deere special ( as my sarcastic friends refer to the damn thing), have a look at Index , just please pardon the website. I'm no graphic designer, it is just a prototype site...

There is also a scratch built 2 x 3m plasmacutter in Heidelburg that is now starting to do its' thing. Torch height control, touch-off torch mount and a nice big Hypertherm to top it all off. I'll ask Deon to send me some pictures.

Regards,

Dries Laas
0828225015

(Centurion)

[jancu]

Just like to share my new semi finished mill with all you guys.The base is 25 mm solid metal which came from a ceramic tile press.I am using linear bearings for slides and the mother of servo,s.Software is mach 3 and using geko,s and homebuild servo drives.5000 ppr encoders should do the trick for excellent tolerances.Please check out my pics and feel free to post any questions and comments.

[megeshg]

Looks promising there jancu

[pietste]

Been lurking for a while.

Has anyone bought a high speed spindle and VFD over Ebay?
If so, what were your experiences?

I've been through the whole route of cheap prototype machine, and I'm now beginning the process of upgrading to a proper build.

For some examples of stuff that came off the John Deere special ( as my sarcastic friends refer to the damn thing), have a look at Index , just please pardon the website. I'm no graphic designer, it is just a prototype site...

There is also a scratch built 2 x 3m plasmacutter in Heidelburg that is now starting to do its' thing. Torch height control, touch-off torch mount and a nice big Hypertherm to top it all off. I'll ask Deon to send me some pictures.

Regards,

Dries Laas
0828225015

(Centurion)

Dries

HE,HE Ek laaik jou site. It`s not that bad, just start organizing it and fill it up.

[pietste]

Hey Guys,

Same for me, been tied up a little (not sure if that is good or bad )

I have also finished my machine... well except a alli bed and I still want to add ballscrews for the X and Y. At the moment it is acurate to about 0.01mm give or take a little here and there.

Pics included.

very nice

[comix123]

Howdi Dries
I have a machine I built a few years back still not 100% complete but it works great.
I have a VFD from Ebay 2.2Kw water cooled it works great, but I have always had a problem with pumping the water through the motor. If I was you go for the 3Kw air cooled.

[mark23]

Hi everyone.

I have a Burny 2.5 Plus cnc controller on a Pierce Scorpion 2000 plasma cutter which is faulty and am looking for some replacement parts or another working unit.

Both x & y axis drives are ready but will not move when using the direction buttons or trying to run a program. I have checked the everything up to the controller and it is ok, so I suspect the problem is on the pcb.

Thanks.

[gbyleveldt]

Real great to see a bunch of us locals playing with, what must be, the coolest machine any man can have in his garage!

I'm busy putting together a machine of my own, and learning lots as I go along. Hopefully all the bits arrive here from China soon enough so I can start my build.

[pietste]

Real great to see a bunch of us locals playing with, what must be, the coolest machine any man can have in his garage!

I'm busy putting together a machine of my own, and learning lots as I go along. Hopefully all the bits arrive here from China soon enough so I can start my build.

Welcome Buddy, i have build my machine 4 months ago and are still learning a lot. you will enjoy this type of machine

[drieslaas]

I am now the official world record holder in changing conventional router bearings. My two "spindles" have worn out to the point where the cutters last longer than the lower bearing....

So the big decision to invest in a proper high speed spindle has been made for me. Off to ebay I go, and it seems there are 2.2kW watercooled spindles with VFD's (Huanyang or something?) for the region of R4000 (ER20 collet, up to 12.7mm diameter tooling)

Does anyone here have any experience with this machine?
How long does it take for stuff to get here from China?

My last E-bay transaction from the USA took an underwhelming eight weeks to get here.

[gbyleveldt]

I've also been eyeing those same spindles, but the watercooling part puts me off. Having no experience with this whatsoever, why wouldn't you go for an air cooled spindle rather? I'm assuming water would work better as a cooling medium, but does that then mean you should avoid air cooled types?

As a start, I'm going to be using this router for my CNC:
Makita RT0700C Router / Laminate Trimmer with Trimmer Base 240V (RT-0700-C)

What router are you currently using? Sorry for the 50 questions...

As far as shipping from China, I'm pretty sure that they'll have the spindles couriered so it should take at most 2 weeks to arrive.