[Segue]

I am brand new to the idea of building a CNC, well about a month into reading this forum. I like the fully enclosed nature of this as my soon to be workshop is in the basement. Here goes:

I did purchase the plans and they are great, but is there a DFX version of the wood parts if I wanted to cut them on another CNC?

If I wanted to expand the cutting area moderately, say 24x24in, would this be enough change to throw off the gantry mechanics and stability? I am especially concerned about the belt driven Y axis.

I have no experience in working with metal. Is there anyone selling the prefabricated metal parts? I could purchase a small drill press and make a go of it, but for my first go around I would be happier if I could just source the metal parts.

Is everyone going with something like the Bosch Colt, or are there versions of this build using one of the low cost Chinese 1.5 or 2.2 kw water cooled spindles? Does anyone have experience with this? It seems like it is not a lot more money and could be a stronger and more reliable engine.

Thanks everyone. I think I need a bit more research, but am hoping to start my Momus in the next month if I can work out the details.

[vtxstar]

Greetings Segue!

No official DXF (or Gcode) but one member did cut his wood on a larger CNC. Search this group and maybe he will share.

You are on your own in expanding the cutting area but have probably seen that others have done so. Many parts would change if you do this.

Regarding sourcing the metal parts -- maybe you can make a friend or here or perhaps take the plans set to a local machine shop. It won't be cheap.

Tool turning is all over map here. What is your application and desired tolerances? I plan to make hobby parts so my needs are not so demanding.
If you start out low price, you can always upgrade later.

Welcome to the club!
Where are you located?

-=Doug

[Mac.CNC]

+1 to Doug's comments on the questions.

Some thoughts about expanding the cutting area (desktop or not):

Expanding it in the X (done that):
- Longer rails, angle irons and aluminum bases on both sides. Space your holes evenly, coming from the front, make it longer in increments of the spacing of the holes in the original plan, the less trouble there will be. For the wood work, same thing, space everything out evenly (torsion box, side ribs, walls, etc.), this was extremely tricky at times.

Expanding it in the Y (haven't gone through that (yet :-)):
- I see this even trickier than the X, as that has an effect on the entire wood structure. The metal parts mods are relatively easy I would think, as that only affects the gantry length (the tube and the y-rail). Just, space your holes evenly coming from the center of the gantry. If it ends up uneven, go for a smaller spacing than in the original.

The relationship of the x-rails and the angle irons in height was carefully designed by Bob, don't deviate in these relationships or there will be big trouble. There are just some things that you don't want to mess with.

Long story short, it's doable, but not on paper.
My take is that unless you're proficient in a CAD program and are able to build up a precise 3D model of the whole thing from the drawings, then make your expansion mods and start building it, it could become a really tedious project - resulting in a lot of mistakes making certain parts the wrong way at first and respectively making the same parts several times, trying to figure it all out with the parts at hand.

In my opinion, a 24x24 cutting area is well within the capabilities of this machine without drive changes, running the numbers however would expand the width of the entire machine to about 43 inches wide and about 38 inches long. Just guessing around here...

That's a really big machine!
Hint: Take a tape measure and picture that for yourself.

It's going to be heavy too, and it'll probably take 2-3 people to lift and move around, effectively leaving the arena of desktop CNC machines.

Another thing to watch out for is that the doors around here are usually not much wider than 32 inches, so plan to keep the machine in whatever space it is that you're assembling it in indefinitely, because you won't be able to get it out of there (won't fit through the door).

These estimations lend themselves to ask you what are you planning to cut on the machine? (purpose, materials, sizes, etc.)
Perhaps you are better off with something you don't have to modify to fit your needs, there's plenty of those out there.

PS: For the router motor (or spindle), don't even worry about that until your x and y axis are moving. You'll be learning and reading so much about it all down the road, the decision will come to you by itself at some point... ;-)

In any case, welcome to the club! :-)
--
Mac

[Segue]

Thank you both for your comments. My use case for this is hobby mostly acrylic and woodwork, although it would be useful to be able to fabricate an aluminum part once in awhile.

The spindle question largely came from reading other parts of this forum where people we having good luck with parts like this. I didn't know if it was worth the extra $100 and complication to go with a more industrial component vs. a more standard router. The more flexible the the component to more likely I am to get the most out of this CNC, even if I am not quite sure what that is going to mean in the end. To be honest at least 50% of incentive for this is just that is seems like a cool build project and I was looking for something to build. It seems just a touch out side of my skills, which is right about where I like things... though those metal parts still worry me a bit.

I think the comments on the size of the box are informative, I didn't really factor in the expansion of the case, and I haven't begun to model it out yet. I am not sure I can really handle that at this time, and it is probably better the not bite off too much the first go round. If things go well and I choose to expand, I can always reuse the bulk of the parts.

[Mac.CNC]

If you decide to build it, I'm sure you'll enjoy the journey as we all did - and learn a lot of new stuff in the process. For me that's always more than half the fun :-)

One more comment on the spindle vs. a router motor, the cost is much higher - not just $100 more. If you look at my build thread, you can see that I went with a 0.8kw air cooled spindle from Ugra CNC. You can get Chinese spindles cheaper off e-bay, but it's possible that you'll have quality and runout issues down the road, a little bit of a gamble. Ugra's spindles are Chinese too, but they are guaranteed to have next to no runout, so I got mine from there. Air or water cooled was no question for me, because I didn't want to have to build a water cooling system too and then have to mess with the routing of the hoses to the z-axis. The next decision point for me was if I wanted a square or a round spindle housing. The square ones are a little more expensive, but much easier to mount on the z-axis, so I went with a square one. Cost: $495

But wait, we're not done yet:
What you're probably forgetting is that you'll need a VFD unit to control the spindle, that's another $300 there.

Still not quite done:
You'll also need ER collets. While you can buy the cheap ones (here again, runout to watch out for), I went with REGO-Fix collets - these are $30 to $40 a piece, depending on size. First I went with a basic set of 4, but quickly discovered that I couldn't clamp most drill sizes I would need down the road (drills, not endmills), by now I have built up a set of 10...

Another thing to keep in mind is the electrical noise a VFD spindle makes. You will want to pay extra attention to the shielding of the control cable to the spindle, which adds additional cost, as well as the shielding of everything else in the machine. I still don't quite have that under control, I completely loose the 5V tacho wire signal from one set of my fans that is furthest away from the fan controller whenever the spindle is running. I somewhat anticipated all that noise and have my limit switches running on 12V with a special breakout board (add that to the additional spindle cost!), I would under no circumstances recommend running 5V limit switches with a spindle in play - that's asking for trouble and frustration.

Long story short, if you have the money - going with a spindle is very much worth it. I love how I can control its speed directly out of the g-code, between 6000 and 24,000 RPM, but you could certainly do something similar with a SuperPID and a router motor.

Just wanted to share my spindle exploits with you, hope that helps... :-)

[Segue]

This makes the standard Bosch router seem like a good idea. I saw a number of .8 and 1.5 kw spindles with Chinese VDF included for a pretty reasonable price. If you include a SuperPID with the Bosch it seems like $100-150 more. You game me something think about though. Might be best for me to start simple and see how it goes. I can always change things out later if I end up pushing the limit of my tools. I image that even with the Bosch or its like I am going to be the weak link not the tools.

[Segue]

I almost forgot to mention, Mac. your build is fantastic. It is so polished and well put together, I am astonished. It is one of the best builds I have seen and now that I have chosen to attempt the Momus as my first build, something for me to aspire to.

[fastpcuser]

I would switch from Bosch Colt to Makita hand router I have picture of it in my build thread its got full aluminum body which is better and I think its little cheaper.

[louieatienza]

I am brand new to the idea of building a CNC, well about a month into reading this forum. I like the fully enclosed nature of this as my soon to be workshop is in the basement. Here goes:

I did purchase the plans and they are great, but is there a DFX version of the wood parts if I wanted to cut them on another CNC?

If I wanted to expand the cutting area moderately, say 24x24in, would this be enough change to throw off the gantry mechanics and stability? I am especially concerned about the belt driven Y axis.

I have no experience in working with metal. Is there anyone selling the prefabricated metal parts? I could purchase a small drill press and make a go of it, but for my first go around I would be happier if I could just source the metal parts.

Is everyone going with something like the Bosch Colt, or are there versions of this build using one of the low cost Chinese 1.5 or 2.2 kw water cooled spindles? Does anyone have experience with this? It seems like it is not a lot more money and could be a stronger and more reliable engine.

Thanks everyone. I think I need a bit more research, but am hoping to start my Momus in the next month if I can work out the details.

If you have the PDF you should be able to get the drawing off it and scale it for cutting. Or, you have the dimensions already, so you can just re-draw them as they're not complicated.

I don't know if lengthening the gantr is a good idea, as it is designed to be driven on one side. You would be putting considerably more torque on the bearing assembly when cutting on the non-driven side. I would say you have to also lengthen the drive side bearing assembly to accomodate this, which will lengthen that axis as well.

[momus_cnc]

[QUOTE]I have no experience in working with metal. Is there anyone selling the prefabricated metal parts? I could purchase a small drill press and make a go of it, but for my first go around I would be happier if I could just source the metal parts.[/QUOTE

Not to thread hijack, but since this was asked here, I'll respond to it here first...

I'm currently working with someone to produce a full metal kit. It would be all of the metal parts, with all holes drilled, tapped, etc. Just bolt it together. I've been keeping it a secret, as we have both had a lot on our plates recently, and weren't sure of a time schedule. But it is getting closer to a reality now, hopefully within a few months. We are aiming to produce an initial run of 10 kits, and are in the process of making tooling. I just purchased a small cnc milling machine (Intellitek ProLight 1000) and this will be put into service making parts like the router clamps, belt clamps, etc. I'm currently working on upgrading its old control electronics to something a little more modern, so I can run it with Mach3. Things like router clamps and belt clamps will also be available as individual parts on my website.

-Bob

[Segue]

Hijack away, this is good news. Let me know when you are ready to have a beta client for your metal parts. I am still in the research phase, but part of what is holding me back is metal part fabrication. I have been shopping for a drill press, but your solution might work better for me.

[tacopimp]

[QUOTE=momus_cnc;1367522]

I have no experience in working with metal. Is there anyone selling the prefabricated metal parts? I could purchase a small drill press and make a go of it, but for my first go around I would be happier if I could just source the metal parts.[/QUOTE

Not to thread hijack, but since this was asked here, I'll respond to it here first...

I'm currently working with someone to produce a full metal kit. It would be all of the metal parts, with all holes drilled, tapped, etc. Just bolt it together. I've been keeping it a secret, as we have both had a lot on our plates recently, and weren't sure of a time schedule. But it is getting closer to a reality now, hopefully within a few months. We are aiming to produce an initial run of 10 kits, and are in the process of making tooling. I just purchased a small cnc milling machine (Intellitek ProLight 1000) and this will be put into service making parts like the router clamps, belt clamps, etc. I'm currently working on upgrading its old control electronics to something a little more modern, so I can run it with Mach3. Things like router clamps and belt clamps will also be available as individual parts on my website.

-Bob

Is there any kit yet?
Eagerly waiting..

[fastpcuser]

I got one for sale ..

[Mac.CNC]

Hey, you can't do that :-(
What happened, your build looked so promising - did you get in trouble??
--
Mac

[fastpcuser]

I needed bigger one so I actually bought a CNCRouterparts kit and build 2'x4' one. Which have been working good so far.

I had no time to build custom one anymore , I will post picture somewhere later on.

[Jordan Kube]

Any progress on the kit parts, Bob?