[94vette]

Hi all,

Like most of the newbies I've been lurking and reading for some time now. And about 2 weeks ago I deciced to due something. So I went to Home Depot and Ace hardware and bought some of the parts to take measurements from, and set off to design a fairly low cost machine. This is based off of many ideas and machines from CNC Zone. (thank you all)

So attached are pictures of the 3D model for you all to review. (I know, another person making a CAD model that will never acutally builad anything) But I've now bought most of the material and have already starting cutting some of the pieces. I'm making a detailed drawing for each piece as I get ready to physically make it. So when I'm done, I should have a nice machine and a complete set of plans.

Some general info:
- motors and controller board from stepper world
- made from MDF
- 15"x11"x3" travel
- machine foot print 27"x17"

Thanks to all at CNC Zone for inspiring me.

-john

[High Seas]

94vette
john - welcome aboard and good luck on your PLUNGE! Everyone will be looking forward to your progress (pictures please! and drawings too!) as you go. There's lots of real good info on the site here - so be sure and research (sounds like you have) and ask as you have questions/ideas you want to bounce off someone.
:cheers: Jim

[Rance]

Nice drawings (& ideas) John. One question that comes to mind. Do you have a way to adjust your Z rails? You have X and Y covered but I don't see one for the Z.

[94vette]

Rance, the Z will be guided by 3/8" drill rod with bronze bushings. I figured the travel was so short, that if I put the hole work in in at the same time, (1 piece on top of the other) that I wouldn't need to make them adjustable.

But I've already been thinking of plans for the second machine. And that one will have about 7" of Z travel. So it will need to be adjustable.

-john

[Rance]

You're probably right. Happy building, and be sure to post pics.

[tazboi]

Any progress on your CNC machine? I'm looking to make my first and I would like to make something small and simple. So I'm following you and your progress. Let us know what is up.

[94vette]

I haven't made much progress in the last few days. I couldn't spend much time this past weekend due to fathers day and other family stuff. I will send some pictures of some pieces later this week.

Here are a few pictures of some of the simple drawings. It's amazing how many pieces and parts there are to one of these machines.

-john

[tazboi]

I think I need to be able to read prints. Also, it looks like the material for the pipes is called Derlin. Can I get that at a local store? That's that hard, white, plastic-like material, correct?

[94vette]

Derlin is for the pipe adjuster block. In the title block of the drawing, it gives the Material Source; www.mcmaster.com and the part #. So go to the McMaster web site and do a part number search with that number. Hope that helps.

There is a lot of good info in the title block. (i hope anyway)

I plan on giving the material source for all of the drawings that I make. Even for the screw and nuts.

-john

[tazboi]

94vette:
Did you only need to buy one 2" by 12" block of Delrin? Can you cut that with any hole saw? Where did you get your pipe from? Thanks for the info. It's appreciated.

[94vette]

I bought 2 bars of Derlin because there are 3 other pieces made out of it and I wanted to have some extra material in case I messed up on one. But I messed up 2. So I still had enough.

I'm not sure if you can cut Derlin with "any" hole saw. I have access to a manual bridgeport with a rotary table. So that is what I used.

I got the pipe from Home Depot. It's a wonderful place.

[94vette]

OK, how do you guys stay motivated when the weather is so nice? When I get home from work, all I want to do is get done with the basic chores, eat and swim to keep cool.

I have done a little work on building and I'm about 1/4 of the way complete with the detail drawings. But it's tough to get going. Maybe if I got off of the computer right now and started working... naaa, it's time to go to sleep :tired:

I'll post some pictures or a few more of the drawings tomorrow. (if I remember)

[tazboi]

I hear ya. I haven't worked on my project for about 2 weeks. It could be because my brother is moving and I'm helping him, or because I soldered all my components on my circuit board and I fried most of it. Just stupid. That was a big motivation killer. I need some encouragement. Keep working hard everyone. It will be worth it.

[chronon1]

Mr. Vette,

Not to put a damper on your creativeness, but your 3D drawing is nearly a carbon copy of my purchased machine --- The only difference being yours has an inch or 2 smaller table size, other things considered it is the exact same thing ... Is this the jgro design or one from pipeorgan.com ? (I've had my machine since about early April)

[94vette]

Mr. Vette,

Not to put a damper on your creativeness, but your 3D drawing is nearly a carbon copy of my purchased machine --- The only difference being yours has an inch or 2 smaller table size, other things considered it is the exact same thing ... Is this the jgro design or one from pipeorgan.com ? (I've had my machine since about early April)

Hi Chronon1,
about 3 months ago I posted some pictures of a machine that was for sale on E-bay. I asked if anyone had plans for this machine.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20373

Since there was nobody that had these plans, I decided to make my own.

The JGRO design is much larger and has a moving gantry. As for the "pipeorgan.com", what is that? The website goes to a place that sells Pipe Organs. Like something that a church would buy.

Did you buy the machine and the plans? or just the machine? Where did you by your machine and can you post some pictures? It would be interesting to see how close they are.

[Switcher]

.

94vette,

I think "chronon1" had this link in mind?

http://www.crankorgan.com/



.

[94vette]

Thanks Switcher, that makes a lot more sense.

That's a neat site with some cool plans. But they don't look like the one that I made based off of the E-bay pictures.

[chronon1]

I meant to put CRANKORGAN.com (i just verified it ) -
the 7th sojourn is similar and faster and claims accuracy less than 1/64" . Claims cost is less than $200 and wants $36 for plans.

I did buy it - hte same place as the link you had referenced previously --- the pics are in my profile .. (when you log in to cnczone there are thubmnail pics for user profiles.. the pics of my machine are there.. like someone said, its a beginner solution.

This guy has a good sense of humor --- although I have read of some unhappy dealings as well ....

"I started getting complaints that the pipe flanges being sold in the store are no longer of any quality. China on the label means s@$# on the table. "

[94vette]

Chronon1, this is cool. Did you buy the machine that I found on E-bay? Because you are right, they look identical. (Do you mind telling how much it costs?)

As I said earlier in this thread, I was looking for plans for this machine. No one had plans, so I made/making my own. And yes this is beginner solution, that's why I named the thread the way that I did.

So now that you have had a chance to work with this machine, what's it like? What would you change? What are it's strengths and it's weaknesses? This is like testing before building.

[chronon1]

It's pretty slow .. I'm triying to get it to go twice as fats with double the voltage and also increasing the resistance of the controller.. but then I'm wondering if that's stuped to have 3 80 watt resistors and a bigger power supply .. so much wasted power for this unipolar design.. maybe getting a 'chopper' driver is the way to go as they dont have those large bleeder resistors on the output.

10 IPM is a real dog when you have to traverse one end of the table to the other. Causes large area jobs to have huge times --- the Z axis is only on a 1/4-20 so that really bogs htings as well. The x and y are on 5/16x18 so a little better. It was over $500 (shipping tacks on another $60-$80 ) - but I think someone bought one, used it and quickly resold for $400 something .. (probably got discouraged from speed acroos table) .. 1st thing I would do is have the Z axis beefed up to the bearing and pipe design as that seems to have some wiggle with the rods and friction bearings, not sure if the Z will handle the 5/16x18 with the 3.5V 1.5A steppers. It seems to have a pretty stable X and Y because of the skate and pipe bearing surfaces.It is tweakable which is good for dialing it in .. 2nd thing would be (maybe the 1st) upgrading the power/driver .. to 24 V or higher and the chopper driver for uni ...or bi ? to get over 20tpi .. But again, if your just learning you don't really need speed that's why I say that could come 2nd. It's really not bad at all the way it is as I am still doing a lot of learning - at least I don't break bits anymore ! No drinking while machining please !