[mwalach]

Yes, I am having the construction class build the enclosure from the student plans pictured above.

Thanks for the link, I will pass it along. There is no way my kids could buy inventor for home use. We get a break on the price at the school, but it is still pricey.

I will post some pics of the enclosure once it is built.

[CuttersCov]

Instead of inventor why don't you use solidworks?

Solidworks

Are there any community colleges around that have a machine shop? I took the class there and the teacher let me work on my own stuff on nonclass hours. This is how I built most of the stuff for my machine seen here:

Blog

If you want better shots of something let me know I have tons of pics.

Also look at http://crankorgan.com/

And come to think of it I have steppers I need to unload. I bought them off ebay as working and I have never used them, I have four of them.

Labeled Power Max this is them here, but no pump Ebay

He's selling his ONE for $20.00 I'd let mine go for $50 for all FOUR plus shipping as is.

I may also have some acme threaded rod left over too that you can have for a few bucks. I think it's about 12 inches long which would work for your Z. I can get you more details on that if your interested. Don't quote me on length I'll have to double check, but you can get the antibacklash nut (I have the link somewhere) from someone off cnczone.

It's too bad you don't need pillow blocks I have a set of four (closed) that I would unload dirt cheap as well just to get rid of them.

Granted some of this stuff you already have, but what else do you need? I have some stuff laying around that never got used.

[CuttersCov]

There are other things your students could be learning though as well. Like som e G-code.

Don't forget the enclosure and wiring diagrams for the controller. All good stuff, have them do some research or a report on the basics of cnc'ing too. There are a few good PDFs out there for novice stuff that I found when I was trying to understand how it all worked. Heck my wife did a report on it even when she had her computer class so she could understand what I'd been spending all our money on.

Good luck and keep us updated.

[mwalach]

thanks for the positive comments cutters!

Lots of good ideas for projects. I will be writing lots of lessons for using the cnc once it is done.

[CuttersCov]

No problem. Hindsight being 20/20 there were a lot of things I wish I had done in a different order. For example, I'm just now learning the software side of things in the winter AFTER the machine was built. Had I known how tough this part was I could have learned them more than a year ago and been more comfortable.

There are engineering aspects they could learn as well, like how many times will the motor have to spin in order to move the gantry an inch. Things like tolerances could be taught as well. Tons of stuff to learn before the machine even moves. Anyways, enough stuff to keep them busy in the mean time.

One thing they could do now is instead of a wiring diagram is have them do a block diagram at least this way they understand what is connecting to what.

[joecnc2006]

any pictures of the school working around the machine?

[mwalach]

The machine is almost complete. The mechanicals are built, and we are wiring the electrical. I will post some pics soon. We are out for the next week, but I will post some pics of the finished mill when I get back to work. We are building a case to hold the machine right now as well. It looks great, can't wait to make some stuff with it!

[mwalach]

Can't post pics of the kids joe2000che, just the machine.

[mwalach]

Here is the lastest of the new cnc. We made some test cuts today. Works great! Just need some smaller cutters to do detail work. Hope to test my own Bigbearcnc software on it this week as well. The kids did most of the wiring under my supervision. They are also building the enclosure. You can see the base it is sitting on. That is part of the enclosure. It will be sound proof. It also holds the electonics underneath.

The tool mount is only a temp one made of MDF. We will design and cut a real one then mount to plastic not MDF.

[mwalach]

Started testing my software this past week. I have spun the motors in jog mode, still woriing out some bugs in the auto sequence. Will try to get them worked out next week. I am using the trial of Mach 2 right now to run the machine, but I would like to use my own software as it can do as many lines of code as I like, plus the interface is a lot easier to use.
The machine is performig great. Hope to do some more work with it this week. The kids are having fun making signs for themselves right now.

We ordered a copy of vcarved 3d software to convert our inventor files to gcode. That will alllow us to do real CAD/CAM work.

[mwalach]

Here are some updated pics. We have started to build an enclosure and do some wiring. I have an on/off switch that kills power to everything, then a seperate switch to turn the router on/off. We also installed a cheap $9 floresent light that works great!

We have made a few sample cuts/engravings. Currently using the trial of Mach 2 software.

Still have a lot of tweaking to do on the mill, but overall I'm happy with it. I had to switch out the grizzly router with a rotozip. The 1/4" collet of the grizzly wan't 1/4"! It was under sized and I could not fit a bit all the way in. I am waiting for a new collet from grizzly. The rotozip is a much lighter router and it has plenty of power. I will likely just stick with the rotozip.

[mwalach]

If you want to see some video of my mill in action visit www.bigbearcnc.com or click here,


http://members.cox.net/walachcnc/cncdemoweb.mov


It is engraving the RI state flag. Hopefully I can show some true 3D ENGRAVING SOON!

[jimluu]

Hi Mwalach. I'm doing almost the same thing as you are....I'm helping a couple of friend's kids with a high school robotics projects. We have no funding....but since I also want to learn robotics, I offered to fund it myself. For future reference and for anyone else doing an educational projects, there are lots of resources out there. My project will easily cost me $5k. Yes, that would buy a small cnc machine, but the emphasis on the project is on the building and engineering process. Anyways, Igus has been incredibly supportive through their YES program and provided the rails for our x, y. z axis. I figure this saves us around $2k. Courtney is the contact person, and I can not say enough good comments about her. Another resource for software is academicsuperstore.com. Solidworks for $80 shaves another $1k or so for me. I'll post my project once I'm near completion.

[mwalach]

JimLuu,

sounds like a great project!

Should be a nice machine when you are done. I only spent about $600 on mine.

[Roger Ramjet]

Having just moved here from the big city, I made the suggestion that we build our own cnc. We'll split the cost of building it. My teaching partner should have read a little further before buying the Rockcliff plans. Our middle school is in a similar situation as you. Small school, lack of money and not a lot of what most would consider basic tools. We're trying to revamp the Tech. Ed. program in hopes of drawing some of the kids from the other, ( new and more affluent ), middle school. I really appreciate this forum and some of the suggestions made from most everyone. Thanks.

[mwalach]

Finally have my vacuum table working! I will try to post some pictures. It is the easiest and cheapest design! Runs off a simple shop vac.

[CuttersCov]

Would be great in seeing the vacuum table. I've always been interested in making one of my own in the future.

[mwalach]

here are some pics of the vacuum table.

Simple HDPE block 3/4" x 10" x 13" with a hole drilled into the side and top for air suction.

Use vynle tape to create a seal between the wood and your table. If you have any questions that the pictures don't answer let me know.

[mwalach]

Having just moved here from the big city, I made the suggestion that we build our own cnc. We'll split the cost of building it. My teaching partner should have read a little further before buying the Rockcliff plans. Our middle school is in a similar situation as you. Small school, lack of money and not a lot of what most would consider basic tools. We're trying to revamp the Tech. Ed. program in hopes of drawing some of the kids from the other, ( new and more affluent ), middle school. I really appreciate this forum and some of the suggestions made from most everyone. Thanks.

Yeah, A machine will cost about $600, alot of those other guys selling plans like to hide the fact that you have to buy electronics, motors and software. If you have any questions on your build let me know.

[mwalach]

here are some more pics. We have the case enclosed and sound proofed. Works well.

The letters are about 10" tall.