I'm planning to build a CNC mill/router. I have a rough idea of what I want to do, and if someone who has more experience with building these things could answer my questions it would help me a great deal and I'd really appreciate it.
My plan is to build a CNC Mill/Router based on this design -http://www.suregrave.co.uk/images/cipher2516.gif which is what we have at college but I’ll make the table slightly larger (about 1 sq metre).
One motor moves the table for the Y axis, another motor moves the spindle motor along the X axis and also mounted on that rail is the 3rd motor to lift the spindle motor up and down for the Z axis movement.
I intend to use servo motors for the axes and a 1.2HP S1 Rated 24VDC Bosch motor for the spindle motor.
Now for some questions …..
The gecko drive controllers that lots of people seem to use look ideal, but what is the difference between the G320 and the G340?
Also, the whole of the electronics/computer stuff is still confusing me somewhat. I draw something in cad …. – Then what do I have to do to get the CNC mill to cut it out?
Do the gecko drives all connect to the computers parallel port?
What happens about data storage – do the gecko drives have internal memory or is the data streamed off the computer as and when it’s needed?
How does 3D CNC milling work? Is there software that can import a standard JPG/BMP file and convert it into something that the CNC machine would understand?
I noticed the threaded rod used in the college CNC mill is very different to the standard threaded rod available in DIY stores – the thread is much flatter and there’s a wider gap between each thread. Question is, is standard threaded rod ok, or should I try to obtain some of this special stuff?
Something else I noticed is the motors in the college CNC mill are directly connected to the threaded rods for the axes, but a lot of the home built machines I’ve seen on the internet use a belt drive & reduction to connect the motor to the threaded rod. In your opinion which method is better & why?
I was also intending to use a normal drill chuck to hold the cutters. Would this be acceptable, or should I use something different?
Finally, can you recommend some servo motors to uses for the axes? Ideally I’d like something which is both fast and powerful.
Apologies for the large number of questions but it would help me immensely if anyone could spare the time to reply.
Regards
Dominic
http://www.ukrobotics.com