Hi all, I thought I would take the time to share my latest CNC build that is almost ready to make some chips. Yahoooo!!! But before I get into the details, I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to Ahren at CNCROUTERPARTS and Carveone here on the Zone for helping me on this build. Ahren took the time out to review some of my earlier designs and gave me some great pointers and suggestions for improvement. Carveone worked with me on the base and actually machined it on his own machine. Both of you are stand up guys and thank you for your patience and help.
This machine was designed to work primarily in soft metals, wood, and plastic. From my previous experiences with aluminum, I already know this machine is more than rigid enough. The Z axis is like granite on Viagra. The details are as follows:
Weight 126.2 lbs with stepper motors
Footprint 27x30
Cutting area is about 18 x 19 x 6
Eelectronics: G540- 270oz motors on X and Y - 380oz motor on Z axis.
My rapids are currently 130ipm on X ,Y and 115 on the Z axis. This is with ½-10 acme screws and being PC limited on my kernel speed. I plan on upgrading later to 5 start screws to get some better speed.
I actually built this machine over a month ago but moved right after and haven’t been able to use it. One thing I have to change on it is one of the X axis screws. In my haste, I forced it into the bearing blocks and bent it. I learned my lesson on that one and sanded the ends on the others. In the pictures you can see a replacement acme rod that I’ll be installing soon.
With Carveone making the base, other than the rails and acme screws, it was a completely bolt together setup. I’d say assembly time was about 6 hours. Using Ahren's parts, T-slots, and 80/20 brackets really made it an easy build. I’d say the thing I love most about it is how easy it’ll be to upgrade it to a bigger machine later on. Eventually, when I get the room, I plan on replacing the X and Y 80/20, rails, and screws and make it a 3x3 machine.
Anyhow, later on in the week I’ll finally get to see this thing cut. First thing I’m going to make is a dust shoe.
Wooohoo!!!! I’m getting that new cnc feeling
Enjoy the pictures, Chris