Hi all,
I have been working with CNC for the past year or two, and really enjoy doing it. After being told I should make my own router, and seeing a Solsylva 13x13 working in person, I am seriously considering doing so. My two main set backs are money, as I plan on heading off to college next fall, and lack of knowledge. After reading http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...a_build_w.html, which I think is amazing, I decided to start looking into prices on the specialty parts I am going to have to buy.
The parts that came to my head first were lead screws, bearings, steppers, and stepper drivers. From Crane's build I learned that 3/8 leadscrew is a little slow so I decided to go for 1/2"-10 5 start precision Acme steel lead screw, please tell me if I am crazy and I don't need something this high quality, which I found at $57.50 for 6 feet which, as far as I know, with 25" X + 25" Y + 8" Z should be enough.
As for the bearings I know from skating experience that Swiss makes the smoothest rolling, most durable bearings out there, and I figure these bearings are going to get saw dust in them so I decided on Bones Swiss Labyrinth bearings. Let me know if I'm crazy again. I found an 8 pack for $37, and I believe I will nedd 16 bearings, correct me if I'm wrong, so thats $74 which isn't all that bad for the quality.
While looking at stepper motors I thought about the mills I use at school, Technos that I love because they are quick and accurate and Denfords which take what feels like days to do the same thing. I decided I want to run at a speed similar to the Technos, which I believe use NEMA 23 stepper motors. After a little searching I found STP-MTR-23055, a bi-polar 166 oz-in NEMA 23 with double stack, for $30. This seemed like a good deal to me and I thought it I would be able to hit decent travel speeds (by that I mean IPM) with these steppers and the leadscrews I picked out.
Stepper driver is where I started to get lost due to lack of knowledge. I know I will need a chopper stepper that will allow me to make a 4 wire connection because my stepper motors are 4 wire. I think I want to have 1/16" microstepping capabilities. I do not know how many amps per phase I need, what type of current I want, or what type of power supply I want it to accept. For that matter I don't know what type of power supply I want either.
I know that I am going to need other specialty parts but I am not sure what those are or how many I am going to need of each part. If anybody could help me with my stepper driver and power supply questions, tell me what other specialty parts I am going to need, and/or tell me the parts I have chosen are too high quality for my machine I would be very greatful.
Thanks,
Nick
I plan on making this my build thread when I do start the actual build.