[STEMedTeacher]

Hello all,

Great community here, first time really posting. Anyways I am a high school engineering teacher. I am currently looking to expand our equipment and am investigating building a CNC Router Table with students as a project. This would not be our first CNC, we currently have a ShopBot Alpha with a router, putting a spindle upgrade on it this year. We also have 2 Haas TM-2P mills and 2 ST-10 Lathes.

I am in need of a machine that is capable of cutting the usual MDF, Plywood, but also 1/2" polycarbonate and aluminum plate as well. That being said, I am looking for setups that can either come in 4X4 or 4X8 orientations. I have seen some options out there but would like some input from others who have experience with the DIY kit end of them.

I have no problem using aluminum extrusion, however would prefer something steel for rigidity, also looking at servo drive and most defiantly a spindle.

If you have any suggestions on what to check out I would greatly appreciate it. I know that not every company has a kit of everything that I am looking for out there and I am open to suggestions on what to pair with what.

Thank you in advance for any and all feedback.

[1Jumper10]

The Platform CNC Router is in my opinion an outstanding design and is sold as a kit. It uses steppers and not servo's and its only 48x30. But I think the documentation it comes with it is very good. Probably better than a commercial machine and if you plan on teaching with it that could be a very big asset. So in that respect it might appeal to you. Its a fantastic DIY design in my opinion. I think Brian has won a few Maker Fare awards...

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...53486-cnc.html

[wizard]

Sounds like a pretty incredible high school shop already.

I don't know of any kits that size, at least not something I'd call robust. As such I really think you need to consider a design of your own. I'm kinda hoping your well equipped shop has welding and other fabrication tooling. Combined with your milling capabilities you should be able to fabricate a good deal of the required hardware. Your biggest challenge would be cutting large steel tubing to precise lengths.

One of the great challenges when working with steel weldments is fit up of parts to be welded. The better parts fit before welding the less induced stress from welding. The thing here is that a full sheet router, by design covers a lot of floor space. You need to be prepared to handle beams that are up to ten feet long (X axis). These will be heavy, thus the need for fab equipment.

One thing to consider is to design a machine and have the steel cut to size by a tool and die shop. Preferably a big shop with the sorts of mills that can handle this sort of work. You can check with you local full service steel supplier but most of them don't have machines in place for the precision you want. The ends of the tubing needs to be square and matched lengths. In any event the idea is to get a "kit" put together of precut steel tubing that the students then assemble into a machine. Done right you can have the basic frame together in a week or two.

Interesting thing here is that back in my day, my one big shop project was a work bench. I still have that in my cellar 40 some years latter. Back then the thought of a CNC machine in a schools shop was pretty unusual. Best of luck with modern technology.