[Gregted]

G'day all,

Just gotta say I love owning a CNC.

These machines are amazing. I have just built my first cnc out of some 12mm ply I had lying around and some Nema 17 steppers I bought about 4 years ago and a spare Ramps 1.4 board running grbl for ramps.

Still playing around with small signs and some engraving on perspex but can already see the limits of my plywood cnc.

So... It's time to upgrade.

My current design uses Nema 17 steppers driving 8mm all thread and for the smooth travel, dual 8mm rods each side on Y and dual 8mm rods on X and Z.

I am only running at 200mm/min as even 300mm/min causes the motors to miss steps and just hum. I don't know if this is normal for this setup or if I am limited by the ramps.

I can make signs at this speed so no biggy, but am thinking I might need to upgrade to Nema 23s for the new rig.

The new rig will be in the style of 25x25x3mm or 2mm box steel on 45 degrees and 608zz bearings running 2 sets of 2 on one side and a third on the other.

I want to make it 1000mm by 1000mm cutting area so it will be heavy-ish.

I have included a pic of my current rig and a screen shot of my new idea.

I guess what I am asking is for suggestions toward the new design and if I need to buy 23s or can the 17s handle the new rig.

Also I have read a lot on leadscrews vs belts but still undecided so suggestions in that area would be helpful.

I have zero backlash on my current 8mm allthread so am happy with those but might need to upgrade to 12mm for the new rig???

Edit... Will be using a small hand held router on the new setup instead of the dremel on the current one...

Anyhoo.... waiting for your replies and ideas.

Greg

[peteeng]

Hi Greg - Seems you were neglected in this post. How did the new machine go? Peter