[devas]

Hi All,

I'm a long time lurker - first time poster.
I built a small CNC about 4 years ago based on a Chinese 6040 frame, using parts (steppers, wiring and PSUs from old ATM machines) and used Mach3 and a cheap BOB for the controller

I enjoyed working on CNCs so much I quit ATMs and managed to get a job as a CNC technician - I now work fulltime on SCM and CMS 3-6 axis industrial machines.

I quickly lost interest in the limitations of the 6040 and sold it.
I've finally got around to designing my own machine. It is designed to fit in a single garage with a machining area of 1420x1420x200mm.
I wanted to make an all in one universal machine built rugged enough to be reliable and not have to spend most of my time making adjustments...
The machine will have 4 interchangeable heads - a 55Amp Plasma, 2.2kw spindle, 15w laser and an air scribe.

The thought of lead screws and skateboard bearings makes me cringe, so decided to go for 16mm ball screws and Hywin clone 20mm linear bearing rails.

The X axis will have a total of 4x20mm rails

I TIG welded the base from 50mm/3mm box section and have used 80x160mm aluminium extrusions for the X and Y axis rails.

I have finally got all the parts together and thought I'd post the build progress here and share the design/dxfs etc if anyone is interested.

[peteeng]

Hi Devas - Yes we are interested!! Some images please!! Petr

[pippin88]

Always interesting to see a build.

Adding extra linear rails (4 of 20mm on X axis) is not of benefit and actually introduces alignment problems etc.

[nlancaster]

devas? did you use BLH rail from automationoverstock? I did and it seems I made a good choice so far.

More pictures!

[wizard]

Certain post anything with respect to a new build.

[devas]

.