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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > CNC "do-it-yourself" > DIY 3-axis hobby CNC for small aluminium part production, where to begin?
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  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jan 2023
    Posts
    436

    Re: DIY 3-axis hobby CNC for small aluminium part production, where to begin?

    Quote Originally Posted by joeavaerage View Post
    Hi,
    well that certainly explains your temperament.

    In this instance I was never intending to innovate but rather make the best job using known designs, materials and technologies.

    Craig
    ah, that's what you meant. no I wasn't talking about you. I meant to question the popularity of c frames stemming from what I could call questionable business practices in companies. We in the diy can only hope to copy, we have neither the capital or the manpower to do thousands of hours of engineering work, we can only mimic and that's fine, this is the good side of the internet, a single photo of a frame is enough to give anyone at least a hint of the result of the research.

    Companies on the other hand have no excuse, they are already doing the work, they are already paying for it, might as well do something a little more impressive than just copy something that everyone else copied.

    Don't let my personal bias for C frames appear to you as if I'm being critical of you. I'm being critical of the thing I talk about. I'm pretty autistic when it comes to people interactions.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Posts
    179

    Re: DIY 3-axis hobby CNC for small aluminium part production, where to begin?

    to the OP:

    for a small machine I would recommend fixed gantry router format. you can build it from cheap granite surface plates. If you only need 15 x 15 x 15 cm working area you could get away with quite a small one which are very cheap; i'd probably shoot for a 600x600x75mm plate or so. (https://www.grizzly.com/products/gri...no-ledge/g9656) Granite is not difficult to drill holes into and you can through bolt the linear rails to the plate and know that they are co-planar. also use a cut up granite surface plate to make the gantry and posts. my first design was like this but i ultimately decided to build a welded/stressrelieved/machined steel frame, which was massively more difficult and more expensive than buying granite surface plates once you factor in the machining.

    other advantages of the fixed gantry format are that alignment is relative easy and you require only 1 screw and motor per axis. i would say in particular you don't want a design that requires any one part to have two precision surfaces at 90 degrees to each other for a diy build.

    If you use small tooling diameters, a high rpm router type spindle is fine. running a bunch of sample speed/feed calculations with a tool like FS Wizard will show this.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jun 2023
    Posts
    136

    Re: DIY 3-axis hobby CNC for small aluminium part production, where to begin?

    I think natural granite is also very expensive.It is a non-renewable resource.

    If you need to use stone for the base, I recommend mixing the stone with epoxy.
    https://grabcad.com/library/drone-cnc-diy-1

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Posts
    6254

    Re: DIY 3-axis hobby CNC for small aluminium part production, where to begin?

    Mr-Maw
    1) There is nothing on this planet that is renewable - What's here is here and that's it. We just change stuff to other stuff+pollution
    2) crushed granite is the same as block granite - there's only so much of it on the planet
    3) Epoxy is a petrochemical product. It takes energy, oil and pollution to create it. So use it well
    4) In Oz I can buy 1m3 of granite from china and have it delivered to my door cheaper than I can buy 1m3 of aluminium local. Al and granite are the same stiffness and density so are useful for making machine parts.
    5) We still need to know the stiffness of your castings, if block granite is about 70GPa then your mix is about 35GPa please confirm. Peter

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