[maxraven]

Hi everyone,
I'm pretty new to this, but I thought it would be a good to share what I'm doing, maybe get some advice, and meet some friendly faces in the know!
I'm 15 and have a particular interest in engineering and electronics. In have dedicated my spare time for the past month or so to building my own cmc router! I don't even know how possible this is, so any success stories would be appreciated! I am building it on the frame of my old bunk bed, also using v-track and plenty of 80/20 for the gantry frame. For power I have chosen belt drives and nema 23 motors. Here are a few pictures of the progress, lots more to come. I am waiting on my next delivery and then I'll be off again on my next building spree. I still have the belt drives and motors to install, and also the tricky z-axis and balls screw! Look forward to hearing from you, here's come photos so far.
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Hopefully that worked?

[Khalid]

Nice progress. Seems that you will use CNC bed as a dinning table when required. Hope you have no wife that take care the dinning area.

[maxraven]

Thanks, I have the motors sitting in the back too, I'm looking forward to mounting those asap. Haha, yes, for a nice christmas dinner . I'm a tad young for a wife at the moment unfortunately!

[maxraven]

Have finally mounted the z-axis today, everything is shaping up. Ready to start on the electronics side, and mounting the motors. Then if all goes to plan, I should be on the finishing line? Here's some updated photos, again sorry for the quality.

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[Khalid]

Your Zaxis is too high. What are you planning to cut on your machine.

[maxraven]

Yeah I was thinking that aswell, it's quite easy to modify, but I want too get my hands on the motor mount and router before I fine tune it. Im planning to cut anything really, from key rings to architectural models, or machine parts. I haven't really decided yet. Do you think it would be possible to put a small extension on the z axis motor mount plate so that I am able to take full advantage of the ballsscrews 300mm moving space?

[nekidfrog]

Not only is the Z axis way to high, but with that base plate I can foresee you will have a lot of z axis play. Meaning the router/spindle bit will wobble quite a bit due to lack of strength against the Z axis.

[maxraven]

Yes I agree, I will be moving the z axis down when my final part arrive. Do you mean the plate holding the z-axis to the y-axis. If you mean the plate I attach the motor too you would be correct. At the moment that is only a temporary attachment, very precarious. When the proper brackets arrive I will be reattaching it onto the ballscrew. I hope that is what you meant? Thanks so much for your replies, its good to get someone else's point of view on this!

[nekidfrog]

Yes, that plate, and also the long spacers to the vgroove bearings for the rail. That entire piece is not very rigid. Given the forces that the stepper can place on that Z axis and the weight of both the router and all the plate will cause some serious wobbling.

Even with 1/4 aluminum plate on my z axis I'm having wobble issuse. I had to buy a 1/2 thick plate to try and make it more rigid. Hopefully it does the trick.

[maxraven]

Ahh, mm that could be a problem. I know it's not much in the scheme of things but hopefully using some heavy duty brackets I can hold it generally in place from the ball screw, however thanks for making me aware of this. Hopefully it should do the job far enough for me to mill my own parts? That would save a lot of hassle. The gap between the router mounting plate and the z axis extrusion is awkward because of a large ball screw. Do you think it is possible to be milling aluminium with this machine, with nema23 motors (425oz-in) motors, and a bosch colt palm router. If not maybe make some wood casts and I could use my friends blast furnace to melt aluminium and make some parts? Thanks for the help!

[nekidfrog]

If all you are using it for is wood then it might not be an issue. However aluminum and metals are a much different beast. I found out over the weekend just how much different milling metal vs wood was. Snap my onsrud o-flute and a 2 flute carbide end mill cutting 1/2 inch aluminum plate. Due to the slight wobble of my Z axis any slight give and if the bit catchs metal incorrectly and boom snapped end mill. Luckily that was the only thing that snapped.

Your Z axis needs to have zero play in it. A simple test once you are done building is with the Z axis mounted and the router extended all the way down and with end mill secured. See if you can manually push the end mill around and if you can, then your Z axis is NOT rigid enough. You should not be able to move your bit at all in order for it to be strong enough for metal.

[nekidfrog]

Also.. are those the delrin v-groove bearings from OpenBuilds Part Store ? if so those will not last long on a CNC that large. I suggest you go with their metal v-groove bearings. While delrin is strong and sturdy for light stuff, as you add lbs to the gantry and the Z axis and router... eventually those X axis bearings will be under some serious load that I don't believe they will be able to handle.

[maxraven]

Thanks this has been a great help. That is incredible, I didn't realise the tolerances needed for milling metals. I will get the motors and drives on there and then use my left over few meters of 8020 to strengthen up my design. After I get the motors on ect.. I will post a video and show you, I'll see how much I can push it about. I'm hoping in the end it will have the capability for milling aluminium, even if it does mean upgrading some of my parts!

[maxraven]

Haha yes they are, I ordered that lot in the early stages of design, before my bed frame came about! Thats a good point, although for the moment they are handling, having said that they aren't holding 4 nema23's yet! I'm trying to find supplies in the UK, shipping from the US is costing an arm and a leg. Last time the import tax cost more than the postage!

[daddywoofdawg]

CNC turkey craving,might be onto something!

[maxraven]

Now that would be interesting. What drill bit would you use though? ;D

[maxraven]

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been updating lately, have been extremely busy else where.
A quick update and a plea for advice too!
I have now installed the motors, and all is finished! I have a working machine, I am programming using auto cad and lazy cam, then operating in mach3.
All the advice you gave me came true, I ended up lowing the gantry and the wek assembly on the z axis! I have an odd shaped hole in my vacuum table from my first designs attempt!
Heres a link to a quick video I made too. I hope you like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_kuRHCZHjI

Now for the plea, has anybody got any advice regarding spindles? I am looking for a replacement to my slowly diminishing dewalt router, it has broke a bearing attempting to cut baloo wood ( first mistake! ) and needs replacing asap. The new spindle will have to cut aluminium, hard and soft wood also! Thanks for any help you can offer.
Also has anybody got any ideas for quick projects I can seek in order to make money, I have a feeling spindles are not cheap! hahaa.
Thanks again!

[maxraven]

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[wizard]

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been updating lately, have been extremely busy else where.

Good to have you back.

A quick update and a plea for advice too!
I have now installed the motors, and all is finished! I have a working machine, I am programming using auto cad and lazy cam, then operating in mach3.
All the advice you gave me came true, I ended up lowing the gantry and the wek assembly on the z axis! I have an odd shaped hole in my vacuum table from my first designs attempt!

Luckily there are formulas for these machines that are well defined and verified with a lot of experience. The web is a wonderful place, knowledge like this has spread quickly, far faster than it ever could have in thE 60's and 70's when I was growing up. It doesn't take long for a good idea to spread quickly.

Heres a link to a quick video I made too. I hope you like it!

Nice flick.

Now for the plea, has anybody got any advice regarding spindles? I am looking for a replacement to my slowly diminishing dewalt router, it has broke a bearing attempting to cut baloo wood ( first mistake! ) and needs replacing asap.

Rebuilding the DeWalt makes lot sof sense. This assuming it has repalceable bearings. Some shops will rebuild this router dozens of times

The new spindle will have to cut aluminium, hard and soft wood also! Thanks for any help you can offer.

This gets tricky as many of the spindles out there suitable for wood are not suitable for aluminum. You want a spindle that maintains good performance at slower spindle speeds. My suggestion is to get online and look for router spindles and machine tool spindles. However you will likly be shocked at the costs, even a "cheap" Chinese spindle is a significant cost. This is why many users simple rebuild their routers again and again. In fact it is often done in such a way that routers get swapped out in rotation so a guy might have two or three routers to be used on the machine.

In any event you need to investigate what happened here. Normally bearings don't break as such, wear out yes. Normally an overloaded spindle will stall

Also has anybody got any ideas for quick projects I can seek in order to make money,

Actually your video answered that question, it looks like you are already a capable sign maker? I'm not sure where you are but to start out you need to market locally and find a niche to fill. If people need signs make signs. Actually consider hobiests such as model airplane fliers and their clubs as these guys often need parts cut that are best cut on a CNC machine. Going into assembly of of things people might want is good if you can figure out what they want.

I have a feeling spindles are not cheap! hahaa.
Thanks again!

[maxraven]

Hi Everyone,

I cannot believe it has been 2 years since I last posted on this thread, time seems to be flying so fast. I am currently in the middle of university applications and I have made this PDF describing my DIY CNC journey. - Uploaded Here!

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and if you do get a chance to check it out please do let me know your thoughts.

All the best,
Max Raven.