[LacL]

I always believed a CNC mill would be enough for all my needs, but more and more I'm looking at all you 3D'ers with great envy!

How did you build your first printer? Did you use your mill to make the parts or did you buy them ready made? I suppose I can start at page 1 of your printer thread and dig it up for myself, but its gonna take weeks to go through the whole thing.

[hoss2006]

Yeah it's been a fun year, made many a part for the mill and around the house that don't need to be metal to do the job.
It's been great too for prototyping parts for the mill before making the finished metal part.
Some of the parts just couldn't be made on the mill as the desired design, but printing is a snap, the powdercups for example.
It's been a valuable addition to the shop.
The printer forum is the place to go for the actual build.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/commer..._printers.html
The new printer here.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:50968
Hoss

[outsider787]

I've been thinking of just attaching a print head on the side of my CNCed BF20's head, and having a go at it.
Maybe pick up a heated bed as well.

Anyone try using their existing cnc like this?

I figure I will need an extruder head and heated bed anyway if I may build a dedicated printer in the future.

adrian.

[Mad Welder]

I've been thinking of just attaching a print head on the side of my CNCed BF20's head, and having a go at it.....

Interesting suggestion..been amazed and in aw here with the prototyping capabilities of Hoss's 3D printer (to be honest I never even heard of 3D printing till Hoss linked us up) and your suggestion of using our own 3 axis builds as a base for building, never even entered my mind....and yup guy's I too would be interested...is outsider787's suggestion feasible or not??

[hoss2006]

Yes it's been done, it's called a Repstrap, strapping a printer head to a mill.
Check out the printer forum, Fastest1 did a great job on his sherline, bloomingtonmike on his router and others going on too.
General 3D Printer Discussion - CNCzone.com-The Largest Machinist Community on the net!
Hoss

[Madda]

Hoss, isn't that going to be too hard on the ballscrews? Usually they use somekinda belt system because the "mileage" is quite big.

[Mad Welder]

Yes it's been done, it's called a Repstrap,......

and like a magician out of your hat you pull the link we're looking for

[hoss2006]

Hoss, isn't that going to be too hard on the ballscrews? Usually they use somekinda belt system because the "mileage" is quite big.

Ehh, no more than someone who does a lot of 3d milling, lots of back and forth passes with small moves in between.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

and like a magician out of your hat you pull the link we're looking for

TADA!
Hoss

[Fastest1]

Printing a balloon powered Ferrari 458 with it right now. Using KISSlicer with support set medium.
I was trying to use a "wipe" tower and it failed to stick so that is the mess. It appears not to have damaged anything as the next move is to create support over the future wheel well. Regarding wear. I do move the part 0 around a bit but this stuff is fun. Maybe I will have to buy screws yearly or so, no problem. Mountains of plastic will have been melted.

[NSR_CIVIC]

Now ya have to post the final product from that.. balloon powered Ferrari sounds awesome!

Kevin.
Nsr customs.

[Fastest1]

Well I had a few support issues and I doubt a balloon will make it move or if it is even airtight enough. But it looks pretty decent. Probably a few settings in KISSlicer I need to tweak or understand.
With the aggressive sloping of the cars body, I am sure there are settings which would help the terraced effect. NSR, I swear I am going to the P.O. today!

[Fastest1]

The black filament is hard to capture a photograph that makes it look very good. It looks much better in your hand. It is still no where close to an injection mold. Yet dimensionally very close and reasonably strong as Hoss has shown in machine tool parts.

[NSR_CIVIC]

No prob bud. Just hadn't heard back from ya.

Kevin.
Nsr customs.

[jcubed2012]

Hello Hoss,

This will be my first post but I have followed your build when it first started but have taken a break from the forum for about two years. I finally picked up a g0704 mill as of last weekend and am going to convert it to cnc. I would like to run a 4th axis and run flood coolant , atc and be able to power on the spindle via the controller . I am a machinist so I have that down just haven't built my own machine so looking forward to this. I like what you have done with all of yours so my real question is now that its 2013, what is the electronics package you are running on your g0704 at this moment without having to look through all these pages. I'm looking for suggestions on a bulletproof setup that can do some real hogging of material . I would like thtorque and the speeds. Also the looking to speed up that spindle. I will be using this to make radio control car hop ups and parts ranging from alum to titanium.

Any input would be appreciated,

Thanks,
Jeff

[hoss2006]

Hey Jeff,
You picked a great mill to start with.
I'm still using mostly the 6050 drivers and 570 oz/in steppers and it still kicks butt.
I've tested the digital driver and still have one on there.
Today I would get my heavy duty digital package just for the extra oomph and the smoothness of the digital drivers.
G0704 Electronics
They can outperform anything I've seen and can rival servos for top speed.
You won't worry about needing to upgrade later.
Anymore questions feel free to ask.
Hoss

[jcubed2012]

Thanks I will look into getting that setup. But do you have any advise on building the pc?

[hoss2006]

If you plan to run Mach 3 they have some basic requirements.

Mach3 Minimum Requirements:

32-bit Desktop (using the parallel port)

32-bit version of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 Operating System (64-bit will not work)
1Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM
Basic Computer Skills (ability to copy/rename files, browse directories, etc)

Laptop / 64-bit Desktop (using an external motion controller)

An appropriate external motion controller (options can be found on the Plugins page)
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 Operating System
1Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
Basic Computer Skills (ability to copy/rename files, browse directories, etc)

Best to get a desktop that comes with a parallel port already, I'd get a 2Ghz which are pretty cheap these days.
Check pricewatch.com.
Hoss

[dnepr0mike]

anyone on here tried puting one of those inexpensive iGaging DROs from ebay on g0704?
Updated with Preset Function 6" 150mm Digital Readout Read Out DRO Remote LCD | eBay

i'm mainly concerned with accuracy/quality of the unit.
any one who tried/used care to give some feedback?

thank you.

[hoss2006]

Doesn't the forum look nice now.

mike, there have been several to use the igaging dros,
here's one.
Adding iGaging Readouts to A Grizzly G0704 Mill
Think the only complaint was that they time out like any other digital scale.
Someone did a fix for that but I can't locate it.
Hoss