Author Topic: Home Built CNC Project  (Read 10681 times)

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ruddycrazy

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Home Built CNC Project
« on: August 04, 2011, 05:25:18 AM »
G'day Guy's,
                This has been a 4 year project, this cnc is only a small one at 650x35x170mm so here are the pics

 3689-0

The Y-axis was  made from a cast iron block and I machined in some holes to suit some oil light bush's. The rods are 4140 and should be strong enough to hold

3690-1


The Z-axis was totally hand made and first I tapped the block with a 12 tpi acme tap then made the thread to suit

The control block is some 3 amp CC circuits the guy at the uni  gave me.

3692-2

The controller section is next


3691-3

Thats it for now with a broken hand this small cnc baby has a bit to go...

Cheers Bryan
« Last Edit: August 04, 2011, 05:57:37 AM by ruddycrazy »

Tritium

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2011, 05:13:35 PM »
Sweet, I sure would like one of those but bigger for plasma cutting and foam carving for lost foam casting.

Thurmond

GoVertical

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2011, 07:37:17 PM »
Hi, very nice. What software do plan on using?
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bj

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #3 on: August 04, 2011, 10:18:28 PM »
  Looks good Bryan, Robust.  ??broken hand??
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj
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ruddycrazy

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2011, 02:48:28 AM »
G'day Guy's,
                 Currently I'm running k-cam but I also have mach3 to try out too. BJ about 10 weeks ago at work I broke my right ring finger and the bone wasn't healing at all. I got sent to a specialist and got surgery done on the same day. Today I got the bandage changed over as the wound had weeped and dry blood was all thru the bandage. I got a look at where they cut and can understand now why he said I out be out for atleast a month. They put a plate in and screwed it to my broken bones and the cut went from one knuckle to the other and it does look like I'll endup with a nice big 'zorro' scar on the finger. The good part about the new bandage I now have more movement so atleast I can get a few thing done but i do need to take it real easy as there are over 20 stitch's in the finger.
                Tomorrow I'll take the z-axis controller off and solder the middle fet pins as there is a fault on the boards. I'll see how I go one handed on my bridgeport mill so I can getthe dremmel all fitted up so I can start using the cnc.

Cheers Bryan

GoVertical

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2011, 05:37:56 AM »
Hi, I look forward to test your with Mach3. I purchased the software and tried for 8 months to resolve a position off set that occurred every time a axis moved. The offset never showed up on the DRO's.  If you do not have that problem please let me know. Are you using axis stop switch's?  I hope you have a speedy recovery.
Learn from the past, live in the present, plan for the future
kilroyOdin is not here ;)
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dlenox

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2011, 04:46:22 PM »
Bryan,

Looks like you have a good start, I just finished mine and had it as a winter project.  Finally just got around to fitting all the axis with limit switches.
My working dimensions are 36" x 36" and about 3" Z movement.


I'm using Mach3 w/USB drive and 425oz steppers.  My intention is light milling/drilling along with plasma torch, so I'm building a split table - 1/2 for plasma and the other half with 8020 extrusions

Dan Lenox

ruddycrazy

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2011, 03:22:10 AM »
G'day Guy's,
                 Well the Z-axis stepper turned out to be burnt out so I'm going to use a bipolar stepper I have here. Also I'm going to make a whole new Z axis as I'm not happy with the current one. Got a call from work today and was told it's not that we don't want ya back how about staying off work until the 29th so your finger can have a better chance to heal. I mean how many boss's will ring a doctor and tell them to keep our worker off work for another 3 weeks, instead of demanding the workers return straight away......

               Looks like I'll have plenty of time up my sleeve to get the cnc finished.........

Cheers Bryan

bj

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2011, 07:37:14 AM »
   Good Boss'es are a rare thing these days Bryan, but it sounds like you have one.
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj
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dlenox

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2011, 09:26:03 AM »
Bryan,

Yea - the z-axis is the most difficult part of the cnc to build.  You want to be sure that it is not too wide (takes up movement).  As you've seen it takes an awful lot of length on the z-axis to get a reasonable 'actual movement' of the tooling.

I opted to do direct drive of the z-axis as it's directly coupled to the stepper motor. While used a rack/pinion drive for both the X and Y axis.

I see that you have a screw for your X, and that it uses direct stepper connection.  Which makes me think that the chain drive for the Z was simply to make the motor mounting simpler?

what are you using for your Y axis?  Dual drives I hope?  Racking on moveable gantry machines is problematic.

have fun.
Dan Lenox

ruddycrazy

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2011, 05:58:57 PM »
All Dan,
           In the pic's in my first post it is the Y axis that you can see is direct drive. It uses a 16mm x 5mm pitch ball screw and the rails are 3/4" 4140 with the head unit being a block of cast iron with oil light bush's. The x-axis is also a 16 x 5mm pitch ball screw and is direct drive and on each side is 2 off of 25mm linear bearings and the 25mm OD linear shaft is the proper hardened CNC variety. I'm thinking of upgrading the 10mm rails on the z-axis to 16mm bar to increase the rigidity and go direct drive using my 5 volt 1 amp bipolar stepper.
         Another option I have is to use my 250 volt 7 amp 8 wire stepper for the x-axis and use the current x-axis stepper for the z-axis. As my stepper driver boards are all single step I do want to make some bipolar micro stepping boards but until I get the cast off my hand trying to solder and drill the pcb's is too hard. Today I'm off to see the quack so hopefully the cast will come off and I can get more mobility with my right hand.

Regards Bryan

dlenox

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Re: Home Built CNC Project
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2011, 09:14:32 PM »
Bryan,

Me - I'm going to be doing light milling, spot drilling and plasma all on the same machine

A number of yrs ago I made an MDF wood router as proof of concept and to see where the problematic areas were.  It was a great exercise and I'm glad  that I did it this way.  Now the new machine is exactly what I needed and wanted.

But what plans do you have for using the machine, that pretty much dictates where rigidity, strength, etc are needed. 

Dan