Newbie looking at 6040 (China CNC) for polypropylene 15mm sheet

depends, I use a few places.

Shop-apt are quick and good quality, but I generally use aliexpress a lot these days... there's some really high quality stuff on there at decent enough prices, you just have to wait a bit longer to get them. I've also ordered stuff from BZT in the past for some specific bits I wanted (diamond coated ones for CF), shipping was ridiculous though...

Okay so you pretty much sold me the omioCNC...
Few other threads on it show that it is pretty good.

Question is, do you still use the stock components like the controller, steppers, drivers etc?

And what accessories to get?

Ta

Why dont you add to your mental map a what a good DIY cnc can do.

6mm depth of cut aluminum, perfect finish. Not 0.6mm, :smiley_simmons: like on video you were watching but real 6mm at around 2000 mm/min , and slot cutting, mind that.

https://goo.gl/photos/f69ooiHd6JN8Q5Ur5

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JOGARA

Okay so you pretty much sold me the omioCNC...
Few other threads on it show that it is pretty good.

Question is, do you still use the stock components like the controller, steppers, drivers etc?

And what accessories to get?

Ta

---

Hah I'm not trying to sell you on it - just that if you are going the Chinese router direction, that is one of the better ones. It still has it's issues but you pay your money and you take your choices...

I am not using many of the stock components anymore, although there was nothing wrong with them. I changed the motion card mostly because I wanted to try out mach4 and also because I prefer Ethernet to USB... the stock card worked fine with Mach3 though and I didn't run into any obvious interference issues. I also changed the motors over to leadshine closed loop easyservos, the rest of the electronics I kept (PSU, VFD, Spindle) although I'd like to change to a toroidal at some point.

The biggest issue for me is that they (like seemingly all Chinese routers) don't ground the spindle. When I mentioned it they said grounding the spindle can cause interference issues with the USB card, but it's a point of safety so to my mind it needed to be done.

I changed to a 4 core shielded cable for the spindle, and re-wired the box into a star point earth... doing it that way I never had interference issues.

Accessories wise you just need to figure out what you need or want for work holding (vise, clamps, spoil board, vacuum board etc), and a good set of high precision ER collets in the sizes you want is a sound investment. Beyond that just a few cheap cutters to get started with as you will probably break some while getting to grips with it.

Just one more question for everyone. I need to basically set up multiple stations on the CNC to do different operations.

What is the best way to get positional accuracy with the drill bit and workpiece?

I have seen John over at NYCCNC on his Tormach and HASS use a device that sits inside the collect to get XYZ positions as well as a little cube that gets the drill bit position.
Is that an option with Mach3 and this sort of CNC?

Was going to mill a 10mm plate to put vices on that can then be squared and made repeatable. But it is that first setup each time I want to make sure I am a 0.01mm accurate.

Thanks
Jack,

I just recently got one of these... I think it's pretty good for the money and certainly the only one I'm aware of in this sort of price range that uses contacts submerged in di-electric oil to avoid the oxidation problem.

http://www.kurokesu.com/shop/TPA2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JOGARA

Just one more question for everyone. I need to basically set up multiple stations on the CNC to do different operations.

What is the best way to get positional accuracy with the drill bit and workpiece?

I have seen John over at NYCCNC on his Tormach and HASS use a device that sits inside the collect to get XYZ positions as well as a little cube that gets the drill bit position.
Is that an option with Mach3 and this sort of CNC?

Was going to mill a 10mm plate to put vices on that can then be squared and made repeatable. But it is that first setup each time I want to make sure I am a 0.01mm accurate.

Thanks
Jack,

---

I just googled "touch probe mach3" and I get 83,400 hits... :)

...along with pictures, and build instructions of everything, from simple touch plate to complex 3-D probes.

A simple conductive material works fine and will give you the accuracy, but remember that your accuracy depends on what you calibrating with as well. A touch probe is connected to one of the free inputs and you configure that input in Mach3 as "Probe". The thing is that you need a macro to get it working as well, but there are plenty of those available freely if you don't want to write one. Once you have the macro you have to attach that to a button and call it every time you intend to use it. It is pretty simple but maybe you need to spend some more time if you have never done it before.

I am using a simple PCB piece most of the time, it works just fine, but have plans on making something more advanced, but it isn't highest on my priority list.

Repeatable accuracy to 0.01 mm is pretty demanding. I know that on my own machine I can get repeatability to +-0.003mm - one microstep, in other words. However, accuracy is another thing, and apart from anything else you are going to need a decent set of collets. As already said, you can do this kind of probing with a simple accurate block plus a straight plain shank in a collet, or spend hundreds or more. For ease of use, you might also want to look at an upgraded Mach3 screenset. Gerry"s 2010 screen set is widely recommended and includes probing functions - a Google search will find it.

Is it worth paying £735 more for the X8?

X6
(X)355×(Y)510×(Z)85mm
57BYGH76-3A steppers


X8
(X)565×(Y)770×(Z)85mm
60BYGH86-4.2A steppers

Controller wise, the X6 uses Mach3. The X8 has an embedded system.
Does it still have usb input for Mach3?

The nearly double workspace is tempting...
Just don't fancy only using their hardware controller.

Thinking about it, £735 is a lot... Never mind

Bigger is good, if you need the space...

Bigger also however means less rigid for the same given design (as is the case here), so if that space isn't going to be used then it does have a negative aspect to consider.

I'm sure they could supply the X8 with the black control box if requested.