Evening all.....

No I am not a copper just a frustrated machinist who has not used a CNC for a while. Did my apprenticeship at BREL many years ago and worked on some really big mills and vertical borers. Used to have my own CNC HAAS mill and a CNC lathe to play on but sadly no longer.

I want to build a small CNC router to play with at home and after looking around the internet I have decided this looks like the best place to start. Plenty of 3D CAD, machining, laser cutting and fabrication facilities available to me but no idea of how use them to build myself a machine.

Anyhow, got my mind set on building a machine so when i do that it will usually happen..!!!

Welcome to the site Steve, will keep an eye out for your posts !

Mainly cutting 2mm carbon fibre sheet. Min bed size 500 x 300, max bed size - whatever fits in my double garage..!!

I have absolutely no idea were to start but really like the idea of building something from scratch. Where is the best place to start??? The most confusing part for me is the stepper motors and drives, seen and used lots of them but never done any electrical work with them. How expensive will the electrics be as the mechanics wont cost me a great deal at all.

Thanks in advance.

Don't take catalogue prices as gospel, remember these go to the printers months before, whereas the £ to $, which is what controls pricing varies daily.

Those 4.2 amp drivers from Arc are currently at £40 including VAT, they are also doing Oldham couplings at reasonable prices.

It pays to pick the phone up and check on some of these things.

John S.

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Originally Posted by Kip

Heres me thinking websites could be updated daily....As regards £:$ exchange rates....it's like fuel pricing.....great excuse to sell stock purchased at a lower price at a higher one.....Just my view of course.....Not affiliated to any of the suppliers myself.

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Sorry, won't bother in future.

John S.

Our Prices on our site are based on the actual cost of the product when bought.
As more stock is bought, and if the exchange rate changes the selling price will change.
That is what happened a few months back when the price of motors and drivers went up.
We normally buy motors and drivers in high volume and this normally lasts a few months, so it came as a bit of a shock to a lot of customers when prices went up so much.
This was caused by the USD exchange rate changing from $2 to the £ to $1.3 to the £.

Updating prices daily is not practical, considering that there are thousands of prices to change.
This is why we only change prices when new stock arrives.

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Originally Posted by Kip

Heres me thinking websites could be updated daily....As regards £:$ exchange rates....it's like fuel pricing.....great excuse to sell stock purchased at a lower price at a higher one.....Just my view of course.....Not affiliated to any of the suppliers myself.

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I am allways buying stock.
Seems lately, it sells too quick. bloody customers keep buying stuff.

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Originally Posted by Kip

Good point! but you do update them regular-ish.

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So, what I am looking for at the moment is a full electrics kit (drivers, PSU, stepper motors etc) that are all compatible so that I can build a small(ish) bed router around.

I am looking at 3 axis machine.

I need to build a machine first to get a grip with the electrics and get a better understanding of how it all operates and communicates.

So what do you suggest.....

Buying a kit is allways better, at least you know that the parts are compatible, and you get all the part you need in one hit.
The kits are only there to help people understand what they need, and there is no price advantage, because the parts work out to be the same if you order them individually.
If you are looking at the SY60 motors on our site, we do a kit with these motors (Kit 1) but normally the Z axis does not need to be as large, so you may be able to save some money by using the kit as an example and then selecting the Z axis with a smaller motor.
You would only save a few pounds, but worth looking at?

Gary

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Originally Posted by HiltonSteve

So, what I am looking for at the moment is a full electrics kit (drivers, PSU, stepper motors etc) that are all compatible so that I can build a small(ish) bed router around.

I am looking at 3 axis machine.

I need to build a machine first to get a grip with the electrics and get a better understanding of how it all operates and communicates.

So what do you suggest.....

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