Hello From Somerset

Hello all, join this forum as i would like to start building a cnc machine, obviously who better to ask than the people who have gone through it lol.

I am an apprentice engineer, well just finishing, and can do most things machanically minded, electronics are my downfall, although i do know some basics, so i will be asking for help on that matter lol.

Firstly, looking to be able to machine A3 size, plans have been drawn and started to be made, also its going to be running 16x5mm ballscrews, and the electronics i have sourced come with 3.1nm steppers, so can any one tell me if these are strong enough or are they going to need gearing, or just change my electronics totally.

Sorry for the big ask on first questions lol

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Originally Posted by totts

Hello all, join this forum as i would like to start building a cnc machine, obviously who better to ask than the people who have gone through it lol.

I am an apprentice engineer, well just finishing, and can do most things machanically minded, electronics are my downfall, although i do know some basics, so i will be asking for help on that matter lol.

Firstly, looking to be able to machine A3 size, plans have been drawn and started to be made, also its going to be running 16x5mm ballscrews, and the electronics i have sourced come with 3.1nm steppers, so can any one tell me if these are strong enough or are they going to need gearing, or just change my electronics totally.

Sorry for the big ask on first questions lol

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Hi there welcome to the forum, what would you like to do with this A3 size machine you are going to build, IE what do you intend to produce with it? what sort of materials would you be using for your projects.. Give us a little bit of info and im sure the answers you require will come your way :)

3.1nm steppers should be plenty for a machine that size, unless you need it to go extremely fast. Using timing pulleys, with a bigger pulley on the motor, will help to get a high feedrate however this does of course reduce resolution.

You've not mentioned which drivers come with them? This makes a big difference as the maximum useful speed you'll get out of the motors is roughly proportional to the voltage they are run at.

Hi, thanks for the quick replys, Eeerm, materials will be mostly aluminium, trade I am in I can access it easily and cheaply as we buy it in bulk, the lower frame is going to be steel, although after looking on here I was going for 2 16mm shafts for x axis but now going to re design for 16mm supported shaft or 20mm supported. Will post pictures of my designs when I get near my computer lol. As for electronics, was looking for basically a plug in and go set up so have sourced the system 4 off of diycnc which you must of heard of? Don't want nothing to powerful and rapids don't have to be fast but just ample. As for machining would like to do engraving and small aluminium work unto 20mm thick. And possible word work due to my dad being a carpenter, and furniture maker. Well that's a rather lengthy post for this time of night off to the land of nod for a while, hope this sheds some more light, I will be thinking of more questions as I go, infact, most of you use Mach for machining? Cheers