new here and totally new to cnc

[jmh474]

Ask you can tell from the title im a new member and new to the hobby.
(and a new way to keep out of my partners hair)

iv been looking all over the net for ideas on building a cnc router, there is a lot to read through but im guessing some or most of you all ready know that,
i think iv found a build im going to make a mess of by building it my self, but as with every build ill be putting some of my own changes in.

one thing im not quite clued up on is the controller for the cnc, iv seen there is a mass variety out there, ill hold my hands up and admit im not going to be spending to much money on my first build, So here comes the word china.

iv seen you can get all in one controller driver setup and the one that im interested im at the moment is this one



or is it better to use separate drivers, not forgetting the purse strings attached to my partners fingers

its quite a cheap option, ill be trying not to fry nema 23 motors on it (3 axis), im using the moving gantry method, construction will consist of steel or aluminium box tubing (just alittle worried about weight issues - what have other people used for construction and what have the found works best under budget)
using T8 lead screws to drive the x, y, and z axis

well thanks for getting this far with me aas im shore these question have been asked a few 100 times,
bu any information people are willing to part with would be fantastic

[jmh474]

or i did look into these as above mentioned separate way.

[Doddy]

You say you've found a build to follow... have you any details of that?

The electronics that you linked - I have the stepper drivers and NVEM controller (5-axis version), and pretty much understand the all-in-1 that you linked. These are entry level devices (and I'll caution that the NVEM driver outputs 2.5us pulses which requires a quick response stepper driver - those you linked may work erratically... nothing that can't be fixed but it's a weakness of the NVEM). My point is the various devices you linked will support a level of performance, but that could be improved with better PSU, better controllers etc. Much depends on your use case. That's why I ask for the build that you're following and also ask what type of material you envisage cutting.

[Kitwn]

Welcome to the forum.
I understand your desire not to spend too much on the first machine but there is a danger of going so cheap that you soon find what you've built is inadequate for your needs and much of the initial spend is wasted as you buy better replacements. That's exactly what I did.

You haven't said what size machine you want to build but going for reasonably beefy motors immediately, even for something quite modest, will future proof your investment. Same goes for motor drivers and leadscrews.

Note that cost rises exponentially with the size of the cutting area so decide what you want to make with this machine and size it to what you actually need.

You will also need some software to control the machine. MACH3 is very popular but LinuxCNC is free!

Kit

[jmh474]

Morning all and thanks for the reply.

The build I came across is on a site called instructables -

https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-CNC-Router/

The main thing I plan on cutting are soft woods and perspex for other projects at home.

[jmh474]

So if anyone is interested or following my post iv gone for a AKZ250 control board and planned on running DM542 drivers from what iv read there some nice bits of kit.

I'm dumping the above build method and building my own from scratch iv come up with a few ideas.

[routerdriver]

I used a very similar driver on my ultra basic build.I kept it simple so that if I did let the magic smoke out of the box it wouldn't be a financial disaster.Which made me happy to have selected a BOB with opto-isolation.Several of the parts may well find their way to a bigger and better machine one day ,so I totally understand your approach.My next challenge is to understand more about homing and limit switches and then make them work.Other than finding some of the Chinglish instructions a bit puzzling it wasn't too difficult.Whatever components you choose,don't lose sight of the fact that its just 1's and 0's being sent along conductors.