Bloke in uncoverted loft with 3 dot matrix printers says hi

[HankMcSpank]

(originally posted on CNC Zone, but replicated here with a little editing since I'm UK based & maybe not everyone here reads that forum)

I've finally got around to building my my CNC

Because I'm such a cheapskate I wanted to spend as little as possible on this.

Ingredients..

6 x Dot Matrix printers - kindly donated from work (they were about to be thrown out - intially I only had three, but the extra three have made a significant difference to how I've rolled out the design) ....excellent for hardened steel rail & the bearings that ride on them...also stepper motors (albeit weak ones) & switches.

Steel pipe (was formerly used as stair handrail at work)...this is for the frame

4mm Aluminium plate (used to be blanking plates to fill in the gaps on the front of computer cabinters). This has proved to be excellent for keeping everything fairly level.

Bought items...

Stepper driver card (I couldn't be bothered to make my own)

Linear rail mounts (a godsend ...the linear rails out the dot matrix printer were 11.94mm...a bit of ebaying found a product called 'sk12' mounts (for 12mm rails) ....these held my rail perfectly! All 12 for about £20 delivered (I'm a Brit)

M8 threaded rod - remember ...I'm cheap.

Roller Skate bearings.

Delrin (to make my own anti backlash nuts)

Some screws/bolts.

I'll be powering from a fairly powerful bench PSU I already have.


Ok, I've only just started the build (two days in), but here you can see the dot matrix printer transport after I'd stripped it out of it's casing (you can make the photos larger by clicking on the main photo within the page that opens).....



These are the linear rail mounts (money well spent)....



Here's an early shot which outlines the basics of the steel frame (lossely based on the easy CNC mill design - the steel frame will be all welded once everything is finally built & 'lined up').




& here's where I'm up to as of today...





(note, the little bit of wood you see at the end of the threaded rod , was just an experiment to try & get the threaded rod level. Also the bright green thing with a red top isn't a sex toy...it's a carton from one of my kids ice lollies, I've got some enamelled copper wrapped around it for a home pickup project - another day!).

yes, I know the stepper is going to be too weak...initially, I'll only be cutting thin acrylic & we'll see where this takes me (I'm using a dremel as a spindle but have my eye on a nice wolfgang spindle!)

Still to do...

mount the motors (I'm still trying to figure out the way to do this cheaply!)

Align the threaded rods with the motors. (M8 threaded rod to 6.35mm shaft - any ideas...remember, proice is a motivating factor here!)


I'll update soon - bear in mind this is my first build (& no plans to follow...making it up as I go along) , I'm not really the mechanical engineering type (more the electronics sort)