'Ello.

[korky]

Hi.
I'm new-ish around here (I've lurked for a few months).

I'd always wanted to build a CNC machine to control a drill or router.
So this last winter I did.

It's made from old kitchen worktops - 38mm melamine chipboard, bolted together with home-made dowel-screws.
Fixed Y gantry with a moving X bed.
Linear bearings made from pairs of opposed ball-bearing drawer runners.
M6 threaded rod, with home-made delrin nuts, and skate-board bearings each end.
nema23 motors connected with garden hose and jubilee clips.
diycnc(crh electronics) system 3+ driver board.
cheap 24v 6.5A supply.
bosch hobby router / proxxon drill.
Working area of 420mmx420mmx230mm xyz.

My intial aim was very modest - to get accuracy of about 0.1mm to help me cut PCBs into weird shapes, engrave wooden signs etc. Oh, and my budget was small... hence no ground ballscrews or fancy bearings anywhere.

It's worked better than I ever hoped. It's happy drilling holes in PCB, cutting out PCB shapes, routing MDF, routing wood...
It easily gets 0.1mm repeatability, and it cuts MDF/wood at 300mm per min like butter. (Okay, shallow cuts of 2mm, but I'm learning...)

It's happy doing 600mm per min rapids, which is fast enough for me.

The Z axis is the weak point - the drawer runners can't be mounted opposed - so it's a little wobbly. I'm currently wondering whether to make a new Z using right-angle aluminium and skate bearings.

Oh, and I'll be trying to wire up an SSR in the next few weeks so I can turn off the drill/router and vacuum cleaner at the end of a program.

Currently running on Mach3 freebie (500 lines of gcode), but I want to try linux/emc2 fairly soon.

Enough wittering.
Cheers,

Keith.

[Tom]

Hi Keith,

I'm new around here too. What you've done doesn't sound a million miles from what I'm aiming for in [ame="http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3883"]my build[/ame].

Difference is you've already done it and I'm just starting!

By the way, i've decided to go with EMC2 and it seems a really powerful piece of software. I even found the installation (onto an old scrapped desktop) really easy. I've not yet wired it up to motors though so i'm sure I'll need a little help from the EMC mailing list at some point....

Have you got any pics of your machine and the work it's done?

Tom

[Smiler]

Hi.
I'm new-ish around here (I've lurked for a few months).

I'd always wanted to build a CNC machine to control a drill or router.
So this last winter I did.

Photos, Photos, Photos!!!

Sounds abosultely intriguing Keith and by the way, welcome to the forum mate

Jeff.

[Lee Roberts]

Its to big for the smile box kip i'v already tryed it.

[korky]

I've got a vague feeling that some of you would like to see pictures...

If I get this post right, this should be a picture of it:


And this should be a picture of the delrin nut at the top of the gantry - it's not pretty, but it does seem to be effective:



K.

[edit: and here's an example of work it's done - it cut the hobby drill/extraction tube clamps:

(not with the proxxon though... a 1/4" router cut the MDF) ]

[Tom]

Thanks for the pics - looks good!

You mention the delrin nuts you've made are going well, which has encouraged me to try something similar.

Cheers!

[BillTodd]

Nice job Korky :)

[Lee Roberts]

Check these out Tom: [ame="http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=212&postcount=17"]Link[/ame]

I also make these: