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New member from Luxembourg
Hi everyone, I'm Jeff.
My background is mostly 3D printing.
A little over a year ago I decided that I wanted to get into cnc milling.
So I went ahead and built an MPCNC as a learning platform, as it was the cheapest option, and also consisted mostly of parts/electronics that I was already familiar with. I was also already familiar with Fusion360 CAD, plus there's a lot of educational material online, so learning the CAM part wasn't too difficult.
I learned about speeds/feeds/chipload/post processing etc..
Then I quickly ran into the limitations of the MPCNC. The machine just wasn't rigid enough, and there was a considerable amount of deflection in the steel pipes.
I made some attempts to address those issues and succeeded to some degree:
Stiffened the frame with alu extrusions,beefier corner connectors, reduced the work area, and provided 3d printed supports for the steel pipes.
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Doubled the belt width, and designed solid belt tensioners to replace the zip tie tensioners.
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The whole process was really fun, and I could now do reasonably fast/deep cuts (using an adaptive toolpath) in soft woods, plywood, hard pastics (with an air blast)
After some time my makita handheld router (which I used as a spindle), died on me.
I decided to use this as an opportunity to learn how to setup a proper spindle with VFD, and bought the cheapest chinese 800w spindle kit off ebay to replace it.
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But the mpcnc project has now served it's purpose, and I would like to design and build a "proper" gantry style cnc:
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I will be making a new post in "DIY Router Build Logs" about it soon, in the hopes of receiving some criticism/advice, plus I have a few questions.
Thanks in advance!
Re: New member from Luxembourg
Welcome!, it sounds as though you've learnt a lot over your introduction and I (and I'm sure many others here) will be interested in your thoughts and design of a new machine.
Re: New member from Luxembourg
Welcome aboard Jeff.
Looks like you have a good head start from your 3D printing experience and work on the MPCNC. Looking forward to seeing what you end up building.
Kit