New build with recycled parts on a ridiculous budget 120cm*60cm work area

[Neale]

A dedicated supply is obviously the gold-plated solution but I'll think you'll find that pretty much everyone with a similar machine runs the machine off a single 13A socket. I use a 4-way adaptor for control box, inverter, and PC all going back to a single wall socket. No problem at all. Don't be misled by the inverter rating. That's max output power and it's unlikely that you will be pushing it that hard, if ever. Run the vacuum cleaner off a second 13A socket but loading is fine even if it is the same ring. In other words, you could swap a single 13A for a double and still be ok. Even if not a ring and single socket is on a spur, I believe that that should be good for 20A/5KW total load (but would need double socket).

No allowance for kettle in that, of course! Sure it's only 1KW?

[Zeeflyboy]

In reality your spindle will never pull 2.2kw on a machine with this level of rigidity... most of the time it will be much lower.

Your stepper motors etc also are incredibly unlikely to all pull peak power at the same instant.

I do exactly as neale said... I have everything running off a dual socket (computer, monitor, compressor on one, CNC on second) and i run my vac from another socket (which just so happens to be on a different ring, but would be fine on same ring).

Obviously if you want to give it a beefier supply then go for it, but it's not necessary imo and doesn't really fit with your cheap as chips goals!

[Desertboy]

Obviously if you want to give it a beefier supply then go for it, but it's not necessary imo and doesn't really fit with your cheap as chips goals!

I have the 3 phase plug, socket (With Isolator) & SY cable (Free of course) so would only need to buy a short length (2m) of 5 wire armoured cabling to the fuse box, luckily where I have the machine the fuse box is the other side of the wall.

My spindle came this morning and when I put it in the spindle mount and weighed them both 6.5kg's add in my z axis and we getting close to 10kg's (Maybe more) on the gantry. So to combat flex I'm toying with pouring 2K epoxy resin into the cavities in the extrusion which I think will increase rigidity considerably whilst being impossible to tell from the outside lol.


I may encase the frame and gantry in angle steel but my worry is finding angle steel that's straight! I would avoid using it on the side where the rails or ballscrews are mounted.

[Desertboy]

I did have a great score today wasn't free in fact cost me £145 4 years ago from ebay.com from Japan but I lost it, it was assumed that it had been binned. I then forgot I bought it lol. Was looking in drawers at work for my missing linear rail and found it was a nice surprise and in my mindset it was free as I had essentially written it off.

A 2nd hand (But mint) THK C3 ground ballscrew with C3 mounts and bearings ~40cm in total length from tip to tip which I think I will use for my Z axis instead. I would have the ballscrew cut down and end machined BUT being C3 I think I would be ruining the accuracy or paying more than the ballscrew is worth to me so I should leave it alone.

Spindle came as well ;)

[Desertboy]

A dedicated supply is obviously the gold-plated solution but I'll think you'll find that pretty much everyone with a similar machine runs the machine off a single 13A socket. I use a 4-way adaptor for control box, inverter, and PC all going back to a single wall socket. No problem at all. Don't be misled by the inverter rating. That's max output power and it's unlikely that you will be pushing it that hard, if ever. Run the vacuum cleaner off a second 13A socket but loading is fine even if it is the same ring. In other words, you could swap a single 13A for a double and still be ok. Even if not a ring and single socket is on a spur, I believe that that should be good for 20A/5KW total load (but would need double socket).

No allowance for kettle in that, of course! Sure it's only 1KW?

Thanks for the advice, this is not in a home so unsure how many sockets are on the ring but if I ever move this to my house this will be a consideration.

I have a caravan kettle, It's single phase but only 750w I just rounded up. It's very annoying lol as it takes ages to boil but it was of course free ;)