Newbie new build

[Heliox]

Hey Heliox

Welcome to the forum

I think your budget might need to stretch abit more if your looking to do aluminium aswell, there’s plenty of people who can refer you to contacts to get parts cheaper an deals, also don’t order your electronics until your design in in place as things will change and you don’t want to be stuck with parts you’ve brought that aren’t no good,

go onto the guys channel he has got a build log to give you a better understanding of his design, and I believe them Nema motors your looking at are too small nM wise, I think they would suit a 3D printer more, the standard seems to be 3nM or more from what I’ve read.

With regards to the spindle water cooled is the best option, again people can give you contacts to sort that for you with a vfd to go with it

Sam, Thanks alot for that input, I'm a good listener, and what you said makes sense.

Those kits look attractive, but are underpowered .............The electronics is not the right place to start.

Although you have talked about the materials you would like to cut, you haven't mentioned cutting area which is a major design driver. And although everyone would like to cut aluminium, that's a big step in rigidity and accuracy over and above what's needed for wood.

You need to go down that route with your eyes open. I'm not saying don't, just be aware of the compromises you are making and decide realistically if that's for you.

Ask questions and listen to the answers - there's a lot of experience on this site from people happy to help.

Just as a stake in the ground, thinking about budget - my roughly 1500x750 cutting area machine so far cost around £2500
But good luck - it's great fun building a machine like this! Just be realistic

You're not going to do it on your budget sorry to tell you this, it still cost £1500

You need a vfd for the spindles they won't work without it.

I'd say neale's right £2500 is the zone I had to work real hard and had a lot of luck to get mine to £1500 some things are not worth wasting money on like those motors and drivers you linked to other things you can scrimp on get a $5 BOB for now, make your PSU, beg a cheap table to put it on. But don't cheap ass the drivers, the frame, the slides, the motors or the ballscrews as these can;t be upgraded easily without the first ones having little resale value.

Also 10mm pitch ballscrews, don't make my mistake

Guys already Iv'e made some some design decisions, I am only going to cut card, I won't bother with any electronics, card will be 2mm thick, work size 300mm x 300mm.............aye, Iv'e already got the kit for that, a good stanley knife and my right hand I'll spend the other 499 quid on Ibuprofen and beers to aid the repetitive strain syndrome I'll have lol.

o.k Jokes aside, I get it, and I don't believe in reinventing the wheel after receiving good advice so thanks all.

o.k here goes.

my main desire/requirement right now is to cut carbon or GRP plates, and likely never to be above 3mm thick. (though I assume if it were 30mm thick I would just need more tool passes, not a stronger machine) So realistically from what you guys say, if I get sidetracked from that objective to wanting to cut Aluminium and wood etc then I am looking at bigger costs.

(I do want to keep cost down as this is a startup venture with one specific material to cut to my designs).

1. work size will be approx 1000 x 600mm, I am open to change on this for cost effectiveness, the components will not be wider than 250mm square so having a 1000 x 600mm CNC I reckon I can produce 4-6 at a time. but if it were more cost effective to build 2 machines that cut 2 at a time I would do that, not that I intend to, but for example If I only could cut one at a time, then I only need a machine that will cut 250mm square 3mm plunge into carbon fibre plate, so I am open to changing the size depending on cost, if I have to run the machine twice to produce 3 parts, 4 parts,,5,6,7 etc so be it.

So because I would like to batch produce these components, if I could do 20 in a day I'd be happy. and that will determine machine size.
But it seems a waste to limit my machine to just 250mm square 3mm carbon fibre plates if with a little extra grunt and money I could build something capable of more.

2. forget cutting aluminium (I'll have to build or buy another machine in the future.....shame that

3. water cooled spindle,,,,,,,,,,whats a VFD?........variable frequency drive ? i.e speed controller?

4. decent nema motors (even if I oversize them to able to use on another machine).......how do you calculate the nM required, what is the relationship between the force and table size? I guess the longer and wider the ball screw and hardness of materials being cut to travel speed determines the motor force needed? but how do you decide or calculate it,,,,yes I could copy another design for that but is there some rule of thumb?

5. What's a $5 BOB?

6. I already got a Table, it is an old school classroom table, 1" steel legs/frame and a formica type top bolted to it, I can attach my machine to that.

This forum needs a glossary for us noobs ;-)

Thanks for the input guys.