Advice please on 100cmx60cm CNC router

[JAZZCNC]

Hi I am going to build a 100cmx60cm router and have lots of questions.
The budget is very tight
The frame will be 40x80mm aluminium profiles.
The questions are as follows
1. Will NEMA 23 motors be big enough
2. Can I get away with one motor on X axis
3. What size spindle or router do I need
4. Can I get away with out using closed loop motors
The ball screws are 1605s
The guide rails are 20mm
The machine will be used mostly for wood and venner work.
But would like to be able to do aluminium to 6mm occasionally
Thank you
Albert

Hi Albert,

#1 NEMA23 is just the frame size it's the Nm rating and the motor spec along with the voltage you run them at and how the phases are wired ie series or parallel which matters most. For a router parallel wiring works best.
For a machine this size look for an 8 wire motor rated 3Nm+ with an inductance around 3Mh when wired in parallel. Run them with Digital drives rated around 70-80Vdc with a PSU that outputs between 50-60Vdc, most of us build our own using a toroidal transformer and capacitors/bridge rectifier. This gives the best value and performance and it's not difficult to build.

DONT BUY CHEAP DRIVES like the TB based drives you see on Ebay.

#2 Yes

#3 That's very dependent on what and how you want to cut but personally I wouldn't use less than 1.5Kw and if you want to use large tooling then 2.2Kw is best.

#4 Absolutely, Closed-loop are nice but they work just the same as normal stepper and provided you choose the right motor, drive and use the correct voltage they perform perfectly fine.

Regards the ball-screws then if you haven't bought them yet then I strongly suggest you buy a 10mm pitch, 5mm is a little slow for a router.

Hope this helps, just ask if your unsure of anything.