New member from Luxembourg

[JeffZ]

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.


Doubled the belt width, and designed solid belt tensioners to replace the zip tie tensioners.


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.


But the mpcnc project has now served it's purpose, and I would like to design and build a "proper" gantry style cnc:


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!

[Doddy]

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.

[Kitwn]

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