MDF CNC Router plans / parts for home build beginners

[michael]

No!

Designed and made in Derby, and not by me or John before you ask!

Have I been gone that long everyone thinks i'm dead??? John, Steve, Lee????

[irving2008]

Have I been gone that long everyone thinks i'm dead??? John, Steve, Lee????

I hear knocking... Is there someone there???

welcome back... it seems a while... lol

[John S]

Yup.............

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[cartman1973]

As a bewildered newbie I would just like to voice my support for this project - and from my perspective the original proposed target cost of approx £350 seems reasonable, particularly if we can spread it out as we build the router over time. Thanks for your work on this and I wait with excited impatience to see how it turns out, and the chance to be a guinea pig builder for you...

[gorbo]

I am also a newbie and I expect that when I build my machine it will cost me £1000+ because I want it as good as I can get it, when you consider this is done over a year its not to bad, some hobbies cost money, a lot of money that's the way it is but having said that, if someone can build a good machine below £1000 please give me your tips!!

[Robin Hewitt]

if someone can build a good machine below £1000 please give me your tips!!

A "good machine", as in 'commercial', would have a cast iron gantry.

If you don't have chums at the foundry, a cheap alternative would be box section iron filled with concrete and don't be mean with the cement when you mix it.

Heavy kills vibration, concrete resists bending when you load it.

1 pound force will accelerate a mass of 32.16 lbs at 1 ft/s/s.
1 Newton will accelerate a mass of 1kg at 1 m/s/s
A 1Nm motor on to a 5mm pitch screw will give you 125N thrust.

[John51]

Hi all, this is my 3rd revival of interest in cnc, story so far: That's cool but it's expensive, interest wanes. That's cool and doesn't have to be expensive but it's complex, interest wanes. Maybe I could make a few bob from this, interest rises. lol

Someone that knows someone close to you looks at something produced on YOUR cnc machine and says... I want one...how much? When this happens, all of our expense is justified. iow, it's not the making of a few bob that is the priority, it's the being able to use the motive of making a few bob in order to do what you wanted to do anyway that is important. Cue Douglas Adams and the software that gives you reasons for getting whatever it is that you want. (I've forgotten what that software is called.) :)

So what does this machine make that other people want? I think this has to be decided first.

Whatever newbie machine is being designed, it has to make stuff that other people want or there is not much point to doing it, might as well build a toy robot that only does somersaults or buy a Lego Mindstorms.

So what can this cheapo newbie machine make?

[btw, I hope that I'm not being seen as negative, I think that it's a great idea.]

[John51]

Not yet familiar with the site, the pic is of a £95 milling work table that looks like it could do with a couple of stepper motors, there's your X-Y axis. Choose a corner of the workshop with 2 load bearing walls, build a strong shelf for the work table and add a cross section for the Z axis up above. Just a thought.

[CraigRK]

Sorry not replied for a while but I am up to my nuts in other jobs that needs to be done before I get time to play, one of them being fitting a new bathroom... seemed like a good idea at the time..!

Anyway, I should get a few hours at it again later this week so fingers crossed and keep the idea's coming because there are a few good one's in there.

Can anyone put tiles up??? only a couple of hundred.... will keep you fed with tea and hobnobs... Give me some time to do something that I enjoy doing instead.

So, is that bathroom done yet? has this made any progress?

[HiltonSteve]

So, is that bathroom done yet? has this made any progress?

Bathroom done...

And new single storey extension on the back of the house together with a new kitchen. The next time the wife comes up with one of these ideas then I must either talk her out of it or pack a case for her.

Thrown everything out the workshop so it no longer looks like a builders merchants and swept the floor, you can now walk round without breaking your ankle...

May look at getting something moving again on this one, but the one thing that stopped me before apart from the DIY was people saying that it was too expensive. Building any cnc machine is time consuming and will mean you having to put your hand in your pocket a few times but look at it as in investment, I made a few small plaques out of a bit of oak last week which took me a couple of hours, sold them for £120...😊

Not just about making money but also learning something along the way.

What sort of price for building a small MDF machine do you think is reasonable?