Hello from a lurker...

[JAZZCNC]

What R&D! If they'd done any R&D then it wouldn't be made from plywood.

Agree with Jonathan but also under stand what your saying.!! . . . But don't think you realise just what can be achieved with £400.

I could build a base frame and Gantry for machine with 1000 x 700 cutting made from Box section steel for £60 and still have some steel left.!!

If you want bling and shiny then £500 would buy all the Aluminium plate and profile for this machine which purely by coincidence is very similar in design to Excel's machine here EXEL CNC SL6090 Pro that cost's £6000 and it's not has stiff or neat has my design(Which was designed and built well before they started).

With £2K you can build a cracking steel machine complete with profiled linear rails and all the trimmings.
To give an idea I'm just Finishing off a machine for someone like the one in the Picture which has profiled rails, ballscrews, 3Nm motor's along Proximity switch limits and energy chain all the trimmings etc.

Proper Control box (which I'm doing Now between typing here.!!) that has high quality 80V AM882 Digital drives, excellent CSMIO-P-M motion control card full with 24v signals and Estop system driven thru Pilz safety relay etc

All this for £2800 minus spindle.!! (and I'm covering most my time). . . . . Built from steel it would be Less.!!

[firetrappe]

From the images you've posted it's clear that your machine has quite a lot of backlash, so you definitely want to eliminate this by using ballscrews on your next machine.



What R&D! If they'd done any R&D then it wouldn't be made from plywood. If you consider it worth paying for R&D, then just look at the build logs on this forum and you'll find all the information you need. I've recently posted about a machine I made, and I will upload the drawings/plans to the post very soon. No I'm not charging for it as it's all information you can get for nothing if you're prepared to spend a little time reading the forums. Charging for it would be like charging people to read this website...

Jonathan, yes, my current machine does have a lot of backlash. Unfortunately there is quite a lot of play in the whole machine so I haven't even bothered trying to dial any of it out with software.

Maybe R&D was a bad term to use. The guy that sells the kits (which are cut using the machine he sells kits of btw) has revised the design and build instructions several times. He has a dedicated forum for people building the machine and has refined the design from his customers input to make it better and more fool-proof to build. 'Support' would have been a better reason for justifying the price. With several build logs to refer to from other people building identical machines (Startseite - CNC-Holzfraese), I felt that it would be worth the cost of the kit. It's the path I followed for my existing machine and it's the support and building tips/mods from the Phlatprinter community that made the build so much more enjoyable.

Sorry absolutely don't agree that thing will be harder to setup than pair of SU carbs that's been sat in scrapyard for 20 yrs

Jazz, My main concern was building the machine 'square'. I know how difficult it can be to build an RC aeroplane without warps etc. I'd much rather have an accurately machined metal frame that could be bolted together rather than glued and screwed!

Anyway, thanks to all the input from you guys i'm pleased to say the Plyw**d machine is looking much less likely.

Si.