New member from Trinidad

**Trini** · 12-11-2015

Hello all.

My feel of employment is not surrounded CNC Machine but I became interested in this due to the fact that am a freelancer and always have time on my hand. I have a woodworking background through school but never follow through with it although having a love for it.

Seeing that it is an issue to import a CNC router all the way to Trinidad, I have decided to tackle building one myself. My intentions is to build a 8'x4' CNC Router, where I can place a sheet of MDF/ply to make children chairs, tables etc To gain a little extra money in my pocket, and expand to a full woodwork shop by mid next year, I have gone through many sites/you tube/ the treads you fellas placed. Most of what you fellas talk about eg. the servo/stepper motors is really new to me. I understand that it will not be an easy road but I am willing to go the distance with this project.

So far I have seen one 8'x4' CNC that I am very much interesting in building from the treads of D-Man. The steel frame will be easy to get here whereas the rest I may have to import. I was looking around on how to PM someone but with no luck. Any assistance will be appreciated.

Regards

**njhussey** · 12-11-2015

Hi and welcome to the forum Trini. To send a PM to someone you have to left click on their name and select private message (that is if they have set their profile to allow private messages!) Best thing to do is as you are currently doing, look around, see what others have done. I'd suggest looking at Kingcreaky's build here as that's the size you want. once you've had a look, made some notes etc. get your pen and paper out (or better use Sketchup or similar) to do some rough drawings. put them up on here for people to critique/advise and then go for there. Don't even think of sorting the electrics until you've got the basic frame designed as the electrics will depend on your design....

Good luck and welcome to the forum!!

**JAZZCNC** · 12-11-2015

Welcome trini,

Don't let me put you off but if this is your first CNC machien then starting with a large machine isn't always a good idea.
While it may seem like not much more work for large machine compared to smaller size this isn't the case in reality. There's hell of a lot more work and it's much harder to get a large accurate machine. Design and build quality become much more important.

Every thing Neil suggests is good advice you should listen too but please be aware of the scale of machine your undertaking. Just because others have built large a machine doesn't mean that machine performs good or couldn't be better with just a few small tweaks.!! . . . So Research then research some more then a little more for good measure before starting.

**Trini** · 12-11-2015

hi

Thanks for the welcome. Yes I will go through Kingcreaky's build. I have downloaded the sketch up program. I was getting ahead of my self with the electronics. But after many reviews of others I see that the frame has a lot of work also.

So thinking about where to start, I was wondering how much over the dimensions should I go. Eg. I am designing for an 8'x4' cutting area so recommended dimensions should be just a one or two inches over 8'x4' or must the top area be to exact 8'x4'? Also I would like to know the different rails to use. I would like to design up to the rails. I see that many people used the SBR bearings. What are your taught on this calibre of machine.

regards