Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? I am considering buying a manual bench-top mill that I can convert to CNC eventually. It will use NEMA 23 motors for the axes, and I was curious as to weather the Reprap electronics would be capable of handling this application? The manufacturer's CNC controller costs $800 alone and uses a parallel cable, so if I can save money (perhaps even more if i learn to SMT solder) that would be great. https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,56985#msg-56985 Mon, 13 Jul 2026 08:27:36 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57241#msg-57241 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57241#msg-57241 TbirdMan Controllers Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:04:27 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57238#msg-57238 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57238#msg-57238 That is what i figured, i will probably use the mill to manufacture the parts for a Mendel out of a suitable material. f

TbirdMan, Mendel is sort of a cult object; if you have the tooling I'd suggest doing up a
http://reprap.org/wiki/WolfStrap-English
or
http://reprap.org/wiki/Eiffel]]> SebastienBailard Controllers Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:37:46 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57203#msg-57203 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57203#msg-57203 TbirdMan Controllers Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:06:20 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57189#msg-57189 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57189#msg-57189
The price of the Pololu stepper drives and electronics is pretty low.
[reprap.org]
My guess is you may find it is not worth the hassle of switching electronics.]]> emt Controllers Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:36:02 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57186#msg-57186 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57186#msg-57186 TbirdMan Controllers Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:27:26 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57164#msg-57164 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57164#msg-57164
I have used an extruder bolted on my CNC mill. It did work but was pretty slow. I managed to get up to 300mm a minute where Mendel runs at 3000mm a minute. So build were 10 times slower. I also had quality issues so I have finally after 2 years playing with a CNC Repstrap started to build a Mendel.]]> emt Controllers Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:18:50 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57076#msg-57076 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57076#msg-57076 Sherline 5000/5100. The NEMA 23 motors they provide with their CNC packages are rated at 2A so perhaps the Reprap drivers with some cooling would be enough? My goal is to keep my costs down as much as possible and do as much of the assembly myself as I can. EMC2 is what Sherline uses for their packages so that is a good option, are you saying that with those drivers i wouldn't need the mainboard? Also do you think this setup would have the speed to do 3D printing if I replaced the cutting head with a Plastruder?

EDIT: Also, would the control channel normally reserved for the extruder controller be able to drive a stepper motor as well? this is not crucial but it would be handy if i ever get a rotary table.]]> TbirdMan Controllers Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:41:31 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57073#msg-57073 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57073#msg-57073
Quote

Secondly none of the firmware I tried had suitable acceleration and deceleration to suit the inertia you get with a heavy table and screw drives.

FiveD on Arduino has acceleration ramping implemented, but you currently have to apply the patch from the Wiki page. There's a config variable allowing to set how steep these ramps are (very lazy acceleration to almost instant speed).]]> Traumflug Controllers Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:02:19 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57050#msg-57050 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57050#msg-57050
I have tried this. The stepper motor drives are not up to driving anything other than a very small mill. In the end I bought Chinese 4 amp micro stepping drives from here :- [www.arceurotrade.co.uk]. and built a 40 volt power supply. Secondly none of the firmware I tried had suitable acceleration and deceleration to suit the inertia you get with a heavy table and screw drives. This may have changed in later firmware but I don't think so. In the end I went with EMC2 which is free running under linux. You can control a mill with little more than this, the stepper drives and power supply.]]> emt Controllers Sat, 28 Aug 2010 05:16:48 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57040#msg-57040 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57040#msg-57040
While metal does take more force to cut than extruding, reprap drives its heads directly on all but the Z axis whereas a CNC mill usually has threaded rod or similar, so you'll just have to check out common ratings for your NEMA 23 motors vs what you need. sites like cnczone may help you decide what your requirements are.]]> Triffid_Hunter Controllers Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:53:01 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57036#msg-57036 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,57036#msg-57036 TbirdMan Controllers Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:57:31 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,56992#msg-56992 Re: Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,56992#msg-56992 VDX Controllers Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:37:14 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,56985#msg-56985 Reprap electronics to drive a CNC Mill? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?13,56985,56985#msg-56985 TbirdMan Controllers Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:45:15 -0400