CNC milling/router DIY build WIP

Thinking about clamping, duct tape doesn't seem to cut it lol although some things I'm planning I'm going to have to use a scrap board for support. Thinking 3mm ply (Thinnest I can find locally) and super glue.

Time to start the cam I guess

Unsure of anything lol will just see what happens luckily I have plenty of scrap wood to play with.

I've started with a styrofoam plate, will be much more forgiving to the router if your Gcode is wrong.

Got an Elephone S8 from China I can honestly say for £185 (And it's cheaper now just 3 weeks later) it's great the screen is amazing and camera quality is not bad at all


I highly recommend one for the price although China is just killing it with excellent phones for peanuts money at the moment.

[www.banggood.com]

Only complaint and it's minor no SDcard

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2018 10:48AM by Desertboy.

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Dimensions are wrong but a step in the right direction

Your spindle is clamped at the back end, but on the pics it seems it could be clamped a bit closer to the shaft?

I'm going to aim to clamp it about 1/2 way for now (Clamp it any lower and I can't reach the MDF bed with the bit I have in now but at some point soon I'll remake the Z axis I have another 15cm of Hiwin unused on the Z axis so going to make a longer axis and a longer spindle mounting plate (Actually thinking of using 2 mounts) so I can truly take advantage of my 13cm of Z travel.

Milled some aluminium in the dead centre of the bed to check flex couldn't see any evidence in either the milled piece or watchig the machine cut so very happy with the strength having the gantry long ways round was a worry.

I have the correct dimensions now so next step is upgrade to beta linuxcnc, set up dual homing, then square the gantry. Got some toggle clamps, a dust shoe and a cyclone ordered.

[www.ebay.co.uk]

[www.ebay.co.uk]

[www.ebay.co.uk]

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This time right dimensions and quicker so it doesn't smoke when milling lol.





Going to use 2 pieces of 2020 extrusion going across the bed then bolt the clamps into T nuts in the channels, I tried with steel box section I had kicking around.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2018 05:27AM by Desertboy.

Will get proper clamping sort over the next week order 4 toggle clamps so I can can clamp 4 corners of a piece and for what I'm cutting now these will not be in the way.

Clamping one side gives you a low spot (The white it didn't mill out) but Ithis was a scrap piece this was my first gcode generated in fusion from a model I made.

Those toggle clamps are mounted on the alu-extrusions? You'd have to run around the table to align the extrusions with the part then?
I went a different way, but I had trouble to print the clamps ( bridging ) They bolt down through the bed, where I made lots of holes in a 100x100mm pattern.
The step might become handy for higher parts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2018 04:11AM by o_lampe.

Quote
o_lampe
Those toggle clamps are mounted on the alu-extrusions? You'd have to run around the table to align the extrusions with the part then?
I went a different way, but I had trouble to print the clamps ( bridging ) They bolt down through the bed, where I made lots of holes in a 100x100mm pattern.
The step might become handy for higher parts.

[attachment 101779 CNC-Clamp.JPG][attachment 101780 CNC_step.JPG]

I'm going to run 2 pieces of extrusion across the bed so it's adjustable, when I'm working on pieces which have straight edges's which will be most the time I won't even use the clamps but cheap and long delivery times so order now in case

I will grab a picture as soon as I do it, hopefully today KJN is local.

Had a find so made a plan and we're not finished the machine yet lol but we can use her for then next few months whilst I collect the rest of the bits for the upgrade.



Got another piece as well 60*60*3 box section steel 2.1m lengths going to use this to make a new lower frame from get some longer Hiwin's for the Y and 2 rack and pinions so I can get 1.8m *1.2m travel with decent speeds. I'll swap my 1605 ballscrew on the gantry for a 1610 or fit a 2010 (Means fitting BK fitting upside down with spacers but no biggie). The 2010 ballscrew can be spun 30% faster than 1610 soI will have to think about this a lot before I spend my pennies. Should recover what I paid for my original ballscrews so it'd won't be too expensive.

Also got a dust shoe was going to home brew but at £20 it didn't seem worth it.


And ordered a cyclone
[www.ebay.co.uk]

just need a big bucket, lid and another vacuum cleaner hose and we're in business.

The hose diameters of the dust shoe and the cyclone don't match. I hope you don't see too many losses...
IMHO you'd need four of these cyclones to get the same cross section? The fastest air speed should be at the dust shoe, or is it how cyclone cleaners work?

Quote
o_lampe
The hose diameters of the dust shoe and the cyclone don't match. I hope you don't see too many losses...
IMHO you'd need four of these cyclones to get the same cross section? The fastest air speed should be at the dust shoe, or is it how cyclone cleaners work?

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I won't bother cutting the lid on the cnc I think I can about handle using a hole saw and drill bit to put the pattern in, and when you have duct tape who needs a gasket lol.

I'll make some sort of adapter it will be air tight and duct taped on.

Cyclone was £13 from ebay, Dust shoe was £20, vacuum cleaner, hoses & bucket were free.

Adjustable clamping sorted as long as it's rectangular


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2018 04:00PM by Desertboy.

Pocket clearing only no finishing pass



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2018 02:43AM by Desertboy.

Nice!
What does it say?

It means choice to always remind me to stop being so idle lol.

I was naughty I know but I couldn't resist once I found it it works in linuxcnc as well.
[www.ebay.co.uk]

Was going to use a PS3 pad which would have been good as well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2018 07:16AM by Desertboy.

Looks good, but they don't say anything about resolution. Maybe it's all programmable...

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You can program it with multiple resolutions for the wheel and then swap between them with a click of a button.

Where it'll come into it's own is touching off parts which is a PITA at the moment as my control pc is too far away from the machine

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2018 06:01AM by Desertboy.

You might want to build a touch probe that fits into the router? Something like two piezos in 90° position for top/down and sideways probing.

I bought one of the cheapo chinese touch probes on ebay £2.59 from China lol but have considered building something for sideways probing

[www.ebay.co.uk]

I'm also going to add a home switch for the Z axis so when I home I'll set it to home Z first then X&Y at same time that way it will retract enough to clear any clamps I have on the bed. Don't want to crash into the clamps.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2018 08:44AM by Desertboy.

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