Using Reprap Technology To Make a Low Cost Wood Machining CNC

Hi Everyone,

I am entirely new to Reprapping, and was wondering if anyone could comment on trying to use the RepRap model to build a low cost wood machining CNC? Obviously the construction would have to be strengthened to deal with the increased stress, and the motors would have to be upgraded to deal with the increased weight ... but can anyone tell me if this is worth pursuing, or should I just shut down the idea right away?

Thanks

The belts would also have to be replaced with either really wide and thick ones, a screw, or a rack-and-pinion. The hobby CNC router people are moving to rack-and-pinion. Right now it's cheaper, faster, and just as accurate as screws. We wish we had used rack-and-pinion on our router.

Take a look at Mantis 9.1:

[makeyourbot.org]

It uses drive screws instead of belts for more torque and slower speeds. It looks easy enough to bootstrap too, although I have not found the electronics package yet.

The vids he's produced seem to be kit-centric, (he seens to have sent out kits at some point), but there are dfx file available. Now If I could only learn enough of qcad to extract the measurements myself.

if you're using belts you might need to use nema23 motors.

not sure how easy it is to get GEN3 electronics to work with EMC2, or how easy it is to use the reprap host software to drive a CNC for milling purposes. most probably all possible just not documented.

tbfleming Wrote:
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>The hobby CNC router people are
> moving to rack-and-pinion. Right now it's cheaper,
> faster, and just as accurate as screws.

That is hard to imagine. I think a ball screw will always have more resolution, less backlash and be stiffer. They are slower and more costly than a rack of course.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Hi Everyone,

I am entirely new to Reprapping, and was wondering if anyone could comment on trying to use the RepRap model to build a low cost wood machining CNC? Obviously the construction would have to be strengthened to deal with the increased stress, and the motors would have to be upgraded to deal with the increased weight ... but can anyone tell me if this is worth pursuing, or should I just shut down the idea right away?

Thanks

Hmmm ...

Vanilla Mendel, no.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Eiffel
is in theory adaptable to that.

(pst: Todd. Eiffel = good new thing to sell, eventually.)

http://reprap.org/wiki/ORE-Bot
would work, but I bet the build volume is too small for your needs.

not sure how easy it is to get GEN3 electronics to work with EMC2, or how easy it is to use the reprap host software to drive a CNC for milling purposes. most probably all possible just not documented.

Better off to use http://reprap.org/wiki/EMCRepRap

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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