The arduino send commands to the stepper drivers with 2 lines : dir and step. The epson stepper drivers needs 6 lines to drive one steppers, so you can't directly plug the arduino to this drivers, or you will need a total of 24 lines for the 4 axis. If you can't have 4 cheap microcontrollers to convert the 2 signals from the arduino to the 6 lines signal needed for the epson drivers, it will be sby Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
You're right, the big gear is perfect for the extruder, I've just build the extruder around it (pictures will be uploaded soon). There are 3 opto sensors on the printer, I circled them on a picture of what I saved from an epson stylus 440 : Actually, I only used the brass bushings and a rod from the 2 agfa scanners I took apart. I use an older guillemot scanner for the base and Y axis because iby Petrus - General New Machines Topics
You're on the same route as me : Old Epson stylus printers are very good for recycling, they have good motors and electronics. The steppers drivers can be used too, but you will have to use a microcontroller to convert the dir + steps signals from the controller board into phases driving signals. The opto end stops are also very usefull. And speaking of money, I have now a fully functional millby Petrus - General New Machines Topics
My first useful milled circuit : It's an adapter for the SMD thermocouple driver I will use to read the temperature of the extruder and heated bed. I made the engraving tool from a broken carbide drill bit : For leveling the board I use the electrical contact between the mill bit and the copper on the board as a Z probe and I adjust the nuts on the corners :by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
I've made a chuck and attached it to a DC motor salvaged from a photocopier to transform the mill into a vertical lathe. I hope to make my own hot ends with this :by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
OK, let's say it will need to handle 5A for the extruder, I will build an all steel hot end like this one : I think it is less efficient than an extruder with a PEEK or PTFE thermal barrier But how many amps for the hot-bed on 12V ?by Petrus - EMC2
The spindle run at 15000RPMs, 18000RPMs max I don't use any coolant, it doesn't seams to cause problems with polycarbonate : I use a 1.6mm diameter mill bit (dremel N°113)by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
I'm also working on a EMC2 driven CNC mill. I will add an extruder built with the mill itself. I will build a temperature controller that will control the extruder and bed temperatures with thermocouples based on a Atmega 16 microcontroller. I read that the bed needs higher temperatures on the first layer, so the controller will have 2 temperatures setting for the extruder and hot plate that wiby Petrus - EMC2
The spindle and the spindle controller : The controller stabilize the speed using some kind of proportional-integral algorithm, there is still some glitches, but it do the job : There's also a safety that will trig the emergency stop if the tool speed fall below 2000rpm.by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
Y axis: I used an old guillemot scanner for the base, the brass sleeves and the second rod came from Agfa snapscan 1212u scanners. The moving plate is the light guide of a broken 17" LCD monitor. For the moment, the stepper motor is quite weak, and there is some play due to the gears, I will replace them later.by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
I have improved the X axis rigidity by adding a second rod. I also reduced the size of the tool stand to improve X axis travel, now I have a travel of 270mm.by Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
I am currently making a low cost CNC mini-mill from old printers and scanners: The X axis is made from an Epson stylus color 400 printer Y axis is made from an old scanner and Z axis is made with square aluminum tubes and an M6 threaded rod bought in an hardware store. The steppers motors (one on each sides) came from Epson printers: The Z axis slide is made with nylon screws : The electroby Petrus - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping