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Thread: Goal: a desktop cnc machine Level: Beginner

  1. #11
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Petr Schreiber View Post
    Kent,

    I wish I had more knowledge in electronics, I would join your project immediately

    The walking robot is very well done, I like the smooth walk movement.

    I completely agree that we are living in exciting times, when really almost everything is possible. Even the low power hardware is very strong, libraries for almost everything exist... I keep my fingers crossed you manage to find buddies for your CNC project, working on something in team of "compatible persons" is always great experience.

    I wouldn't worry too much about your tools becoming obsolete, as long as it is hobby project. It seems even big beasts do not care that much - for example Siemens still uses DDE technology for automation in their automated lines... (yes, it is pre COM, pre OLE stuff)
    Petr
    Thanks for the encouraging words Petr. I know you have your hands full, that is why I didn't bother you privately via email about it

  2. #12
    I've been visiting the Instructables Site for some time Kent & regularly receive an email from them featuring new projects. I don't know if you've already seen it but today they were focusing on a Homemade Wood CNC Router.

  3. #13
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    @Matthew, thanks. I have been watching all the tutorials I can. I don't have many tools, just a drill, hammer, pliers and screwdrivers And very limited space to work. So my first build is going to be a very cheap one to see if I can get the electronics and mechanical parts going. I am even thinking of using a small cardboard box for my frame, just to give you an idea I am going to buy that $11 rotary tool from harbor freight this week and see what sort of force I need to hold it and to push it cutting the plastic material I have a lot of at home (my blue plastic pill monthly dispenser).

    @John, they start around $500 and go up into the thousands after that. Even the parts for building are quite expensive. I always wondered why the 3D printers cost so much ~$2,000.00 , they are basically a CNC with an additive operation, that is adding material instead of taking away as a regular CNC is, which is subtractive. This first one is going to be under $100, that is my goal including the rotary tool.


    Here is a nice article, drawings and video giving a good picture of how to use a microcontroller, step driver and the motor. However, when you add up the cost for this method, times 3 for each axis it gets expensive really quickly. So I am still looking for simpler lower cost solutions.
    http://bildr.org/2011/06/easydriver/
    Last edited by kryton9; 20-02-2012 at 07:59.

  4. #14
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Parts Ideas

    I will put links to parts I found as ideas here. These are just for thinking and evaluating. No purchases on them yet.

    I saw these looking for ideas at home depot today. I think these will make great platform material for the CNC machine. With all those holes it will be easy to hold down smaller pieces to cut etc.
    http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...1#BVRRWidgetID

    The cheapest material, besides cardboard boxes around the house, to build with I found is PVC piping and connectors. I did put a 3/4" T connector on 1/2" pipe and it slid easily on it.
    1 or 2 of these should be all you need with some connectors I would think to build the chassis.
    http://www.homedepot.com/Plumbing-Pi...&storeId=10051

    Also, Lead Screws used in linear motion are expensive. I found threaded rod, again lot cheaper. I guess the diameter we need will be based on the stepper motor we get.
    http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051

  5. #15
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Melting Parts and Dream

    I went last evening to Harbor Freight and bought the $11 rotary tool and 80 pieces. Tonight I tested them.
    First, the rotary tool is nice and small. It is very light and would be perfect for an apartment physically in size and weight. It runs at a constant 16,000 rpm, but it does so relatively quietly.
    I could run this late at night and not worry about my apartment neighbors hearing me. However, as soon as I touched the plastic to cut, it became very loud. It vibrated the piece I was cutting and the table it was on. It made a tremendous buzzing sound. I went and brought in a silicon heat shield pad from the kitchen. This cut the vibration on the table to near zero, but the vibration from the plastic being cut was still very loud.

    So the sound alone killed this project for me as far as a subtractive cnc process machine. I was hoping to get by with this small tool. And as I said, the noise from the tool running alone (no cutting) was even lower than I could have hoped for. I tried both a burr bit and then a cutting disk. Both were loud.

    In addition to the sound, the plastic was melting, as I could smell it and later saw it stuck to the burr bit as you will see in the picture. No plastic stuck to the cutting wheel, but the cutting wheel is not what I wanted to use.

    I don't know if the bad cuts you will see are from my inexperience with never using a rotary tool or from the plastic melting in the process.

    I still want to build the machine that will be a cnc with at least 3 axis motion. I can always mount a better rotary tool in the future where noise is not an issue. Or I could eventually make it an additive cnc machine(3D Printer).

    Melting.jpg

  6. #16
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    nice controller if you have a serial or parallel port

    This is a good deal if you have a serial or parallel port on your computer to talk to the device.
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=250987621374

  7. #17
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    John, wow that looks good. I will look more into it tonight.

    Update: I read and reread the post. It looks like you still need to add motor drivers. It doesn't say just 5 motors, but: "It can connection 5 drivers and control 5 motors in the same time;"
    I tried to zoom in on the photo to see which chips there were using to read up on them, but I couldn't make out what they said. Also I converted the pound to dollars and it comes out with shipping to around $24.

    The 4 pin connections for each motor do however look like bipolar 4 wire stepper motor connectors, so it is a toss up for me at the moment.
    Last edited by kryton9; 22-02-2012 at 08:49.

  8. #18
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    For education, this seems the best to me so far.

    For getting into microcontrollers and learning, this kit I really like. You start with the core chip and build up. So you learn better than starting with an arduino that has lots of stuff already.
    I would add it to our possible kit list.

    $80
    http://www.nerdkits.com/kits/

    Update: it doesn't come with motors as I had thought. In addition, I couldn't find too many good tutorials on using it to control stepper motors, other than that the reviews were good.

    Will keep searching for a learning microcontroller kit that comes with stepper motors to learn with.
    Last edited by kryton9; 22-02-2012 at 10:03.

  9. #19
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    how do they figure this stuff out

    This is impressive in that someone figured out how to do this. Too tedious for anything other than a technical demo, but still it really shows how this stuff works(3D printing)

    Last edited by kryton9; 22-02-2012 at 09:14.

  10. #20
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kryton9 View Post
    John, wow that looks good. I will look more into it tonight.

    Update: I read and reread the post. It looks like you still need to add motor drivers. It doesn't say just 5 motors, but: "It can connection 5 drivers and control 5 motors in the same time;"
    I tried to zoom in on the photo to see which chips there were using to read up on them, but I couldn't make out what they said. Also I converted the pound to dollars and it comes out with shipping to around $24.

    The 4 pin connections for each motor do however look like bipolar 4 wire stepper motor connectors, so it is a toss up for me at the moment.
    Found the board on youtube. The usb is only for voltage, you need the parallel port to send data. Also he says the axis go to a driver and not a motor.

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