Long time ago, about 5 years I think, I started looking up DIY CNC machines. I bought the 4 axis EZ Driver combo kit from Hobby CNC, together with the CNC plan they had at the time. But I didn’t had time to order the acme screws and linear bearings and I left USA and returned to Romania. Over there,
Looks like you’ll have to
Looks like you’ll have to wait for my firs cut… The driver board is not working. Perhaps I burnt the ICs by turning the steppers with a drill to measure the max travel on all axes. The ATX power supply burnt for sure. I will have to replace it and have a switch disconnect the power supply from the board completely. And of course, replace the driver ICs. I am so pissed off at myself, stupid me, I forgot that turning a stepper motor fast generates a pretty high voltage…
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you have done great work on this one …
(edit:im so excited with cnc machines ,i dont know why)
My first carving is
My first carving is done!
After an all nighter (just the machine…) and an early wake up by the downstairs neighbors (read the last update), I got my first cut on the CNC. I’m happy how it came out, the machine works pretty good but the wood amplifies the vibrations caused my the motors stepping at different speeds and it sounds like someone is playing a horn. I have to try to damp the vibrations somehow…
I have a few questions for the veterans of the trade:
1. When I set up the machine configuration I had to test the max speed and acceleration for each axle. For X and Y I set up the max available speed (15mm/s) but for the Z axle I set up a lot less, because I was afraid that if I drill a PCB the drill bit will snap. Any advise here, should I change that to max speed when carving and less when drilling? or I just need to set the working max speed when cutting (like I did yesterday?) to something I see it’s manageable?
2. I need to buy some engraving bits (ball point and v tip) and have no idea where to get a few different ones that don’t cost half of the machine. Any recommendations?
Thanks!
Thanks for the links! I
Thanks for the links! I think I’ll get the 8pc. Circuit Board Maker Kit from Drill Bit City. I saw the other site yesterday, but the prices are high and there is a $50 minimum order. Right now they are out of the question. But I didn’t find a ball point engraving bit, I need a tiny one and a medium size one, don’t know what sizes they should have, I have to see it and decide. Any one of you knows of a place where I can get something like that, or if it’s called differently?
Also, thanks for the advice, I’ll see what I can do to set up the speed properly.
Right now I want to make some cubes with LMR writing engraved. The only CAD program I have ever used was AutoCAD (versions 10, 12 and 14) and that was long time ago. Do you guys recommend other CAD software for things like engraving text, cutting parts out of plastic sheet…?
Thanks again.
Here is the video TinHead! I
Here is the video TinHead! I hope you’ll like it!
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I saw you cleaning the dust of wood the dremmel created with a paintbrush and an idea came into my mind.
You can attach the pipe of your vaccum cleaner (if you have one) next to the dremmel and when the dremmel drills or cuts something switch on your vacuum cleaner in order to clean any wood dust or whatever .
I hope this will help you.
Thanks for the tips guys!The
Thanks for the tips guys!
The first thing I need to do is a new Dremel holder, this one is made of plastic and bends. I need more rigidity to make my first PCB. I want to build a small cubic robot where the cube is made out of PCBs that I can solder together. On almost each PCB there will be some parts, but the main MC will be a Megabitty board so there will be no thin traces yet.If the cuts will be nice and clean, I will try thinner traces.
I am still experimenting on the machine and using the software tools to do what I need. Any tips on this part are welcome.
How is it holding up?
It’s been some time since you wrote this article now.
Have you used it much?
How is the CNC holding up?
Are you happy with it?
Any specific things you are thinking of improving?
Yes, long time has passed…
Yes, long time has passed… I did not use the CNC much, I had trouble cutting some acrilyc to make a chassis for my robot. Cutting the contour went well, but drilling the holes with the endmill is a no-no. Definitelly use a drill bit for that purpose.
Things I need to improve:
- Dremel holder, make it sturdy and strong.
- a way to adjust the play of the double sled (I already though about this and I just need to make the parts.
- find an easier way to go from idea to a finished product (CAD-ing, exporting, CAM-ing, writing tool path files, load them in EMC2 and actually cut the part takes long time and I don’t have it).
After building this machine I am thinking that I’ll rather buy a ready made chassis like the Fireball V90 and a proper spindle. Then I can cut aluminum plates to make the needed servo brackets for a biped. Of course, I can go ahead and buy the ready made brackets and forget about all the pain of designing, prototyping, etc until I’ll have good brackets.
One thing is for sure, I’m still going to use chinese fab houses for my boards. But I want to make the prototype for a complete robot chassis plus add-ons before I’ll send the design to be laser cut for a large production batch.
