The idea behind this Instructable was to fulfill my desire for a desktop sized CNC machine. While it would have been nice to purchase an off the shelf unit the issue of price as well as size proved prohibitive. A salute to those who have laboured through to this point (and to demonstrate that it is reproducable) Here are some pictures of other peoples machines. Photo 1 - Chris and his friend put together this unit; laser cutting the parts out of half inch acrylic. Not only does it look super it must weigh a ton.

But kudos, anyone who's worked with acrylic knows laser cutting it is great but it is a very very unfriendly material to drill and there is a lot of side drilling in this design. Good job guys, check out more details (and photos including some testing with circuit boards) on Chris's blog. I particularly like his work with making 3-d objects out of 2d cuts. Photo 2 - Sam McCaskill has finished his desktop CNC machine and it's looking really really nice. Super impressively he also resisted the urge to cheat and cut all his pieces by hand.

I'm really impressed. Photo 3 - Angry Monk's - With MDF pieces cut on a laser cutter and drive converted from toothed belts to threaded rod Photo 4 - Bret Golab's - Bret has completed his and gone through the extra step of getting it setup to work with Linux CNC (a task I attempted and was foiled by complexity).

I had some experience Scroll Sawing pieces so I choose to use a glue on pattern method. What is required is to print out the PDF pattern files onto tiled pages, then. Notes & documents the ripley scrolls. Closer examination of the Huntington scroll reveals an extensive assemblage of human and mythical figures, including a green toad vomiting blood, a green dragon, and a series of. Book to Ripley, dressed in a monk's habit, with chains leading to the eight roundels that.

If you're interested in his settings you can send him a message (Instructable ID: bretlyssii ) ). Great job Bret! (If you have built one and would like it featured here, please send me a PM and we can arrange for the sending of photos) Step 2: Specs. I'm afraid I don't have the space (or the expertise for that matter) to go into the fundamentals of CNC here but there is one websites in particular I found quite useful in my research. CNCZone.com - A discussion forum which has a DIY machine section which is a wealth of knowledge ( ) Machine Details: Cutting Head: Dremel or Dremel Type Tool Axis Details: X Axis travel: 14' Drive: Toothed Timing Belt Speed: 60' min Acceleration: 1' per second 2 Resolution: 1/2000' Pulses Per inch: 2001 Y Axis Travel: 10' Drive: Toothed Timing Belt Speed: 60' min Acceleration: 1' per second 2 Resolution: 1/2000' Pulses Per inch: 2001 Z Axis (up down) Travel: 4' Drive: Threaded Rod Acceleration:.2' per second 2 Speed: 12' min Resolution: 1/8000' Pulses Per Inch: 8000 Step 3: Required Tools. The goal was to try and keep the tools required within the realm of an average handyman's shop.

Power Tools: -Band Saw or Scroll Saw -Drill Press (drill bits 1/4', 5/16', 7/16', 5/8', 7/8', 8mm also Q (5/16' closest imperial drill bit) -Printer (seemed like the right category) -Dremel or Similar Tool (to attach to the finished machine) Hand Tools: -Rubber Mallet (to provide 'persuasion' when neccesary) -Hex Keys (5/64', 1/16') -Screw Driver -Glue Stick (UHU) or spray adhesive -Adjustable Wrench (or 7/16' socket and ratchet) Step 4: Required Parts. The attached PDF (CNC-Part-Summary.pdf) provides detailed cost and sourcing information for each and every required part. Listed here is only a summary Sheet Stock --- $20 -a 48' x 48' piece of 1/2' thick MDF (any 1/2' sheet stock can be used I have plans to make my next version out of UHMW but cost was prohibitive this time around) -a 5'x5' piece of 3/4' thick MDF (this is used to make spacers so any piece of 3/4' stock found around the shop could be used) Motors and Controllers ---- $255 -An entire instructable could be written on chosing a controller and motors. In short what is required is a controller capable of three axes of control (with pulsed step and direction inputs) and motors with about 100 oz/in holding torque. I sourced mine from they have worked well and the kit was quite easy to solder.

( ) Hardware--- $275 -These parts can be acquired from three places. The conventional items can be acquired at Home Depot, the specialty drive products are easy to find at any industrial supplier, I used McMaster Carr ((I chose them because they have a nice online store), and finally because of the large number of bearings required I found the best price from an online seller (which sells 100 for $40 (leaves quite a few left over for other projects) ( ) Software --- (free) -What is required is a program to draw your designs (I use CorelDraw), and a programme capable of interpreting these files into pulses to be sent to your controller. I'm currently using a trial version of Mach3 ( )but have plans to convert to LinuxCNC (An open source machine controller which uses linux) ( ) Router Head--- (extra) -I attached a dremel type cutting tool to my machine however if you are more interested in additive construction (like or ) you may wish to look into their deposition tools. Details -the metric components and especially the cross nuts aren't very popular and I had to visit several Home Depots in my area before I had enough.

-I couldn't find a way to link to parts directly on the MCMaster Carr site. To find them go to www.mcmaster.com and search for the part #. I had some experience Scroll Sawing pieces so I choose to use a glue on pattern method.

What is required is to print out the PDF pattern files onto tiled pages, then glue on each pattern, and cutout each piece. Next step is to Glue the pattern to the MDF stock and Aluminum Tubing 1.Glue the tiled pages to your sheet stock (MDF) ensuring the edges match up 2.For the aluminum tube the pattern must be glued to two sides. If the Tube is laying flat on a table and you glue the side A patterns to the top side B can be glued on either of the side faces. Tips: -Use lots of glue -Have something near by to help push down each piece -Patience (if anyone else has tips on doing this I would love to hear them) Step 7: Cutout Pieces. I must apologize at this stage I succumb to the desire to cheat. As mentioned earlier I accidentally printed out my initial pattern at 90% size. Unfortunatly I did not realize this until this stage.

So left with a 90% scale set of pieces and having moved across country I was now within reach of a full size CNC router table. I gave in and cut my pieces using this machine. However it was unable to do the drilling of holes so back to the real steps (this is why all the pieces from here on out do not have paper patterns glued on them) Step 9: Hole Drilling. A big thanks to the author, oomlout for this terrific instructable. I read this about one year ago, and purchased a kit from outland86 soon after. I now have a fully working CNC machine thanks to them!

I want to provide a 3D model of this machine that I made in Google Sketchup for everyone to use to help learn more about how this machine fits together. I've checked with the author, and he's fine with me providing it to the community. I wish I had something like the model when I was first assembling the machine; it took a lot of trial-and-error to figure it all out. Hopefully this model will make the road easier for future CNC'ers. I made this model because I plan to expand the Y-axis to 36', so now I have a virtual copy of my machine to modify. I started to build this over the summer. I had the parts laser cut at my college from the DXF file.

I just completed it a week ago after modifying it for better precision on the X and Y axes. I replaced the belt dives with threaded rod so now i can step forward 0.001' no problem, i think i can even do 0.0005' fine. Modifying the X and Y axes for threaded rod control isn't that bad, the only hard parts were making the new motor mounts and controlling both sides of the Y axis with one stepper. I ended up controlling both the Y axis threaded rods (one on each side) by mounting the timing belt pulleys on the ends of the threaded rod and running a timing belt around the rods on the back of the machine. The reason for all this is because i want to do very small precise machining.

I already have milled a couple propeller molds, to lay carbon fiber over, that are 1' in diameter and need 6000 lines of G-code to mill. I actually have another being milled right now. They came over very nicely.

I have a video of my machine in action but its hard to see any details of the prop because of its size and because my camera won't auto focus during a video. Yes, i tried the machine with the standard planes. The Z axis is fine at 0.001' res, probably more. The X and Y belt driven axes were only good for about 0.002' res.

Note my micro stepping was at 1/4. I didn't want to increase micro stepping because that is more of a software way of increasing resolution, i want to increase resolution the hardware way so i know i'm really getting what i want.

When i switched to threaded rods i did get a slower traverse speed on those axes but increased accuracy. I also needed a larger stepper for my Y axis because it was driving two threaded rods as opposed to one.

A final note is that i used (2) screw in T-nuts to attach each threaded rod to the machine (and ball bearing at the ends for support and to reduce friction). The purpose of two T-nuts is so that they can both be attached to the machine but tightened against each other a little to help reduce backlash.

This creates more friction on those axes but it greatly reduces backlash to near nothing. For this mod i just got a 205oz-in stepper from HobbyCNC, and a 77' timing belt (same type as the kind used here) from mastercarr. Everything else: timing pulleys, 1/4' bearings, 8mm bearings etc. I used the 8mm bearings to fashion some extra pulleys on the back side of the machine for the 77' timing belt. Wow, not sure I ever thought anyone would actually complete the build but your machine looks awesome (sorry grew up on ninja turtles).

Would you maybe have a photo which includes the full machine I would love to add on another step to the Instructable showing other peoples versions. (could you send it to me in a private message along with any relevant info you'd like included about your machine (of course only if you'd like it to be there) Also very impressed with your conversion to threaded rod, there are a lot of applications where the toothed belt just isn't precise enough. In addition to my previous question, re rod vs belt drive, how does the tightly strung inox (stainless steel) wire compare? If I can get inox rod at a reasonable price, would that be the best thing to use?

If I chose rod. I would like the highest amount of resolution I can get. I know that the finer the pitch of the thread is, the more resolution it will have, but what about the width of the rod? I thought originally that a thicker (M12) rod will be better, then I realised it would be heavier and harder for the motor to turn, and perhaps, give no resolution advantage, and perhaps, thinner is better! What's the deal? The pitch of the threaded rod is really what is important. You just end up creating a worm gear drive.

For greater resolution use finer threads, it will amount to a higher gear reduction. Its all about the gear ratio. Ynab 4 Activation Keygen Idm. The greater the number of turns the motor has to turn to get the machine to move a distance X the higher your resolution and also the greater torque the machine has (added bonus).

You can get the same gear reduction using a belt system but you you will just need to gear the motor down before it drives the belt, which is a lot harder than just using threaded rod. Thanks for showing the details on the modifications you made of Stuart's instructable. I can see in your other image posted under 'others who have finished' that you are using a ridgid laminate trimmer which have a variable speed feature. Let me pick on your brain and experience if you don't mind:) - How fast do you run the router? - where do you get your router or end mill bit? Simple Cast Serial Brahm. - what is the maximum depth of cut per pass do you subject your cnc?

- Stuart indicated a feed rate of 60 ipm, do you have the same or you have another preference? - Have you used your cnc to cut mdf? I know that's a LOT of questions but will appreciate your insights. Its really not a lot of questions. Sometimes you just have to ask, and i can answer.

I run the router at close to max speed, i dont know the RPMs. I figure this CNC isn't exactly the most rigid one out there and if you cut at a decent speed things will flex a little, and i needed it to be very precise. So the higher the RPMs the less stress on the bit and such.

You can get the cutting bits from Master Carr (they basically have close to everything, so if you ever need anything check there). For depth of cut. Again, i needed precision, so if you can sacrifice this you could cut lower. But i usually didn't go more than 1/8' deep per pass, and that would be a heavy cut rough pass.

I think it got it to run good at 30-40 ipm, 60 is a little fast for the small parts i was cutting. When cutting i would go down to 3ipm. I haven't actually used the machine to cut MDF but i think it would do fine cutting it. I don't know how fast you would be able to go but you could cut it. A few things worth noting about this: when you pick a motor for this CNC make sure it has collets for 1/4' and1/8' tools.

Its a pain if it doesn't. But if you run into that (like i did) you can actually get a collet adapter from Drill Bit City.com. One major thing i noticed about this CNC was that although the I-Beam for the X axis traverse was strong in the Z direction (could take some weight) the carriage could rotate about the I-Beam (rotate about the X axis).

This would make the carriage flex in a hard cut. If i were to redo these plans i would definitely do something to fix this. Maybe add another I-beam about 4-6' away from the existing one to get more rotary support.

I have to admin that after i built this it couldn't cut as precisely as i needed it to so i ended up buying a desktop CNC mill from Taig. Since i already had the steppers and controller board from this i could buy the CNC ready version.

But i do not regret building this, i will still keep using it as a CNC Router. It was great to build, it taught me a lot about CNC in general being that this was my first experience with it. But for those who just want to cut about good parts CNC style, then this works fine, plus its cutting area is huge (and easily scaled up.). Thanks for spending time to answer my query:) and your insights will prove to be very useful as I optimize the performance of my cnc. Fastest rpm assuming that you had what I have (i.e., ridgid laminate trimmer) should be 35000. Currently I'm running g ocde with feed rate of 12ipm and wow you did ramp it up almost 3x.

That will save me time! But then the issue of precision is the downside. I did anticipate using 1/8 bits so got an adapter to fit into the 1/4 spec of the trimmer. I have no problem visualizing flexing problems you experienced.

Like you, this is my first cnc encounter and the experience will probably serve me well in the future. Out of curiosity, where did you purchase your taig unit and for how much?