Hobby CNC, the rotor way

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Hobby CNC, the rotor way

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

NewFatMike posted:

I know double posting is in poor taste, but it's been like a week so:

Does anyone know of any pendants that are compatible with Easel?

The X-Pendant is promising, but the fella who makes them is on a break right now, and considering the most recent review is from August 2019, I'm not really holding my breath.

I just export the Gcode and use CNCJ on my GRBL machine, no need for compatibility. I have found Easel has limitations, it really can not do 3d carving. It is great for simple 2D or 2.5D and even with the bit limitations on the free version I can just prep multiple files and use a "free day" to export all the Gcode to use whenever I want.

Fusion 360 has become my go to though, once you figure out the all the settings it is really great for taking a Mesh and 3d carving it.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2020 22:52

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:36

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

Which makerspace are you a member of? I am at Dallas Makerspace. The HAAS in our machine shop has a training class that is 8 hours with another test out day, so much stuff has to be covered its overwhelming. Compared to the Multicam that is 4 hours with another test out day. The Shapeoko 2s are only like a 2 hour class. Thats all just on the CAM software and machine itself, all the CAD stuff are other classes. How do you guys handle your teachers/classes? Is it a pay per class? Do the teachers get an honorarium?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2020 02:23

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

If you're building out of wood I would do plywood over MDF. MDF is horrible with any amounts of moisture, screws do not hold that great in it, and it is just nasty dusty poo poo to work with. Only part that should be MDF is the spoil board IMO.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 20:48

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

Mine is 3d printed PLA and Aluminum. It does fine on wood and soft material but I don't think I will attempt metals with this one. I have used large CNC machines and I will say that I have learned so much more about them building one. I already want to build a new one with improvements from what I have learned.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 21:32

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

Qubee posted:

I'll do that then. I figured I'd splurge out on important stuff like rails, the din rails they use in the guide seem a bit iffy. Will the metal rods help me accurately v-carve designs out? Cause a big reason I'm doing this is to make the stuff below:

this is an inlay

this is just carved out on MDF

I would go with guide rails over lead screw. The less backlash the better it will turn out. Rods will help stabilize the axis travel in conjunction with the guide rails.

First is V carve on CNC before the actual inlay, full video of another of his:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51KsS7slmk

Second is actually laser cut in MDF. You can probably get that kind of detail in MDF with a V bit, but not the contrasting color (charring) or straight walls and you will have a good deal of clean up to do (will probably loose some small pieces TBH).

# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 23:03

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

They come as a set so not much to setting them up. It just uses two threaded pieces that have a spring putting pressure in both directions. I have them on my build and they work decent enough.

I'd like to build another CNC with belts instead of leadscrews to compare. The main problem I have run into with leadscrews is getting stuck, sawdust or grime gets in the gear and it throws an axis off. Cleaning and lubing the threads seems to help.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2020 19:20

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

BattleMaster posted:

So I finally got the parts in and have my 3018 Pro router hooked up to LinuxCNC via parallel port. Well, just the steppers so far; I still need to build a circuit for the spindle.

I have an issue where AXIS is recording half the real distance. As in, if I move the X-axis of the router completely from 0 to 300 mm, Axis thinks it moved only 150 mm.

I checked the thread pitch several times, the microstepper switches on the stepper driver several times, and the only thing that seems to make sense is that these motors actually only have 100 steps per revolution instead of 200. If I enter 100 steps per revolution into stepconf, AXIS shows the distances correctly.

So is this a thing? I know these things are built to a very low cost, but are there really extra-lovely 100 steps per revolution motors?

Double check the driver switches. The ones I have had the wrong switch positions in the documentation but labeled correctly on the steppers. Took me way longer than it should have to figure that one out :downs:

# ¿ Jan 14, 2021 03:14

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

Ambrose Burnside posted:

Assuming you want a fully-fledged cnc mill that can handle engineering materials/metals- you need a higher budget, significantly higher when you remember that tooling and fixtures will tack a couple hundred at minimum to the mill price. I wouldn't say you need to spend Tormach-tier money, there's always Taig and Sherline machines, but we're still talking "one to several thousand dollars" all in. I have a CNCed Taig micro mill and I think it's run me about $3k canadian since I first picked it up.

That said, I wouldn't buy a mill -or- a 3d printer for making electronics enclosures, I would get a laser cutter. They're the best pick for doing "2D" work like this- instead of producing the enclosure as a single monolithic part, you break it up into panels, cut those out, and assemble. Reasons you should do this:
- you can produce parts very quickly
- most machines have generous X/Y working areas compared to similarly-priced 3d printers/cnc mills
- They do accurate and precise work
- it's a non-contact process so you barely need to think about workholding, gravity is usually sufficient. and tooling? what's tooling?
- their feedstock- wood/plastic sheet or board stock- is absurdly cheap compared to 3d printer filament and you can get it from any hardware store
- things you make have excellent mechanical properties compared to FDM printed parts
- a laser cutter will also double as an engraver, letting you burn raster images or vectory tracery into parts in the same program set up for cutting

downsides are that it's pricier than an entry-level 3d printer- although still much cheaper than a cnc mill, i would budget $500-1000 for an entry-level laser machine- and that the nature of CO2 lasers means you can't work with metal or specific engineering materials that offgas toxic poo poo when burnt. also it's a noxious/hazardous process compared to 3d printing, albeit still perfectly safe if used responsibly- you can't run them unattended because of the fire risk and you'll need to put serious thought into either filtering the laser fumes or blowing them outside.

$500-$1000 gets you roughly the same working area as a 3018 and a 40w laser tube. Instead of tooling you need lenses and CO2. You're limited on what materials (no metals at all at that price) and thickness you can work with and have to assemble flat cut parts. You will have to think about glue/screw/tabs, how the parts can fit together, and durability.

Lasers have their place, and is next on my purchase list, but I really don't see it compared to a CNC/3d printer in the type of work it can do.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2021 20:14

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:36

JEEVES420: Feb 16, 2005; The world is a mess... and I just need to rule it

I tried cheap bits at first but were breaking them. I have come to use Whiteside for all my bits. Up spiral, down spiral, bowl bits, V bits, pencil tip. You can import the Whiteside library and adjust as needed. I have found running the router at 18k rpm instead of full 24k get better results.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2021 01:03

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