/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>857475
Just buy a shapeoko.

The designs available in kit and prebuilt form nowadays are cheaper, bigger, and more powerful than ever before. You get more of a value out of them than a 100% scratchbuild which is way beyond the means of most beginners.

>>857504
>rollers open to chips and dust...
hell naw mate

>>857475

>>859167
Still better than anything OP can make himself.

>>857475
Hey /diy/, not OP but I want a CNC machine or a kit can you give me any reccomendations? I have a spare arduino and a handfull of motors but would rather prefer a kit around $60--$100 I could put together. I mostly want it for printing wooden gears and complex shares.

>>857504
Why would anyone pay 1000euro for shit CNC? You guys in US must dump fucks....

>>860377

>>857475
>7x4ft
are you trolling or retarded? because you obviously havn't bothered to even look this up on the reprap page. home built CNC, plotters, lathes, 3d printers are limited by the rigidity of their frames. mass goes up exponentially with printing volume. the problem you get is that it may seem like steel is solid, but its not. it's wobbly. and if it wobbles while cutting or printing as it moves about, even by 0.001", your cutting is going to be shit. so the bigger it gets, the larger and more rigid the whole structure has to become. most professional machinists dont even have a printing volume this large. two engine blocks arnt even this large.

>>860377
no. try starting with a figure like 500$ for electrical components alone and then you still need to build a frame and source mechanical parts.

>>862219

>all that shit

>I know everything about CNC because I have a 3D printer!

There's a difference between a CNC router, a CNC mill, and a CNC machining center. And...you know...pretty much anything else starting with "CNC".

CNC routers sacrifice some vertical height (usually maxxing out at 7-10" or so) for a much larger XY work area. 8x4' CNC routers are extremely common, because that's the standard size of sheet stock in the US and they're built to accommodate.

Moreover, mass is not typically an issue for a machine made for subtractive manufacturing. They don't see the kind of acceleration a 3D printer does, excepting very high-performance machines costing far above the average person's budget. Additionally, their mass is in the bulk of their frames, with the spindle assembly being very light in comparison. This is the exact opposite of a 3D printer, which is usually a weak frame and a relatively heavy, fast-moving print heat. Flex from acceleration is an afterthought in a CNC mill/router, because flex from the actual cutting forces dominate.


Tl;dr: 7x4 CNC router is completely reasonable. 3D printer design principles do not generally apply to cutting machines.

Related question, thought I may as well ask here:

Have 3-axis CNC mills been out long enough to find a decent deal on second hand, or am I stuck buying a new one, or a kit.

>>862240
>bullshit
>bullshit
>bullshit
good luck building this for a few hundred dollars without any plans or tools. let us know how it goes.

>>862265

While I'll admit that you're asking for trouble trying to push your budget below a few hundred, it's certainly doable for much less than a commercial machine costs.

Nice mill. I can clearly see you caught the key points I was trying to make.


>let us know how it goes.

It's going reasonably well. Screwed up the placement of the bearing seats somehow, but that ended up working out anyway.

>>862267
that's a nice toy you have there. I'm sure it's fine for cutting soft wood and plastic. I'm not sure how your mdf would stand up to being sprayed with coolant.

those things are definitely doable. but I guess when I hear cnc I assume metalwork because it's the best use of a small cnc machine. oh I know cabinetry places have them and they rapidly cut out entire kitchens into flatpack easy to assemble units. but the accuracy on those things is like +/- 0.1mm.

>>862270
>I'm sure it's fine for cutting soft wood and plastic. I'm not sure how your mdf would stand up to being sprayed with coolant.

The old machine (which this one is a rebuild of) is what cut out the aluminum parts. This thing is at least an order of magnitude more rigid. The only real problem with using it as a mill is going to be the fact that it's only got about 5" of Z travel.

Entire thing is going to be sealed with epoxy, bearings and ballscrews will end up shielded against debris.

But, yes, generally routers are for wood and plastic. They usually work fine in aluminum or, if overbuilt enough, steel, because routing is usually done with relatively small endmills with proportionately small cutting forces.

Although I suppose there is a sort of grey area between what constitutes a router and a gantry mill. The only real difference is one's much bulkier and solid for better tolerances in hard materials (possibly with better bearings to match). That and the Z-height issue, I guess. The ones most noobs think of is a router, simply because, if they had the equipment and skill to make an actual mill, they wouldn't be asking about it.

>>862265
Is that a commercial mixer?

>>862281
the z- height isnt that much of a problem. I mean, if that thing could mostly cut out a gear for a transmission or a number of bicycle or machine parts, that's plenty for the home hobbyist. but a coping saw and drill could pretty much do most of the work that thing could do.

>>862270
>that duck
my brain is trying to recreate some memories

>>862265
huh, never seen a usable table mounted mini-bridgeport type mill