A little CNC work


Tom Cancelleri

Recommended Posts

19 hours ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

Not yet. It's on my to do list. All those signs were done from svg extrusions. First fully design in fusion thing I did was this mallet. For some reason the handle tabs are not cut right.

6a74e335a4eb5dd44fd26c8344b7227c.jpg

25fc36c5ee6a7944742c1d4a57b142c0.jpg

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

I you have, or have access to a drum sander you can try doing away with the tabs. Just cut down to within .030" or so of the bottom, then flip it over and run it through the drum sander to remove the .030".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I you have, or have access to a drum sander you can try doing away with the tabs. Just cut down to within .030" or so of the bottom, then flip it over and run it through the drum sander to remove the .030".

I have a supermax, I've thought about going the drum sander route. On that part though everything is to certain size tolerances

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

I have a supermax, I've thought about going the drum sander route. On that part though everything is to certain size tolerances

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

You just have to build it into the design. Works great, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/16/2016 at 8:39 PM, Pwalter5110 said:

What brand cnc did you get?

I was going to build one from CNCRouterParts, tossed around the idea of getting one already assembled like the Fine Line Automation one David is building in his CNC Build thread. Decided that before I drop $5000+ on a CNC I wanted to make sure modeling stuff and creating tool paths was something I wanted to involve myself in. I picked up Fusion 360 fairly quickly given some knowledge of Autocad, Sketchup, and my graphic design background in Photoshop. I picked up an XCarve to noodle around with and cut the stuff I make. I modified it a bit to more suit what I wanted to do. I am rather familiar with Arduino and open source microcontrollers so I felt more comfortable setting that all up. I'll run this for a while until I outgrow it and then move onto a bigger machine if I deem it to be a worthwhile investment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

I modified it a bit to more suit what I wanted to do.

Hey Tom What you have done so far looks great. Would you mine sharing what mods you did to your X-Carve? I picked one up a while back and plan to get the assembly finished up in the near future. My procrastination has allowed me to now get the new wide makerslide for the x axis and the touch plate but I am also contemplating upgrading to the GT3 belts. Any tips or advice you could give would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, hawkeyestoob said:

Hey Tom What you have done so far looks great. Would you mine sharing what mods you did to your X-Carve? I picked one up a while back and plan to get the assembly finished up in the near future. My procrastination has allowed me to now get the new wide makerslide for the x axis and the touch plate but I am also contemplating upgrading to the GT3 belts. Any tips or advice you could give would be appreciated.

I cut some and drilled some 1/8" thick aluminum Y Axis plates to stiffen up the Y axis maker slides. I had some covers 3d printed to keep debris off the stepper motor pulleys and belts. I need to add a dust shoe. Not sure if I'm gonna buy one or make my own, but it is an absolute must. I need to get the new stiffer maker slide for the X carriage. The touch plate only works with the X Controller, did you upgrade to that as well?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

I cut some and drilled some 1/8" thick aluminum Y Axis plates to stiffen up the Y axis maker slides. I had some covers 3d printed to keep debris off the stepper motor pulleys and belts. I need to add a dust shoe. Not sure if I'm gonna buy one or make my own, but it is an absolute must. I need to get the new stiffer maker slide for the X carriage. The touch plate only works with the X Controller, did you upgrade to that as well?

Thanks for the quick response. I agree with wanting/needing to have everything as rigid as reasonably possible so I will look into beefing up the Y axis plates as well. Do you think that the stepper motors and belts would need protection if you had a good dust shoe installed? I do have the X Controller so that should not be an issue for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, hawkeyestoob said:

Do you think that the stepper motors and belts would need protection if you had a good dust shoe installed? I do have the X Controller so that should not be an issue for me. 

I've been contemplating getting the XController and update kit. I have noticed I get some chatter when climb cutting, which I think if I could stiffen it up a bit more I could eliminate or minimize it.  

With good dust collection I don't think you would need them at all. I did 2 plates on each Y axis maker slide, they are connected via t slot nuts in the wasteboard rail and Y axis slide. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

I have noticed I get some chatter when climb cutting, which I think if I could stiffen it up a bit more I could eliminate or minimize it.  

There is a relatively large amount of force at play out at the end of whatever type of spindle you are running so the more you can do to stiffen thing up the better off you are going to be in the long run. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can use a touch plate without the x controller. I also have the x carve. I am debating about how I want to stiffen up my x axis. I could buy the new makerslide for $40. But I am debating about going to a lead screw design. I feel like it would be more reliable than running belts, I also want to upgrade my z axis. And if I could find a file (I'm no engineer) I'd like to add taller Y end plates. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Pwalter5110 said:

You can use a touch plate without the x controller. I also have the x carve. I am debating about how I want to stiffen up my x axis. I could buy the new makerslide for $40. But I am debating about going to a lead screw design. I feel like it would be more reliable than running belts, I also want to upgrade my z axis. And if I could find a file (I'm no engineer) I'd like to add taller Y end plates. 

Taller Y end plates shouldn't be too hard to make, I'd be concerned more about the rigidity due to thickness at that length. I would want to double up on the thickness. 

Also, the Y Plates should to be made from Steel. Unless you go with 1/4" aluminum, at that point you'd have to have them cut if you're going steel, or spend a lot of time cutting that aluminum. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Tom Cancelleri said:

Taller Y end plates shouldn't be too hard to make, I'd be concerned more about the rigidity due to thickness at that length. I would want to double up on the thickness. 

Also, the Y Plates should to be made from Steel. Unless you go with 1/4" aluminum, at that point you'd have to have them cut if you're going steel, or spend a lot of time cutting that aluminum. 

A lot of guys on the inventsbles forum cut them out of 1/4 aluminum. But I really can't decide if I should upgrade my x and z axis with a lead screw design, or just upgraded the rails and leave them belt driven.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Pwalter5110 said:

Yup,  but they make 1,000 mm ones for the c axis that are not too expensive. and sorry for hijacking the thread Tom.

All good, I don't mind. Good to hear some of the things others are doing when it comes to woodworking and using the machine. I welcome input and comments about machine improvements.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   2 Members, 0 Anonymous, 50 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    422k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,774
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    rojmwq4e
    Newest Member
    rojmwq4e
    Joined