Sorry for the cheesy title but I’m pretty excited about my new CNC mill. It’s a home built job with eBay parts and some skeptical help from a machinist friend. It’s just finally starting to turn out real parts and I’m at a few crossroads with some of the components, but it works pretty darn well for what it is!!!
The computer is just old parts (I think it’s a P2/300) running Win98. The “drives” are crappy built-it-yourself stepper drivers that are full-step only. I’m running them from an old rebuilt supply at 13.8 Volts, I wanted to run at 30 Volts but the resistors were too expensive for an untested system. The steppers and lead screws came off eBay and step at 6400 ticks per inch (for X&Y) and 2540.9 ticks per inch for the Z (metric). The rails were a special find but required rebuilding (and still need new balls), they are overkill for the PCB routing that I want to do, but overkill is fun. Right now everything is held together with MDF and it’s actually kinda straight, I’d have it run new aluminum parts for itself … but I’m having too much fun right now. All the parts you see were created with a Rotozip running about half-speed off a Variac and a 3/8” dual straight flute wood bit running at 2 IPM and 0.050” DOC.
The first parts I made were for an engraving spindle for doing PCB work. The results were poor because I was trying to create my own TINY cutters (0.005”), so I’ve ordered the proper cutters and I’m waiting for them … (tapping foot). Until then I’ll play with other stuff.
So the idea here was to create a mount for a standard size wood router. I picked up an old router at the local Pawn for $14.95 then started my work. The finger trigger switch was removed and the motor rewired so that it’s ON all the time (it will be controlled separately.) Then toss the base into the trash and start anew. The diameter of the motor is 3.51” so I did some drawing and created the two motor cradles using DXF conversion software, the other parts were created by writing the G-code directly. The metal is 2.5” x 3/8” and 2” x 3/8”. So here are the pictures.
If you think this is cool or would like some more info just ask. I need some more motivation to finish the project so any good words you could say could be helpful. Also, anyone doing PCB work I'd like to hear what method you use for going from Gerbers to G-Code ... I've tried ACE without good results. Right now I'm doing Protel to Gerber to DeskCNC(which seems smart) to KCAM4(easy windoze application.) I'd like to use TurboCNC(DOS) but the viewer sux and I don't trust it with the "unclosed circles" that my Gerber and DXF outputs seem to have. Any input about this kinda stuff?
(edit): Looks like I was limited by the number of files I can include.
CP