Well, the title of the thread says it all.

I'm well on the way to finishing the Mechanical side of my CNC MiniMill and about to start on the Electronics & Software.
I would like to share, (sponge), ideas with others in the Capital City area.

Just fishing again - Running the thread again to see if anyone bites.

Not quite wellington, but I'm up near Palmerston North. I'm converting a Square-Column mill to CNC - just the Z axis to go and the addition/creation of some anti-backlash nuts (3mm pitch 24mm diameter leadscrews don't appear to be very common :()

Hi Murray
You already know about me. But thought I would reply in case other people watching.
Upper Hutt area. CNC router. Early photo of my Router. Working on my next one.
Paul

Greetings,
I know the msg date is going back some time now, but seeing that I am also in Wellington, NZ, I thought I'd leave a quick note to let you know there is yet someone else here building a CNC machine.
I'm building a 3-axis machine, and trying to future proof the design so when I add the 5-axis (a&b on the z!) I wont have to completely redesign the whole thing. Im at the stage of deciding the best bearing arrangement for the 40mm diameter stainless rails, which is also relating to the size of the table frame, which is also relating to the depth of the z-axis, which is also relating to the size of the router I use, which as also finally relating to "where the heck do I buy the parts I need - here in NZ, without having to morgage the house! :)
Also designing and acquiring parts for a 3d polystyrene cutting cnc machine as well...
Couldnt help it, the CNC bug bit me!

I'm going to post some pictures somewhere here soon (in the gallery?), as my design is slightly different to other Ive seen.. (mainly horizontal y-axis rails, which leaves little room in between for the router, but give excellent stability for the 5-axis (a&b) when incorporated).
Now, this is also scaring me a bit, as maybe Im thinking I should stick to the known designs, because they work, and mine might not! hah.

Anyone in Wellington or close by wanting to get involved, send me an email


synthetiklone ((-a@t-)) yahoo.co.nz

cheers
Tony

Welcome aboard Tony.
There is no such thing as cheap here I'm affraid.
It can be cheaper to import stuff than buy locally.
Murray (Imagineering) told me about a recycler out at seaview. "New Metal Technology" They have some interesting stuff and well worth a visit.
Hard to find, they are not in the phone book. They are on Seaview Rd just past the roundabout going south on the right. Down a drive way. There is a green sign on the fence I think. The map is where I think it is. I may be out by a bit.
They break down old computer gear, printers etc so they have micro switches, small motors, magnets, vacume pumps, fans, lots of junk.
Paul

Hello, I'm in palmerston north, building a CNC machine, partially build the z-axis, and some of the y-axis. Buying some steel for the x-axis tomorrow if I can get my design sorted.

Looking to purchase some motors, and drivers. Any ideas where to get hold of a reasonable (in my opinion) deal?

Hello, I'm in palmerston north, building a CNC machine, partially build the z-axis, and some of the y-axis. Buying some steel for the x-axis tomorrow if I can get my design sorted.

Looking to purchase some motors, and drivers. Any ideas where to get hold of a reasonable (in my opinion) deal?

I have purchased two 200in/oz kits from hobbycnc. Have been quite pleased with the result. The kit does need the assembling of the curcuit board, something I have no problem with, but not everyone is confident with electronics.
Think you will find it cheaper to purchase from overseas than to buy locally.
A lot depends on the size and design of your machine and how fast you want it to travel. Gecko drives seem to be one of the most popular with machine builders and have drives to match both steppers and dc servos.
Paul

Thanks for the info/map PaulC

Ive now setup a gallery and a build log here on CNCzone

the url should be in my sig below :)

OK, so now I got my own sig, and piccy, im hooked ok :)

tony

Hello PaulC,

Thanks for the advice, I'm currently engaing a couple of overseas suppliers, so we'll see how we get on.

Regards,
Trevor

Hi to all NZ cnc builders. As listed above there is a Seaview based supplier of recovered components. There is also another in Petone and Myself in Bulls. I can supply L297 / 298 kits / Steppers if your only after full and half step controllers. Cheers

Hi to all NZ cnc builders. As listed above there is a Seaview based supplier of recovered components. There is also another in Petone and Myself in Bulls. I can supply L297 / 298 kits / Steppers if your only after full and half step controllers. Cheers

What size steppers do you supply? New or recycled?
Paul

23 and 34 frame standard lenght, recovered ranging from very tidy and near new to a little tatty around the edges. cncbits.co.nz has some more info. Thanks
Clinton

Im Here in Paraparaumu. I have completed a CNC router Nov06 and have been running it off and on for a month now. THK linear slides ball screws etc. X is 2m Y is 1m long.
Using Mach 3 and Meshcam and of course Rhino for the CAD work.
Hobby CNC drives and machine at about 3m a minute. Still learning but am able to answer most basic questions.......between Mach3 Meshcam and Rhino....I seem to spend most of my time in front of a computer....

Peter Williams

Not really a CNC builder (yet) but I am thinking about replacing the controller of a 500x300mm cast iron framed chinese router with something with a bit more intelligence. Hardware is extremely rigid with 1mm pitch ballscrews and 1.8 degree steppers (so that's 0.005mm per step at 50mm per second) but the firmware is pretty primitive. There doesn't seem to be a way to vary the feedrate via any of the "usual" HPGL feedrate commands or reliably pause a job and you have to remember to jog the z-axis up manually if you want to cancel a running job otherwise it'll just linearly go from where ever it stopped to 0,0,0 (crashing through any stock that might be in the way).

Seems like I should be able to wire something like a gecko g100 straight into the stepper drivers.

I'm also running a small roland machine (200mm x 150mm) and I have a lathe which might be a good candidate for a CNC retrofit.

Sounds a good candidate for a refit. Does it connect to a PC or have some sort of built in system? If it connects to a PC you may not have to do much to get it running with Mach3.
Paul

Not really a CNC builder (yet) but I am thinking about replacing the controller of a 500x300mm cast iron framed chinese router with something with a bit more intelligence. Hardware is extremely rigid with 1mm pitch ballscrews and 1.8 degree steppers (so that's 0.005mm per step at 50mm per second) but the firmware is pretty primitive. There doesn't seem to be a way to vary the feedrate via any of the "usual" HPGL feedrate commands or reliably pause a job and you have to remember to jog the z-axis up manually if you want to cancel a running job otherwise it'll just linearly go from where ever it stopped to 0,0,0 (crashing through any stock that might be in the way).

Seems like I should be able to wire something like a gecko g100 straight into the stepper drivers.

I'm also running a small roland machine (200mm x 150mm) and I have a lathe which might be a good candidate for a CNC retrofit.

It connects via RS-232 and has onboard firmware to turn HPGL into 3D motion. The problem is the controller isn't very smooth i.e it does linear moves and has a bit of a pause (a few ms) while it thinks about the next path. See attached picture. The part on the left was cut with my Roland MDX-20 and the part on the right I just cut on the chinese machine - you can see the parallel grooves where the tool paused between moves. Solution is to use a slower feedrate and more goto's. I know the Roland did the finishing pass in 100 minutes and looks like it'll take 200+ minutes on the "faster" machine to get the same surface finish.

On the plus side the Roland spindle would have choked on the roughing settings I just used (I was cutting 2x as deep and 3x as fast) so I win on that end.

It should be pretty simple to wire a new controller into the stepper drivers. I'd prefer something that takes USB rather than a parallel breakout board so I can continue using a laptop to run it.

I also discovered the inverter for the spindle puts out enough RF interference to kill the wired ethernet connection to the laptop. I'll have to try shielded cable.

Sounds a good candidate for a refit. Does it connect to a PC or have some sort of built in system? If it connects to a PC you may not have to do much to get it running with Mach3.
Paul

USB is not likely to be an option as most USB systems are proprietary.
To use Mach software you need parallel port. You can get PC cards to allow you to use the laptop.
If you can figure out the drives and they use step and direction signals all you would need is a breakout board. This of course would need some investigation.
Paul

Just ordered a breakout board from http://www.oceancontrols.com.au and a PCMCIA parallel port from Auckland (I'm in Wellington BTW) and downloaded mach3.

I found the step/direction inputs to the X & Y drives and the X & Y home switches which all seem pretty easy to get at. I need to pull the cover off the Z-axis to see how that's wired then figure out how to start up the spindle.

Sounds like you are well on the way to getting it converted. If they are using step and direction for X and Y, I can't imagin them doing different for Z. Good luck and keep us informed.
( I'm in Upper Hutt)
Paul

Just ordered a breakout board from http://www.oceancontrols.com.au and a PCMCIA parallel port from Auckland (I'm in Wellington BTW) and downloaded mach3.

I found the step/direction inputs to the X & Y drives and the X & Y home switches which all seem pretty easy to get at. I need to pull the cover off the Z-axis to see how that's wired then figure out how to start up the spindle.

Seems like the Z-axis is driven directly from the main controller board. So also ordered a new stepper motor (so I know it's specs) and a matching driver from Oz...

Sounds like you are well on the way to getting it converted. If they are using step and direction for X and Y, I can't imagin them doing different for Z. Good luck and keep us informed.
( I'm in Upper Hutt)
Paul

I'm in the very early stages of building a small CNC router, just to get a feel for the issues involved in a larger, more precise machine.

I'm looking to build a small rotary engine (its been an obsession since buying an RX-7), and since i lack a full machine shop, am looking to find a way to prototype and model my designs in my garage. Its mostly just an educational exercise though i would love to work in the CAM/metalworking industry, and i figure theres no better CV than having got off your arse and built stuff from scratch to achieve your goals.

I've had great success using ponoko.com to have a simple model made out of stacked pieces of acrylic, and has pushed me towards trying to build my own gear.

I have lots of general computer, CAD/3D and Linux experience so i'm hoping to put together a working hardware and software package for minimal outlay.

I'm in the very early stages of building a small CNC router, just to get a feel for the issues involved in a larger, more precise machine.



Welcome to the zone.
This is the most useful place on the web for learning this stuff.
Start a new thread for your build and you should get plenty of help if you need it. There is an attitude here that it doesn't matter how ugly it is, if you are willing to try then you deserve credit.
Paul

Howdy,

adam here from wainui

Im in the early stages of preperation for building a smallish router. (300 x 800)


Just scored an BIG old PRINTRONIX printer!
So will get round to strippin it and getting started shortly I hope!

New Age Materials is the place in Seaview to get all you old motors/ electronics etc.

Cheers
Adam

Howdy,

adam here from wainui

Im in the early stages of preperation for building a smallish router. (300 x 800)


Just scored an BIG old PRINTRONIX printer!
So will get round to strippin it and getting started shortly I hope!

New Age Materials is the place in Seaview to get all you old motors/ electronics etc.

Cheers
Adam
Hi Adam. Welcome to the zone.
Yes. New Age materials is a great source of gear. They only have small steppers though. What are you using in your build?
Paul

Hi Adam. Welcome to the zone.
Yes. New Age materials is a great source of gear. They only have small steppers though. What are you using in your build?
Paul


Hi Paul,


Not 100% sure at the moment! :D

Was going to by a mill and just convert to CNC, but the mill is still too far away so gonna build a gantry router style unit to do a couple of slotting jobs I have waiting.

So far have:

5 x printronix steppers (unknown specs)

printronic slides (y axis?)
ball bearing server mounting rails kit (x axis)

havent decided what to use for z but figured Id go and raid some more printer slides or similar from N.A.M



So thats about all I have at present! ANy hints / tips/ advice woiuld be appreciated!!


Cheers
Adam

5 x printronix steppers (unknown specs)

printronic slides (y axis?)
ball bearing server mounting rails kit (x axis)

Adam
I'm not familiar with those steppers but most printer steppers are fairly low torque.
Allow for gearing of some sort in your design as you will proberbly have to go fairly slow to have enough torque to push a router.
If you start a new thread and post some pictures you should get a lot of help. If you dont get any response at first add a post your self every couple of days to keep your thread in the updated threads lists. There are so many people and threads here that its easy for your questions to get overlooked if you don't give them a bump every now and then.

Paul

I'm not familiar with those steppers but most printer steppers are fairly low torque.
Allow for gearing of some sort in your design as you will proberbly have to go fairly slow to have enough torque to push a router.
If you start a new thread and post some pictures you should get a lot of help. If you dont get any response at first add a post your self every couple of days to keep your thread in the updated threads lists. There are so many people and threads here that its easy for your questions to get overlooked if you don't give them a bump every now and then.

Paul

Yeah, had figured as much... Have emailed manufacturer to confirm specs.

But would not be adverse to buying a kit of NEMA 23 (? seem to be popluar but not sure what it means) steppers,seem pretty grunty? more of a plug and play option.

Will start a new thread once Im ready to get started.


Cheers
Adam

Yeah, had figured as much... Have emailed manufacturer to confirm specs.

But would not be adverse to buying a kit of NEMA 23 (? seem to be popluar but not sure what it means) steppers,seem pretty grunty? more of a plug and play option.

Will start a new thread once Im ready to get started.


Cheers
Adam

NEMA 23 is a frame identifier. All NEMA 23 moters will fit the same mounting holes. It does not specify the tourqe of the motors. This is specified in inch ounce or Newton meters. For the router size you mention I would recomment 200 inch ounce stepper motors. There is someone in Bulls that sells steppers but I brought steppers and drives in kit form from the US. (HobbyCNC). New Age Metals have some Sony steppers from old line printers that I think are about 150 inch ounce if the budget is tight. And if you are into electronics http://www.pminmo.com/ has a lot of info and some driver and breakout designs that he offers free to hobbists.

Paul

Paul

All good info, thanks Paul.

Cheers
Adam

Hi
I am not in Wellington but just up the road in Palmerston North.

I have no engineering or eletronics background, new little about computers and even less about cnc machinery untill I decided about one year ago to build a small cnc router table.

There were two main reasons for the build, firstly I thought a cnc router table would give me both faster cutting times and greater accuracy in my woodworking hobby shop, and secondly the cost of buying a ready built machine could not be justified for a hobby workshop.(a nice way of saying I couldn't afford one)

After many hours of searching internet sites and seeking help from those on various forums the build was completed over about seven months and my router table has been running well (apart from a few minor startup hitches) ever since.

The stepper motors, drive board and power supply were imported from the USA as a copmlete kit and the rest was built in my shed from materials readily available from most hardware, timber and steel merchants.

I am well pleased with the Table and am amazed at it's capabilities and accuracy (even more amazed that I built it and it actually works).
The problem is that I am now hooked and want to build a bigger, better and faster one.

If anyone is building or thinking of building their own cnc router table and thinks I may be of some assistance,I will gladly share my experience, plans, material suppliers, web sites used etc. (If I can build one of these anyone can)

Cheers
Lawrie

Hi everyone,

A little further north again (Bay of Islands). Have built our own 2400x1200x350 router for model and 3D work - picture shows a large rudder blade 1/2 mould (3.3m long). Running Bob Campbell breakout board, Mach3, Gecko drives and Anaheim Automation Nema 23 steppers (320oz in). Using AutoCAD & Rhino for the CAD and VisualMill 5 for the CAM. Cutting MDF with 6.35mm spiral up-cut bit 12mm deep at 6000mm/min. Router has been running for about a year doing mainly commercial mould work and profile cutting in the marine field. Good to see so many others having a go at building a system - just remember, you can never go fast enough or big enough so do not compromise on stepper power or table size!

Alan

Hi
I am not in Wellington but just up the road in Palmerston North.

I have no engineering or eletronics background, new little about computers and even less about cnc machinery untill I decided about one year ago to build a small cnc router table.

There were two main reasons for the build, firstly I thought a cnc router table would give me both faster cutting times and greater accuracy in my woodworking hobby shop, and secondly the cost of buying a ready built machine could not be justified for a hobby workshop.(a nice way of saying I couldn't afford one)

After many hours of searching internet sites and seeking help from those on various forums the build was completed over about seven months and my router table has been running well (apart from a few minor startup hitches) ever since.

The stepper motors, drive board and power supply were imported from the USA as a copmlete kit and the rest was built in my shed from materials readily available from most hardware, timber and steel merchants.

I am well pleased with the Table and am amazed at it's capabilities and accuracy (even more amazed that I built it and it actually works).
The problem is that I am now hooked and want to build a bigger, better and faster one.

If anyone is building or thinking of building their own cnc router table and thinks I may be of some assistance,I will gladly share my experience, plans, material suppliers, web sites used etc. (If I can build one of these anyone can)

Cheers
Lawrie

Hi Lawrie,
I've just read this thread and was wondering who's stepper motors, drive board and power supply you imported from the USA. Also did you have to pay any import tax/duty?

I have been reading and studying DIY cnc with the intention of building my own. I've been looking at either HobbyCNC or Probotix equipment.

Your help would be great.

Regards
Kevin (New Plymouth)

Hi Lawrie,
I've just read this thread and was wondering who's stepper motors, drive board and power supply you imported from the USA. Also did you have to pay any import tax/duty?

I have been reading and studying DIY cnc with the intention of building my own. I've been looking at either HobbyCNC or Probotix equipment.

Your help would be great.

Regards
Kevin (New Plymouth)

I have imported a HobbyCNC driver board and stepper motors from the US. Usually you wont get hit with any import charges until around NZD$600 package value or if you are importing many of the same items.

Shannon (Rangiora, Canterbury)

Hi Kevin,

The stepper motors, drive board and power supply were a package deal from Xylotex, Inc. You can see what they have available on their web site.
www.xylotex.com

I choose this package for the following reasons

1. They can be ordered on line. (No import tax or duty has to be paid)

2. As a package deal there are no compatibility problems but you need to state when ordering that they are for a 240v power supply.

3. Everything is pretty much plug and play, there is no soldering or hard to follow wiring diagrams.

I am running these with Mach 3. and have been getting exellent results.

Regards
Lawrie

Hi Shannon and Laurie,

Thanks for your help guys.....

Regards