newbie!!! saying hi and asking questions..

[nicejubjubs]

hay guys this is an awesome site!!!!

im from north side of brisbane
i love working with fibreglass and building things the main reason i want to build a cnc to make plugs for me to make molds and so on.

heres some videos of the sort of stuff that i would need my cnc to do what would be the best plans to achive this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qmZMq8bbn4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM-NJV1o4cQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw0JRWZF5TA&feature=related

i would be looking to cut/mill mdf and foam
about 1200 x 2400 made from with steel or mdf (i have fab skills in both)
i want a fixed base
i have a roland desk top engraver so i have some simple skills in general setup and running of a engraver
my old man programs plcs and other electronics so wireing should be to hard

any help would be awesome and i know this is the place to get it

have a great day
Simon

[epineh]

1200 by 2400 is a pretty large machine, the biggest problem with such a large machine is the cost, you have long linear rails and bearings, large servo's/steppers, heavy gantry, lots of material for the frame alone...and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I think everybody should have one, I plan to build one for myself but there is a little planning required, mechanically, electrically and financially.

I built a relatively small machine (650 by 600) and the cost was about $2000.00 for everything, and I did cut a few corners in the process. My guess for the bigger machine would be around the $10000 - $20000 mark, still using my own drives, doing all my own electronics and shopping around for servo's and linear rails/bearings, which will need to be big for the size of the machine.

But keep researching, I would say everything you need to know is on this forum, concentrate on the DIY wood router section and see how everyone else is building their machines and get as many ideas as you can. There are build logs of some quite professional machines here (not mine ) and a lot of info, hope you have a good supply of coffee !!

Russell.

[appicnc]

Hello Simon

I built a smaller cnc router ( 1200 by 600 ) 2 years ago and have never been really happy with size or speed, I know the idea of speed is over used but like you I want to cut foam for plugs, 400mm per min is kinda slow.

I have designed a new machine that will be about 3.0m by 1.5m ( cutting size ), this is basically a hobby for me that has to have some constraints, I priced linear rails here @ $5500.00, I bought some from VBX in the states ( 9 ) for US$1341.00 had them shipped to a fellow cnc'r ( who will on ship stuff ( for a very small fee ) ), I purchased other stuff as well and had it sent here as a LCL ( Less than Container Load ), this was last December, the ship called in to NZ as a detour and instead of being here 3-4th Jan' arrived on the 19th.

As I haven't picked it up yet I don't know what costs are payable here yet, but if you are interested I will let you know.

BTW, the fellow in the States, used to build machines and thought the quality of the VBX ones was better than the ones his company bought.

I am going for timing belts and steppers, these were also bought there and shipped back, I have the steppers and controllers, they seem fine.

If you have any questions post here or send a PM with your email.

Ed Pinder

[nicejubjubs]

to tell the truth speed is not a problem for me its a hobbie and my time is free at the moment so my first one doesnt have to be super fast or even fast!.

im thinking of a chain driven one where the motors turns a cog witch then moves the motor/axis along a chain, the only thing im not sure of is how do you program the motors so that they all move at the same time as in if i were to use a big cog on the end of the motor this would change how far it would go per revelotion conpaired to if you used a smaller cog on the up/down axis.

is that even posible to do or do each motor have to "rev" at the same speed.