Oswaldo's build

[OSWALDO]

Hi There fellow Australian's!
Well i thought i should finally put a post on here and introduce myself, as i have been visiting the zone for many months. I Live in Modbury South Australia, I have been building a Joe's cnc for some months now and am just about completed. I have been using it to make small projects along with my other hobbies, DIY. Arcade machines etc. I will at this point like to say thankyou to cnczone and everyone that uses the forums because without you, i would not have been able to build the cnc...

Checkout http://www.ourmilkyway.net/CnC%20Machine.html there are a couple of pics of my build...

I decided some months ago to buy a $50 cheap plunge router and get to work cutting out the parts required by hand..
Now i have the experience of building a joe's by hand from scratch if anyone else has any questions, or needs help to do the same just let me know, its now time for me to give something back to the forum....
It might not be the prettyest looking machine but hey! it works....
thanks again all...
Oswaldo!

[OSWALDO]

Originally Posted by VWSatOz I live in Banksia Park SA only a Magpie flight from where you are. I have a couple of CNC mcs in my engineering business but have always been interested in these simple builds with great fascination and the idea of building one myself. I have a defunct LaserKomb mc bought at auction which has most of the stuff needed already there, just needs a new control I guess and would love to set it up on my own with new servos etc some day... some time... some how? I am intrigued as to what sort of cuts you can take in various materials and what sort of speed and accuracy and surface finish etc CNC is amazing for doing very intricate shapes, and many copies of an exact same thing, to any scale and at any angle, all things that are very difficult on a manual machine, and for a home hobbyist to be able to make a simple mc to do this in his home workshop must be very rewarding.

Hi VWSatOz
Well i dont know about simple builds, but yes it sure is nice to be able to design something and then have the machine cut it out. As for Accuracy and cuts, i am still experimenting but no probs with mdf (what i mostly work with) and plastic. Dont really intend to cut much else dont have the need, but i would say the machine would not have a problem as far as power goes. I just need to get my mind around being able to cut with better accuracy than .5 of a mill, (thats the best i could do by hand) as i am using quality ball screws the precision is pretty spot on for the type of work i do on the machine...

[VWSatOz]

I would say for pretty it looks pretty dam good! And since you have ballscrews the accuracy must be very good, especially if you take light finishing cuts and dont belt round corners too quick. I was wondering what deflection or vibration/wobble you might get in the gantry? The table must be pretty solid. Well done with hand routed parts, must have been tricky getting all those guide-holding parts all the same so the rods end up parallel etc

[OSWALDO]

Originally Posted by VWSatOz I would say for pretty it looks pretty dam good! And since you have ballscrews the accuracy must be very good, especially if you take light finishing cuts and dont belt round corners too quick. I was wondering what deflection or vibration/wobble you might get in the gantry? The table must be pretty solid. Well done with hand routed parts, must have been tricky getting all those guide-holding parts all the same so the rods end up parallel etc

Thanks VWSatOz,
I recently cut out a panel for another Arcade control panel i am building, was so nice that the buttons actually snapped in rather than being sloppy as they used to be when i made one.
The table is pretty heavy but i intend to put it on wheels, as for the guide alignment, i made the torsion box without any ends, then made a template for the guides and used the guides to align up everything once ready to glue and screw, was originally about 1mm out from one end of the table to the other, have recently re-configured it now its pretty spot on... As i only run at slow speeds and do multiple depth cuts on 12mm mdf there is very little issue with vibration and zero wobble. I am using a good quality spiral router bit, very sharp...

[VWSatOz]

How about 3 wheels and 2 corner jacks at the 3rd castor wheel end, that way the floor can't twist the torsion box bed , being on 3 point footing... and you can gently down-screw at the 2 corners to just touch the floor to end up with 5points seating.
Must be tricky job getting the guides all parallel & straight and not twisted etc. Looks excellent though.

[OSWALDO]

Originally Posted by VWSatOz How about 3 wheels and 2 corner jacks at the 3rd castor wheel end, that way the floor can't twist the torsion box bed , being on 3 point footing... and you can gently down-screw at the 2 corners to just touch the floor to end up with 5points seating. Must be tricky job getting the guides all parallel & straight and not twisted etc. Looks excellent though.

Yep, been planning some wheels, good idea about the jacks though, thanks, will implement that...

[OSWALDO]

Originally Posted by bkboggy Hi, I noticed that you've built Joe's router with simple tools. Could you teach/explain how I can accomplish that? I really need a CNC and don't have a workshop like most people. All I have is a bunch of basic tools you can find at home depot. -BK

Hi bkboggy!

All you need is a plunge router, (mine was a cheapie one) good steel ruler, a good tape measure, nails, and plenty of time...

The way i made mine was to download all Joe's plans in 3d, Joe was kind enough to save them so people could use the tape in the viewer. I just did a basic conversion with the inbuilt tape to metric (live in Aust).
I started with the Main Torsion box ribs, by making a template out of mdf using the router. But for now you need to start by getting some MDF and everything together and somewhere you can work that wont need packing up every night. once you have that let me know an i will explain in more detail and answer any questions you have regarding making the first template. Keep in mind though mine took quite a few months to get to the stage i am at presently and its still needing work to complete...
regards,
Oswaldo!

[bkboggy]

1. Don't have a plunge router, but I have a dremel rotary tool. Will this attachment be good enough for a plunge router? Or do I need to buy a real one?

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...d&ddkey=Search

If I need a real one, where would be a good place to get it cheaply? (But something that will last, of course). As a side question to that, where is a good place to buy tools and such.

2. Would it be better to buy a cheap drill press over a plunge router? Like this one:

Amazon.com: Grizzly G7942 5 Speed Baby Drill Press: Home Improvement

Amazon.com: Grizzly G7942 5 Speed Baby Drill Press: Home Improvement

3. Where's a good/cheap place to buy MDF? Would home depot have it? What sizes should I be getting (including thickness).

4. There is R-1 and R-2 floating around. Which one are you building and why?

5. How much would it cost me to build one? The total costs (not including tools).

[bkboggy]

Well, I found Joe's website and it seems that the Hybrid is the latest creation. But it is more complicated and plans are not available for free. I probably should start off with making the '06 version.

[OSWALDO]

Originally Posted by bkboggy 1. Don't have a plunge router, but I have a dremel rotary tool. Will this attachment be good enough for a plunge router? Or do I need to buy a real one? http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...d&ddkey=Search If I need a real one, where would be a good place to get it cheaply? (But something that will last, of course). As a side question to that, where is a good place to buy tools and such. 2. Would it be better to buy a cheap drill press over a plunge router? Like this one: Amazon.com: Grizzly G7942 5 Speed Baby Drill Press: Home Improvement 3. Where's a good/cheap place to buy MDF? Would home depot have it? What sizes should I be getting (including thickness). 4. There is R-1 and R-2 floating around. Which one are you building and why? 5. How much would it cost me to build one? The total costs (not including tools).

Ok, Lets start at the beginning,
Yes you will need a Plunge router, you will be cutting up to 19mm mdf, a drem just wont do the job..
As for where to buy that depends where you live, ie: country etc...
Where are you located, are you in Aust?

the one i can help with is the joes http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17279
you first need to read thru his forum and then go to his page and become a member, then you can download additional information regarding all the parts required etc. also you will need the edrawing viewer, http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/pages/programs/download/
the you can have a look at the build in detail, you really need to make sure that you study this cad design, this is quite a tricky job for a beginner to build by hand, have you seen this one http://www.instructables.com/id/SQVKUHRF3HY3SVT/. Just a suggestion, anyway once you have looked at everything and downloaded everything then we can talk tools etc and where to get them...

[bkboggy]

1. I'm located in California, US.

2. I have AutoCAD 2009 and eDrawing Viewer.

3. I'm still a bit confused on which version I should be looking at. I have some .zip packages for R-2 and some for R-1.

4. That cheap and easy router is actually saved in my bookmarks and is one of the plans I was looking at. Guy says one could build it under $600. I was talking to Joe and it seems that the '06 version will be around $1,200-$1,500. Now, the difference is huge... but, if the difference in the performance is huge as well, then I'd rather go with something I would not waste my time on. I don't want to build something that I would not keep. It'd be a waste of time. Has anyone else built that router? Is it good? It looks pretty good and he says he'll have precut MDF available early '09 if I'll decide to cheat (which I probably won't, since I'm a DIY kind of guy).

5. I don't see a way of becoming a member on Joe's website. I think you have to buy his 4x4 Hybrid plans to be able to register on his forums. Is that what you meant by becoming member on his site and looking through his forums?

[OSWALDO]

Ok, go with the R2 design thats the design i worked from, as for performance with the joe's one it all depends on how much you spend, I used servo motors and good quality ball screws, Then you add the cost of the computer, wood, tools needed, router bits and finally software, all up i would guess the one i built cost around the $5k mark, It would have been just as easy to buy one second hand but that was not my goal, i wanted to see if i had the skill to acutally build my own...

as for paying to join joe's fourm, last time i looked you only needed to register..

as far as where to get the wood etc, and router to make this one, you will need to shop around but the local hardware store will be a good place to start.
Another option for the cutting is see if you can find someone local on the forum to cut the parts out etc, here is a link to the nested parts listed on the forum,
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53757

Befor you do start to make anything, be sure you learn how to use the router if you have never used one befor, and wear goggles and ear plugs... is a must.