New member

[mrgadgeteer]

Greetings Everyone, I'm new to this site and after having seen all the cool machinery that has been made am anxious to build my own CNC system. As an electronics "junkie" I have a decent junk box of goodies which will help with experimentation and testing ideas. A few scanners and printers are lined up in the slaughterhouse for parts collection.

I've already used a Basic Stamp (BS2) to run scanner steppers and using those parts am in the conceptual design phase of a lightweight 3-axis gantry to run a small Dremel. It will likely have very low torque and be prone to mechanical inaccuracy but it's a starting point to understand the nature of the beast.

No stranger to fabrication of circuit boards and soldering, my preference is to build my own unipolar stepper controller that will be hefty enough to run larger motors as I acquire them (I have one biggie here that needs more drive power than I can currently provide). Any recommendations for surplus sources (reasonable quality motors, ball screws/bearings etc.) in the Toronto area are most welcome.

Best Regards!
Mike

[H500]

Welcome! It's good to see others interested in this hobby. I thought I was the only one in the city. I have an SX3 mill and a mini-lathe which I am converting to CNC. What type of machine are you planning to build?

[mrgadgeteer]

H500, For starters I'm looking at building a gantry style CNC which can handle wood routing and eventually integrate laser engraving/cutting (i.e. plaque engraving). Circuit board drilling would be awesome too. I don't have anything more than a small drill press and a variety of hand tools, so getting any semblance of accuracy is tedious.

As a strictly fun project I'm making a lightweight one from my scanner collection, already have one axis done, a moving table. The next step is to make the gantry for the other 2 axis. -Mike

[H500]

I made a similar gantry type machine as a learning experience. I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed a mill and lathe to build the type of mechanisms I truly wanted. Of course that was just an excuse to buy some toys.

[mrgadgeteer]

I can appreciate the need for a mill & lathe, but those I need to save $ a while for. In the interim I'll need to find someone nearby with those facilities

onto axis # 3 now....but having a time trying to figure out the simplest PC based controller and compatible software, there's so much info to weed thru out here!.

[H500]

If you had experience with a Basic Stamp + mosfets type controller, I'm sure you realize that the simple designs are only good for learning. They don't have enough performance for real applications. I am currently working on another unipolar microstepper.

If you run into difficulty making any components, feel free to contact me. My machines could use some exercise. The only catch is that the material must be aluminum or plastic. My workshop is in my living room right now, so steel chips are too sharp to be tolerable.

[mrgadgeteer]

Thanks for the machinery offer. Here is where I'm at so far (only 2 axis):

YouTube- Home Made CNC from junk scanners

YouTube- Home Made CNC from junk scanners

[H500]

Cool. Scanners and printers have a lot of components for scavenging. I found that the Dremel grinders have too much radial play on the spindle because the bearings are held by foam rubber. The cheap imports from Princess Auto worked better.

I used my first machine for routing PCBs. I stopped doing that because I found that toner transfer and etching was better for surface mount components.