Good starting point for a CNC6040

[DaveMoi]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the cnc world and am looking to get a first cnc machine. I would like to work with wood, some aluminum and pcb boards.

I know that Chinese machines are to be avoided for their electronics, so I'm planning on starting off with a 6040 frame and adding my own electronics to it.

I was looking at the following frame;

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6040...311.0.0.FZrop0

and would like to get your opinionif this is a good frame to start off with?

Any advice is more than welcome (also for the electronics part).

Thanks in advance,

David

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[awerby]

It says it won't do "milling working" on metals, but if all you want to do is "surface working" it might be adequate. What spindle is supposed to fit in that bracket they supply? For over $800, I think you can do better ordering your own parts; this is just a kit, after all, not an assembled machine. The ball screws, for example, can be found here for $26: https://www.banggood.com/400mm-Ball-...p-1018725.html . The slides are also available elsewhere for not too much: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QTFBXCE?psc=1 (although profile rails would work much better). Aside from that, what are you getting? Some pieces of aluminum extrusion and the gantry sides, it looks like. The shipping is confusing too - if they really are stocked in US warehouses as they claim, charging $189.47 to get it to you here seems a bit high. But hey, at least you won't have to deal with "backflash"...

[rocketflier]

I was right there a couple months ago. Started reading about this 6040 and it seeming to fit my wants. Then I start reading reviews about the electronics and having those anyway, started looking at bare frames. So staring at $800 it really feels like you can do better sourcing parts and increasing rigidity but that also means a different design (for fully supported rails).

[DaveMoi]

Thank you for your feedback. What did you end up doing? Did you build one yourself? Did it work out?

Now on the other hand, I heard dat the new Chinese machines with the black boxes are ok?

So that could be an option as well..

Thanks,

David

[DaveMoi]

Thank you for your reply Andrew. I somehow missed the part in the description about it not being suitable for milling. I dont really understand why though as it looks the same as the other machines that do milling. I know that there is a picture with the parts,,however the machine does come assembled. I’m a bit hesitant to build my own as you do need tools to cut aluminium to make the stuff like the gantry and z axis slide. I would think that you need a cnc router to build a cnc router

Now I’ve read that’s the new Chinese machines are better (the ones with the black boxes), so that could be an option?

In any case I would want to be able to mill aluminium...

Thanks,

David

[Mmpie]

I have the OMIO CNC X6-2200L. Other than having to change my cables to shielded cables and replacing a faulty PSU it shipped with, the electronics have been good, and a lot cheaper and easier than sourcing my own. Positioning is surprisingly accurate, a lot better than I expected anyway.

If aluminium is something you want to do much of, at the least I would try to avoid unsupported round rails if you can within your budget. Mine has HG20 rails and can only just cut aluminium, pushing it to its limits and running very slowly. Better, IMO, to find a different sort of machine altogether. Those Sieg's look to munch through it nicely at a similar cost, although at the sacrifice of work envelope and the time/effort/knowledge to CNC it yourself.


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[DaveMoi]

You make some valid points! Do you think it would be ferasable to modify the fram to use HG20 rails instead re-using the rest? Or do you think that the frame itself will not be rigid enough?

Thanks,

David

[Mmpie]

The frame itself looks to be pretty much the same between all these Chinese routers, and it is soft as butter. The rails take a lot of the load though. My 3D printer has unsupported round rails and they sag by 0.08mm over a 300mm span just carrying a 300 or 400 gram print head, introduce the forces from cutting aluminium over a much longer span and I dread to think how much potential for twist there is. The side arms on my frame are t-slot extrusions which the rails bolt into. Assuming that frame above is just hollow tubing I can't see any reason why you couldn't drill through and bolt better rails into locking nuts on the underside. The rails and bearing carriages to do all 3 axis won't be cheap though, you'd be far better off buying a frame that already has them.

The bed is also a massive weak point, even in soft woods Z accuracy was all over the place, if pocket depth and overall z tolerance is important you will need to upgrade the bed too.

You need to really think about how much of what material and what size you plan to cut. If aluminium is going to be a mainstay, these machines can do it, and can actually make some very nice pieces, but it's going to take it a long time to produce anything within any sort of tolerance or that looks good. For cutting wood they're brilliant.


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[DaveMoi]

The weak point in the fram is basically the x-axis if I’m not mistaken, the y-axis (the long axis) gas supported rails, however not the HG20 rails. I dont know if the supplied rails are any good though.

[rocketflier]

Thank you for your feedback. What did you end up doing? Did you build one yourself? Did it work out?

Now on the other hand, I heard dat the new Chinese machines with the black boxes are ok?

So that could be an option as well..

Thanks,

David

I've only just started picking up aliexpress HGW20 rails to poke at. Here steel drops are $0.80/lb, I've a pile of 2x2", 2x3" and 5' of 2x6" in 1/4".
My thoughts are along the likes of:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cn...build-log.html

[awerby]

That seems like a much more promising starting point, if you're trying to build a machine to cut aluminum.