cnc made of melamine?

[Kelmannen]

good day everyone, im going to post an idea i have for my first cnc, i have made som plans and i wonder if i can use melanine for parts? i happen to have 6 2"x8" 3/4" melamine shelf material and are thinking about using it for the cnc body sbr20 linear rail, 1605 ballscrews and 425 oz nema 23's for driving it.

so far i have planned, i have however no idea if it's a good construction idea or which spindle i should use!

first 3 pics is ver.1 following 3 pics is ver.2 and last 3 pics ver 3

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[ger21]

I've seen machines made from melamine. But I think you'll find that it's not the best material, and you'll either end up building a better machine, or rebuilding this one to make it better.

[coherent]

Melamine is simply pressed wood. It'll work for a small machine, but any machines rigidity and accuracy is based on the materials used for the frame and gantry. The stronger they are the stronger the machine will be. Also the longer it'll hold up during use. It's your call and you'll learn building it. You didn't say it's proposed dimensions or what you want to cut with it, but the overall design and parts listed are fine for a small spindle or trim router. It should be as good or better than the lower cost import hobby machines as long as the build is square, parallel and solid. Good luck.

[Kelmannen]

Thanks for the feedback, the last picture has measurements!

Well, I think you saw my target specification! Same as or better then a cheap import, in my case, decent slides and screws and then build it and use it to make a better one, week that's the plan I think

[wizard]

Thanks for the feedback, the last picture has measurements!

Well, I think you saw my target specification! Same as or better then a cheap import, in my case, decent slides and screws and then build it and use it to make a better one, week that's the plan I think

You didn't mention what the core material was with this Melamine. That will make a difference to some degree. however either partial aboard or MDF is terrible with respect to screw holding so you will need to address that in some manner.

At the moment your general layout of the machine looks to be pretty good. I might beef up how the ball screws are mounted though as they can take a lot of shock if the machine crashes.

One key to using wood in a machine design is the use of plenty of glue. Glue everywhere really. That makes me wonder how well melamine takes to being glued together. I'd suggest looking into that as poor glue joints will effect the overall performance of the machine.

The only other thing that comes to mind i beefing up the vertical supports for the gantry beam. In the end though I like your initial design here, it looks like you put a lot of thought into it.

[plcamp]

I think the main point here is that of the construction material and not your mechanical components. I believe that you will discover the core material of the Melamine will prove inadequate to properly hold you assembly fasteners. The machine generates lateral forces (vibrations) that will eventually loosen your fasteners.

[Kelmannen]

Hmmm.. i got that, English is not my first language so I might come across unclear :P I think I might use some solid wood/ plywood was a core and then use the melamine as "beautypanels" because they're quite stiff and massive if used correctly, the main wood that's available here is pine or fur, live way to far above the polar circle to have hardwoods around!

The fur/pine here is harder then the stuff u seem to have over there tho, growth rings of a couple mm only instead of a couple cm :P but I'm not sure yet, might be able to get cheap tubular steel, doesn't have a welder tho so I don't know about that either!

I'm not home atm but I can post some pics with some panels removed and the core of it visible later.

[Kelmannen]

the misson for this machine is not to build a perfect machine, my budget is waay to low for that to happen :P, im am going to put almost all my money on rails, motors, spindle.
The frame will be evolving, i hope to manage to get it runnning with a really cheap frame, then use the machine to make it better and to collect some skills in machinery, here i have another evolution in the works with timing belts instead of screws, i dont know if that is only stupid but there seem to be some benefits of belts as far as i can see, i cant afford any professional grade screws so i wonder if it's better to use good belts then cheap screws? the belt solution is quite a lot cheaper!

here you have some pics! there is dual versions of the gantry, one with the belt on top and one with the belt in the middle

[wizard]

Hmmm.. i got that, English is not my first language so I might come across unclear :P I think I might use some solid wood/ plywood was a core and then use the melamine as "beautypanels" because they're quite stiff and massive if used correctly, the main wood that's available here is pine or fur, live way to far above the polar circle to have hardwoods around!

Years ago, decades probably now, I built a router table by laminating 3/4" particle board to both sides of a 3/4" plywood core. The plywood core provides huge screw holding capability. I then laminated formica to the particle board for a work surface. This makes for a really heavy table which I prefer. The point here is that you wan find ways to work with melamine if it has a poor core material, it does however take some foresight with your design.

The fur/pine here is harder then the stuff u seem to have over there tho, growth rings of a couple mm only instead of a couple cm :P but I'm not sure yet, might be able to get cheap tubular steel, doesn't have a welder tho so I don't know about that either!

Some of that stuff is rapid growth lumber raised on farms. In any event I often laugh at the word "softwoods" a lot of those evergreens are harder than hell when you go to cut them. It would be interesting to know the history and application of the word "softwoods"

I'm not home atm but I can post some pics with some panels removed and the core of it visible later.

One issue I did run into when I did that router table top is that I needed up with one end slightly sagging (it has been bothering me a lot lately). I blame that on the bench I clamped everything to. However years later that sag hasn't moved one bit. On a CNC machine this sag wouldn't be acceptable so you might want to make sure you have the resources to flatten any surface that might need it.

[Kelmannen]

Thanks again, if I remember correctly the soft/hard wood names comes from the kind of seed the wood has, not the actual wood, hard seed, hardwood like a nut on valnut, soft seed like the one on pine or fur makes those softwood, ofc with exceptions both ways!

I'm also aiming for the same, something hard to screw into and let the melamine be dead weight, as it seem to help against resonance and wood movement.

I'm going to make it as precise as I can, however my kind of straight might be a joke to a lot of people here! I don't have much in measure tools other then tape measure some straight edges, and a couple spirit levels, think that'll work fine for me.

[wizard]

You will need a really good square and ideally a dial indicator and Noga style base. One of the tougher goals in building a router is to get your linear guides parallel each other and in the same plane, a dial indicator can really help here.


It is certainly possible to build a machine with limited tooling it will just take a lot longer. There is a whole series of books, written by a guy named Gingery, that detail building a machine shop out of scrap aluminum. It is possible to get to just about any level of precision with very basic tools, it just takes FOREVER.

Speaking of that sag I mentioned on the router table, the way that rolled off at the end of the table wold have raised hell with a CNC router as the linear rails would have bent to conform to if assuming top mounted rails. We are talking maybe 0.080" over the last eight inches of the table but that is enough to twist the linear rails. I only mention this against to make you aware that to work well you might need better than normal wood working bench precision.

[Kelmannen]

yeah, this will indeed be the most precise thing i've ever built, have built a bunch of stuff but nothing of this magnitude, combining a lot of different techniques going to be hard, but fun!

[Marti]

Thanks for the feedback, the last picture has measurements!

Well, I think you saw my target specification! Same as or better then a cheap import, in my case, decent slides and screws and then build it and use it to make a better one, week that's the plan I think

I've even thought of using OSB to make the y-axis and gantries and then use the machine to cut replacements.

[Kelmannen]

Exactly, i only have a small one car garage, don't have tools or money to make a 10k machine, I'll start something soon but atm I'm price hunting and trying to find the right parts, and also trying to not forget anything! :P

[KH0UJ]

The keyword here is "TIME" if you want a faster CNC and want to make finish products as soon as possible to get the required qouta of the production per day then build a strong and rigid CNC machine, but if time is not a problem then I think this project is very good enough it can run on a moderate speeds but not as fast as the steel rigid CNC units because you can use aggressive CAM programs to minimize time, optimize stepper motor speeds at it`s fullest not worrying about vibration because it`s rigid.