30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?


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Thread: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

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    Default 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Hi

    I am interested in buying or building a larger desktop CNC router to make plastic or resin molds for my business but I'm having a little trouble figuring out the best approach and was hoping to get some advice.

    The problem is my tight budget for the size of work area I need. The molds I work with can be up to 30" long by up to 8" wide and 1.5" deep. None of the cheap Chinese desktop routers on eBay offer anywhere close to enough length so I am considering a more diy approach.

    Does anyone know of a relatively low cost parts kit that would give me close to 30" x 8" in cutting capability?

    Are these DIY parts kits a waste of money? They seem to cost a lot considering that many don't include any of the electronics and motors etc. Am I better off sourcing the components separately?

    I would really appreciate some advice from people who have gone through this already....

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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    What is your budget, and what kits are you looking at?

    Gerry

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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by Goemon View Post
    Hi

    I am interested in buying or building a larger desktop CNC router to make plastic or resin molds for my business but I'm having a little trouble figuring out the best approach and was hoping to get some advice.
    What will the molds be made out of? This is important because if you are talking aluminum the suggestions will be for a more robust machine than what you might get away with for making molds out of wood or plastic.
    The problem is my tight budget for the size of work area I need.
    Reason #1 why I don't have a router at the moment.
    The molds I work with can be up to 30" long by up to 8" wide and 1.5" deep. None of the cheap Chinese desktop routers on eBay offer anywhere close to enough length so I am considering a more diy approach.
    The low end Chinese routers leave a lot to be desired anyways.

    By the way your working dimensions might fit into a CNC milling machine. That is 30" x 8 sound more like a milling machine working area than a router. You might be able to find a mill suitable for conversion an easier path to follow. Many Bridgeport mills will cover that work area nicely and I'm certain other mills will. You might want to look towards the DIY milling machine sections of this forum to get another perspective. Which would be better depends upon your long term business goals, however a CNC'ed Bridgeport can be an extremely flexible low end mold making machine. Plus it can be argued that a Bridgeport might support business gore better than a router.
    Does anyone know of a relatively low cost parts kit that would give me close to 30" x 8" in cutting capability?
    Here is the problem, low cost is relative, you really need to have hard figures for us to be able to say much. In any event you need to catalog your expectation of what this machine will do, the tolerances you need (be realistic), production rate & etc. The work area size is pretty easy to come up with but frankly that doesn't encompass performance.
    Are these DIY parts kits a waste of money?
    I'm going to say no but there is a lot of qualification here. These kits are excellent if you are trying to get started with a CNC machine and have very little in the way of shop tooling to build your own. Further if you have little in the way of machine tool building experience sometimes a well done kit is worth every penny. So there are a lot of positives to a kit.

    The negatives as you note begin with cost. Effectively you pay somebody else for the machining and purchasing of the parts, this of course is a trade off and may be worth your money. The other issues are more open for discussion. I tend to dismiss most of the kits due to the use of extruded aluminum T-Slots. The problem is that aluminum is expensive and the T-Slots are less than optimal for mounting linear rails. To put it frankly I'm not a big fan of Aluminum T-slots for certain parts of a machines structure. As noted though they do serve a purpose and can be a good value if you have nothing shop wise to build a machine with.
    They seem to cost a lot considering that many don't include any of the electronics and motors etc. Am I better off sourcing the components separately?
    I strongly recommend reading the stickies to get a better idea of what is involved in a DIY machine and why you might want to go that route. In a nut shell the cost of the kits is high compared to some of the DIY approaches, many of which result in arguably better machines.
    I would really appreciate some advice from people who have gone through this already....
    Well I haven't done a personal machine, most of my experience comes from working in the automation industry for years. In that industry a lot of aluminum T-Sloted extrusions are used, generally it is avoided anywhere you have a linear rail to mount.

    Some other things to consider:
    1. If you want high precision ( for a router) you will need to consider the fact that you will need a machine shops assistance or use other approaches to flattening the linear rail mounting surfaces. The problem is neither extruded aluminum nor steel tubing is flat or straight enough to be considered suitable for. linear rail mounting if you goal is a high degree of precision. Some extrusion vendors like Misumi offer machining services for their extrusions, but otherwise you need to find a shop on your own.
    2. Other technologies for flattening surfaces exist like epoxy leveling. This is where the stickies come into play as there are options if you want to achieve higher precision than stock material allows.
    3. Personally I'm a real big fan of building a good machine frame that will hold up over time. Other parts of the machine can be replaced as time permits and the pocketbook permits. With the electrical controls this is especially important as the improvements and new tech introduced in electrical controls, means what was good yesterday sucks tomorrow. Plus it is completely reasonable to update what was a low end control system to something more advanced a few years down the road. There are businesses that literally specialize in retro fitting old iron to new CNC controllers so the practice isn't that strange.
    4. Machine components are expensive as such get good at hitting auctions, or online searches, which can save you considerable money. Buying retail hurts the budget big time.
    5. If you don't have shop equipment suitable for machine tool building you might want to consider purchasing some things (machinery) if they can fit into your business goals. A drill press and welder can go a long ways. Frankly a Bridgeport can get you started and eventually be a big aid in building a dedicated router. You have to evaluate what makes sense for your business but sometime a router is not the best place to start.
    6. There are no easy answers here, it takes awhile to determine the best course of action.



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    << building a larger desktop CNC router to make plastic or resin molds for my business >>
    How many molds daily?
    If it is just a few, look at "openbuilds" like the BIG-OX (22x30 work area)
    With some of the upgrades like better wheels, spindle, tinyg controller, etc.. this would probably put the kit a about $1200 (or so) and then expect to put in another
    $300 for stuff not included.
    Then you have BITS & software; prices vary widely in BITS due to quality & supplier; Software too, depending on what you need...

    So for $1500 (hardware) you can get started BUT realize the setup will NOT run for long on a large duty cycle i.e. 5 hours a day 5 days a week....

    If you want a "business" machine; a decent one can be had for $8000...

    Walt



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by hairyMug View Post
    << building a larger desktop CNC router to make plastic or resin molds for my business >>
    How many molds daily?
    If it is just a few, look at "openbuilds" like the BIG-OX (22x30 work area)
    With some of the upgrades like better wheels, spindle, tinyg controller, etc.. this would probably put the kit a about $1200 (or so) and then expect to put in another
    $300 for stuff not included.
    Then you have BITS & software; prices vary widely in BITS due to quality & supplier; Software too, depending on what you need...

    So for $1500 (hardware) you can get started BUT realize the setup will NOT run for long on a large duty cycle i.e. 5 hours a day 5 days a week....

    If you want a "business" machine; a decent one can be had for $8000...

    Walt


    I wouldn't be making any more than one mold in a day. The molds are for a business that makes carbon fiber parts. A new mold would only be made when I was introducing a new product. The main thing for me is that I want the CNC machine to be working in the molds in the background so I can focus on using my existing molds to make parts. It doesn't matter if the machine is slow.


    I wanted to keep the price to less than $2000. The only kit I had found of suitable size is the C-beam XL kit from open builds part store. It uses their aluminum "v-slot" extrusions.

    The c-beam was the least expensive kit I found but I ask about them being a waste of money because it seems like the parts can be bought separately for considerably less. Their CNC controllers with built in open source software intrigues me though. It seems to offer very large savings but I don't know enough about them.


    As for making parts, my knowledge of working with resins, carbon fiber and fiberglass is above average. My ability to make wooden parts is passable but my current tools are all manual. I have a fixed base router, Dremel, angle grinder, jigsaw, drill press and various sanding and grinding tools. The only metal I could cut is aluminum.

    I think i could make most of the frame myself but the linear motion rails are far beyond my skills.

    I will check out Big OX.


    My main focus will be working with plastic or resin slabs. Being able to make aluminum molds would be nice but I won't invest significantly more for this capability.



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by Goemon View Post
    I wouldn't be making any more than one mold in a day. The molds are for a business that makes carbon fiber parts. A new mold would only be made when I was introducing a new product. The main thing for me is that I want the CNC machine to be working in the molds in the background so I can focus on using my existing molds to make parts. It doesn't matter if the machine is slow.
    The fundamental question here is what are the molds made of?

    I wanted to keep the price to less than $2000. The only kit I had found of suitable size is the C-beam XL kit from open builds part store. It uses their aluminum "v-slot" extrusions.
    You will need to go DIY and become very creative sourcing parts.

    I strongly suggest staying away from any machine design that has linear parts running on anodized aluminum. I really doubt the long term value in such an arrangement, even fi they are using rollers. Even at one mold a day you would likely experience pretty fast wear.

    As a side note do you expect to use this machine to finish any of those carbon fiber parts? I ask because carbon fiber is a mess and extremely abrasive to machine tool components.
    The c-beam was the least expensive kit I found but I ask about them being a waste of money because it seems like the parts can be bought separately for considerably less. Their CNC controllers with built in open source software intrigues me though. It seems to offer very large savings but I don't know enough about them.
    Well as I said above it is you paying for machining services and yes it adds a considerable expense to your project.

    The two bigger open source CNC solutions are GRBL and LinuxCNC (Machinekit and PathPilot are derived directly from LinuxCNC). Outside of those two there are many other open solutions, I point this out because there are a lot of options if you are interested in open source.

    As for making parts, my knowledge of working with resins, carbon fiber and fiberglass is above average. My ability to make wooden parts is passable but my current tools are all manual. I have a fixed base router, Dremel, angle grinder, jigsaw, drill press and various sanding and grinding tools. The only metal I could cut is aluminum.
    If you stick with extruded aluminum you need a very accurate table saw or cut off saw. If you are in a reasonably big city or near one, there is likely a job shop setup specifically to service industry with extruded aluminum solutions. These guys could cut aluminum stock to size for you. The biggest problem with aluminum extrusions though is the cost. The extrusions aren't cheap and you get tickled and dimed to death paying for special fittings and so forth.

    Steel on the other hand can be found cheaper and given the right design can be bolted together using off the shelf bolts and other hardware. I'm not suggesting that everything be bolted as welding can be ideal for some aspects of the machine, but it is possible to bolt together a steel design. People seem to have a tendency to shy away from steel for frame construction and frankly I'm not sure why. Maybe they see extrusions as an erector set ready to snap together.
    I think i could make most of the frame myself but the linear motion rails are far beyond my skills.
    Linear rials are beyond the scope for most of us. You buy linear rails from a supplier of linear motion equipment. The trick is to get the right size rails
    I will check out Big OX.


    My main focus will be working with plastic or resin slabs. Being able to make aluminum molds would be nice but I won't invest significantly more for this capability.
    My biggest concern is that you invest enough to get the quality of results that will be acceptable. Right now your budget is very tight, but we don't know what you expect out of the machine. There are ways to cut corners but in the end you end up paying for the short cuts.

    One option to consider is making a moving table design where the table is the short axis with the long axis being Y on the gantry. I'd have to think about this a bit but the possibility is there for a cheaper machine. The large difference between the needed X & Y travels makes this an interesting machine to think about alternatives.



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by wizard View Post
    The fundamental question here is what are the molds made of?

    You will need to go DIY and become very creative sourcing parts.

    I strongly suggest staying away from any machine design that has linear parts running on anodized aluminum. I really doubt the long term value in such an arrangement, even fi they are using rollers. Even at one mold a day you would likely experience pretty fast wear.

    As a side note do you expect to use this machine to finish any of those carbon fiber parts? I ask because carbon fiber is a mess and extremely abrasive to machine tool components.

    Well as I said above it is you paying for machining services and yes it adds a considerable expense to your project.

    The two bigger open source CNC solutions are GRBL and LinuxCNC (Machinekit and PathPilot are derived directly from LinuxCNC). Outside of those two there are many other open solutions, I point this out because there are a lot of options if you are interested in open source.

    If you stick with extruded aluminum you need a very accurate table saw or cut off saw. If you are in a reasonably big city or near one, there is likely a job shop setup specifically to service industry with extruded aluminum solutions. These guys could cut aluminum stock to size for you. The biggest problem with aluminum extrusions though is the cost. The extrusions aren't cheap and you get tickled and dimed to death paying for special fittings and so forth.

    Steel on the other hand can be found cheaper and given the right design can be bolted together using off the shelf bolts and other hardware. I'm not suggesting that everything be bolted as welding can be ideal for some aspects of the machine, but it is possible to bolt together a steel design. People seem to have a tendency to shy away from steel for frame construction and frankly I'm not sure why. Maybe they see extrusions as an erector set ready to snap together.

    Linear rials are beyond the scope for most of us. You buy linear rails from a supplier of linear motion equipment. The trick is to get the right size rails


    My biggest concern is that you invest enough to get the quality of results that will be acceptable. Right now your budget is very tight, but we don't know what you expect out of the machine. There are ways to cut corners but in the end you end up paying for the short cuts.

    One option to consider is making a moving table design where the table is the short axis with the long axis being Y on the gantry. I'd have to think about this a bit but the possibility is there for a cheaper machine. The large difference between the needed X & Y travels makes this an interesting machine to think about alternatives.



    The concerns you raise about the potential quality of the output with a tight budget like mine is my prime concern too.

    My molds will be made of plastic or resin. My expectation is to be able to use the molds to make carbon fiber parts after a small amount of hand finishing of the mold cavity (to make it glossy smooth). If I can't do that then it's a waste of time for me.

    If the molds will require tons of extra finishing or set-up time then there is no time saving to using a CNC machine.

    I won't be using the CNC machine on any carbon fiber parts. They will come out of the molds ready-finished. The only other materials I might use it for are foam or one of the softer aluminum alloys but that is not essential.

    I think that people stay away from steel for diy projects because it's harder to cut and generally more difficult to work with when you use cheap tools from Home Depot. Plus, it makes loads of sparks when you cut it and that makes people nervous.

    Also, aluminum extrusions can be found relatively cheap. I saw 1000mm V-slot aluminum extrusions on eBay for $11. I haven't looked for their steel equivalent yet but I guess nothing is cheap if it doesn't last. I'm tempted to try making my own out of Kevlar and carbon fiber....

    Last edited by Goemon; 04-03-2017 at 02:34 PM. Reason: Typo


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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by Goemon View Post
    The concerns you raise about the potential quality of the output with a tight budget like mine is my prime concern too.
    I'm not about to say that at $2000 it is impossible, many machines have been built for less. Normally I think of mold making as a precision activity, as such at a minimum I would think you will need good linear rails. Profile rails preferably but round rails could do it in a pinch.
    [/quote]
    My molds will be made of plastic or resin. My expectation is to be able to use the molds to make carbon fiber parts after a small amount of hand finishing of the mold cavity (to make it glossy smooth). If I can't do that then it's a waste of time for me.
    [/quote]
    It should be possible but do realize that machining plastics can be tricky, especially if you want a good surface finish. You may find that you need a slower spindle than a router can offer.

    If the molds will require tons of extra finishing or set-up time then there is no time saving to using a CNC machine.

    I won't be using the CNC machine on any carbon fiber parts. They will come out of the molds ready-finished. The only other materials I might use it for are foam or one of the softer aluminum alloys but that is not essential.

    I think that people stay away from steel for diy projects because it's harder to cut and generally more difficult to work with when you use cheap tools from Home Depot. Plus, it makes loads of sparks when you cut it and that makes people nervous.

    Also, aluminum extrusions can be found relatively cheap. I saw 1000mm V-slot aluminum extrusions on eBay for $11. I haven't looked for their steel equivalent yet but I guess nothing is cheap if it doesn't last. I'm tempted to try making my own out of Kevlar and carbon fiber....
    I'm stilll not a huge fan of extruded aluminum. If you find something with ebea likely oodjd



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    When I say "plastic" for my mold material, I really mean epoxy resin formed into slabs. Specifically, I want to try using Free Form Air from Smooth-on. It has a lower Shore hardness than most of the urethane plastics I work with and it machines a lot more cleanly. It specifically states in the data sheet that it can be CNC routed so I have high hopes for it as a source of decent low cost mold blanks.


    The quality of the rails is what bothers me most about all of the affordable CNC kits I have seen. They all use the V-groove wheel system or round rails that are far too thin for the length. If I buy my rails seperately, it looks like I can get 25mm square steel 1000mm rails (or larger) for the same or less cash overall.

    I'm a little unsure of the importance of lead screw thickness if I use quality thick linear motion rails. Is it as important to buy thick rigid lead screws or will the cheaper 8mm ones be fine if the rails are good?



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    The smaller the screw diameter, the slower it'll be able to spin, without whipping. You'd want a minimum of 1/2" or 12mm for 30", preferably multiple start.

    Gerry

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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by ger21 View Post
    The smaller the screw diameter, the slower it'll be able to spin, without whipping. You'd want a minimum of 1/2" or 12mm for 30", preferably multiple start.
    Thanks. I guess that would be another problem with the open builds C-beam kit. They use 9mm lead screws, even on the long axis.



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Curious, is Free Form Air superior to Corian? There are a few hobby CNC guys on RCgroups who router molds for carbon over foam wings with it.

    Or are you casting over a plug?

    Ward



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Hey Goemon,

    Your intended use for a machine is actually what I do for day work now for a custom yacht builder. We do a lot of milled 2D and 3D parts for hand layups and vac infusion as well as machine molds to pull parts from. Work does have to come home with me once in awhile and when it does I use a t-slot based machine of my own design for it.

    There are really good things to be said about the choices for a DIY build kit nowadays from the perspective of small cost, low experience required, and used mostly for fun. From a "for profit perspective", even with building your own mac from scratch, the 2k price tag will not leave you satisfied. Do yourself a service and up your budget a bit. There are quality production kits and custom builds out there for less than 5k in your size needs. Personal opinion, give CNC Router Parts a good look-see.

    MC

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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by Goemon View Post
    Thanks. I guess that would be another problem with the open builds C-beam kit. They use 9mm lead screws, even on the long axis.
    I don't want to sound like that guy, but I have a hard time seeing how the OpenBuilds platform would be a good investment for you. I just don't get a warm fuzzy feeling with running "wheels" on anodized aluminum extrusions. This especially in a machine that will be doing mold work with the idea that you will be doing lots of small step overs thus running the length of the rails often. To put this is perspective, years ago I worked on a machine that implemented a walking beam with Bishop-Wisecarver V bearings and their rail system even these wore out after a bit. This on a light duty machine with a rather long cycle time and a very very light load.

    By the way this isn't to say that the Bishop-Wisecarver system is bad, on the contrary it is very economical. The point here; is that with mold making you could expect to make hundreds of cycles in the time this machine did one. What is even worse here is that the open builds solution often has the bearing riding on an unsupported extrusion lip. I just see it as a difficult recommendation for a long term investment. Now if you are trying to bootstrap a business that is a entirely different discussion but even so poor machinery investments have broken many a business.

    Depending upon what your final finish expectations are, you might be riding an axis with very small step overs which means many trips up and down the linear bearings. In plastics you will likely have to run these cycles with a rather fast feed rate to get a good surface finish, this especially if you have a router without good low speed characteristics. You will want to do this too because once you know what a CNC can do for you, you will want it to produce the best surface finish possible to minimize your post machining work on the mold. To put it another way, a machine that does some CNC'ing for you will wet your appetite for a better machine fairly quickly. It will also wet your appetite for aluminum molds for anything that could be considered a good seller.

    In any event when face with budgetary problems, you need to come up with a course of action that makes sense to you. In that regard I suggest the following:
    1. Kick back for a couple of months so that you can get to know the common price structures for new parts and machines. There are what I would consider to be rip off out there, the only way to avoid them is to ask questions and become familiar with "street prices"
    2. Look for used hardware as an alternaitve to new. This is where you need to know the value of used and new hardware because it is easy to pay too much.
    3. If you aren't entirely familiar with CNC machinery try to find a local class that covers the technology. Not only does it improve your ability to leverage equipment it gets you familiar with what machine can do.
    4. Haivng a budget is a real problem but if you think in terms of building from the ground up you can then start on a machine that will evnetually get you to where you wnat to be a year or five down the road. In this regard I suggesting building a solid base upon which to base the X axis and cutting ocrners on the uppper stages and the controls until the budget permits. Some people may disagree with this idea but it si fairly easy to make a heavy robust base to build a machine upon at a reasonable cost. You might also score via used machinery as machine tool bases often crop up at auctions and going out of business sales.
    5. Stepper based systems are low end but they are good enough to get you started.
    6. One thing to look out for is the advent of dedicated CNC systems from China at extremely low cost. It is an alternative to the PC based hardware/software often used by first time builders. This is probalby upgarde territory as it is hard to beat an Arduino and a PC combo for extremley lowend CNC control. The idea here though is that there are lots of control options these days.
    7. Production use or unattended operation that you hinted at requires some sort of swarf collection. For plastics and wood this means a vacuum system. The machines make a mess in general and small step over mold work implies a lot of fine dust. If you don't have a dust collection system now you will very likely need one soon after. Either that or you are cosntantly monitoring the system.
    8. One thing tha tis importnat to understnad is that you mahcine needs a few inchesof works space over the max dimension of the pieces you expect to work on. This to allow machining of fixtures inplace on the machine to hold you molds. You also wnat to be able to easily clear the table for tool changes and other operations, to avoid working over the work piece.
    9. If you plan ahead you can implement a fairly low cost system that can be upgraded down the road without throwing out the whole works.




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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Hi Goemon. Reading this thread, it reminds me of myself a year and a half ago. I went through a lot of the same thoughts and had similar goals and budget, with a slightly larger working area. There is a lot of great advice in this thread so far. I spent months and months reading through posts and researching options to come to the same conclusions as what is being mentioned here. In the end, I knew I wanted a machine with profile linear rails so that greatly reduced my options. Having a similar budget to yours, I eventually decided that I could build a machine of my own design that would meet all my goals. My finished machine came in well under $2000, and once I added in a PC, DeWalt Router, and some accessories, it's right around $2000 for the machine I am running today and making parts with. I still intend to add things like cable carriers and homing/limit switches that will drive the cost up a bit further. If you are interested in what I came up with, the build thread is here: Profile Rail Wood Frame Router, 25" x 37" x 6" working area

    Jeremy
    http://www.diycncdesign.com/


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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by jpvonoy View Post
    Hi Goemon. Reading this thread, it reminds me of myself a year and a half ago. I went through a lot of the same thoughts and had similar goals and budget, with a slightly larger working area. There is a lot of great advice in this thread so far. I spent months and months reading through posts and researching options to come to the same conclusions as what is being mentioned here. In the end, I knew I wanted a machine with profile linear rails so that greatly reduced my options. Having a similar budget to yours, I eventually decided that I could build a machine of my own design that would meet all my goals. My finished machine came in well under $2000, and once I added in a PC, DeWalt Router, and some accessories, it's right around $2000 for the machine I am running today and making parts with. I still intend to add things like cable carriers and homing/limit switches that will drive the cost up a bit further. If you are interested in what I came up with, the build thread is here: Profile Rail Wood Frame Router, 25" x 37" x 6" working area
    I have decided to build my own and avoid the kits that use V-slot and wheels based on the advice here.

    I am lucky in that I already have some of the things I need such as desktop PC workstations, dust collection / vacuum systems and a 2hp router (which I intend to replace with a 2.2kw spindle). I am going to order some used THK rails for the X and Y axis.

    Ball screws and blocks seem to be easily available. I can make the frame myself from carbon fiber to keep it rigid.

    The part I am still stuck on now is the electronics. I can see the various options but I don't understand yet how the various features translates into varying levels of work quality

    Does anyone have a view on what would be a good CNC controller and stepper drivers to get me started?

    Is there any reason not to use 3 of the Nema 23 high torque motors?



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by sybilsurf View Post
    Curious, is Free Form Air superior to Corian? There are a few hobby CNC guys on RCgroups who router molds for carbon over foam wings with it.

    Or are you casting over a plug?

    Ward

    For what I do it is superior but they are very different. Free Form Air is a lightweight epoxy putty. It starts out with the consistency of modeling clay once you mix the two parts, so you can use it to build plugs or form lightweight molds around complex curves.

    The important thing is that when it's cured, it is very but with medium- low surface hardness. This makes it very easy to shape with a router (or even by hand) and the surface can be sanded or polished to a relatively high gloss. The residue from cutting of routing is just a fine powder that is easily removed with a vacuum.

    Unlike typical plastics, it doesn't easily melt and leave a gummy residue on your tools.

    It is also easy to repair if you break a mold or plug. I have six different epoxy putties on my shelf but Free Form Air is the one I use most regularly because it's so easy to work with.

    With that said, I wouldn't use it for a mold I expected to last a long time, or for anything that require high heat resistance.



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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Quote Originally Posted by jpvonoy View Post
    Hi Goemon. Reading this thread, it reminds me of myself a year and a half ago. I went through a lot of the same thoughts and had similar goals and budget, with a slightly larger working area. There is a lot of great advice in this thread so far. I spent months and months reading through posts and researching options to come to the same conclusions as what is being mentioned here. In the end, I knew I wanted a machine with profile linear rails so that greatly reduced my options. Having a similar budget to yours, I eventually decided that I could build a machine of my own design that would meet all my goals. My finished machine came in well under $2000, and once I added in a PC, DeWalt Router, and some accessories, it's right around $2000 for the machine I am running today and making parts with. I still intend to add things like cable carriers and homing/limit switches that will drive the cost up a bit further. If you are interested in what I came up with, the build thread is here: Profile Rail Wood Frame Router, 25" x 37" x 6" working area

    What electronics did you go with? How did you decide which CNC controller and software to go with?

    I just ordered 2 25mm THK rails (1000mm), 4 bearing blocks and 1/2" 2 start 40" lead screw kit (with coupler, bearings, nut etc) for $200 all in. It's a good start but I guess I'm committed to a diy build now...



  19. #19

    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    I think that's a good plan. I had a Shapeoko2 and built my own machine to get away from the plastic v-wheels. It took me the better part of a year to build my machine, but it was well worth it...much, much more stiff and capable.

    Quote Originally Posted by Goemon View Post
    I have decided to build my own and avoid the kits that use V-slot and wheels based on the advice here.

    I am lucky in that I already have some of the things I need such as desktop PC workstations, dust collection / vacuum systems and a 2hp router (which I intend to replace with a 2.2kw spindle). I am going to order some used THK rails for the X and Y axis.

    Ball screws and blocks seem to be easily available. I can make the frame myself from carbon fiber to keep it rigid.

    The part I am still stuck on now is the electronics. I can see the various options but I don't understand yet how the various features translates into varying levels of work quality

    Does anyone have a view on what would be a good CNC controller and stepper drivers to get me started?

    Is there any reason not to use 3 of the Nema 23 high torque motors?




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    Default Re: 30"+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

    Good on ya Goemon for making your own. It's definitely fun and rewarding, well after it's done that is lol . Look forward to seeing what you come up with. Especially with a carbon fiber frame!

    Great looking machine Jpvonoy. Headed to the link to read up.

    Slow work takes time
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30&quot;+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?

30&quot;+ work space low cost diy CNC router parts kits?