Newbie- My intro and My first CNC, The plotter build......

[prcdslnc13]

First a bit of background on me:

Ive been a cnc programmer for a couple years now, following in the footsteps of people much better and experienced then me. I started as an operator and was given the chance to try this because of my cad skills and the fact that no one else thought that programming the machine tending robots sounded "fun" haha. Flash forward to now and the experienced ones have retired and my counterpart and I are now responsible for about 140 machines in a very high production (24/7 365 operation) shop. From simple tree drills and HMC's to automated lathes, and since we are a gear shop, also responsible for hobbs and shapers for planet, sun and ring gears. Not to mention I still program all of the robotics. And all because I knew how to work in pro-e well. Alot to take on eh?

Well in an effort to just simply understand all this a little better, from simple communication, to g-code in general ( we primarily use a cam software thats 25+ years old) I decided to build my own cnc. The start of which is going to be a cnc plotter. Basis of my build is an Encad NovaJet 2. It provides me an accurate x and y axis and a good platform to start. Not to mention it was free . Like I said, the object of this build is to just understand the inner workings better before I move on to a bigger better full on router. This machine will drive a pen and maybe eventually a vinyl knife.

Im looking at using this controller card: http://cgi.ebay.com/CNC-3-axis-Stepp...item4ceed30135 and the existing stepper motor that drives the paper. Currently the Y-axis is driven by a servo motor with an optical encoder. I am planning to replace this with a smaller stepper, hopefully sourced from another printer tonight. The z-axis will probably be the laser assembly out of an old cd-rom drive as it only needs to lift a pen.

Currently im looking at using the power supply out of the plotter itself for the my stepper power as its 24v and around 5 amps I think it should work will. The software will most likely be Mach3 for the control.

Ok, so what do you guys think so far? Ideas, comments, questions? Ive been researching for a few weeks now and I think I'm on the right track, but I've been wrong before. Also heres a pic of the plotter.

[Steve85]

I'm watching, even if I can't help much . I'm in the middle of a small CNC router build, but my next project will be to try and turn a wide-carriage Epson inkjet printer into a CNC plotter, so your build will be very interesting! Don't spare the details and photos as you build.

Steve