New Machine Build- Building a small CNC

[Gomer]

I've been gathering parts for some time and finally got to critical mass. I have a blog setup to chronicle my build. phils-stuff.com/blog This is my first attempt at CNC so I'm learning as I go. I didn't want to spend a lot on the materials to start so it is made out of plastic from Harbor Freight cutting boards and aluminum angle.

Some details of what I have so far.
Nema 17 bi-polar stepper motors. 75 oz. in. holding torque.
4-axis driver board 2A per axis, parallel interface with additional control options
- driver board was on ebay and from China.
All-thread leads screws - 3/8" for table and 1/4" for gantry and spindle.

I plan on using my dremel for the spindle.

The biggest challenge has been figuring out EMC2 on LinuxCNC. I installed LinuxCNC (pre-configured Ubuntu 10.04 with EMC2) to an old Dell computer I had around. I received an error when started EMC and it took a lot of research to find out that the computer was old enough that I had to add LAPIC to the grub loader. Once that was done, then EMC would start but then lockup. After more research and troubleshooting, I discovered that I needed to run software OpenGL. I'll try to get the solutions that I used linked in this thread for anyone else facing the same problems.

Once I got EMC to actually start without error, I had to figure out what option to select for my setup. Well, I started with the stepper_inch option under stepper. It didn't work. I started reading because I figured I would have to configure something to match the pinouts of my driver board. I found the HAL file and made changes to match my pinouts. Still nothing. My driver board has pinouts for X, Y and Z enable but the HAL file has one entry for Xen commented out. So, I took out the "#" in front of the Xen line and tried again. This time, the X axis stepper started making a high pitch noise which I assumed meant it was energized, which it was because I couldn't turn the output shaft with my hand. I started the EMC AXIS file and the x-axis worked fine. I copied the line and changed the X to Y and Z on the additional lines and the other motors started working. NOTE: If you run the wizard and need to set enable pins, the signal name is xenable, yenable and zenable. Make sure that the x, y, and z are lower case. There doesn't seem to be a standard naming convention and this threw me for a loop when I used the wizard later.

Ok, enough of this. My blog will be updated regularly. I'm getting laid off next week so my progress might speed up.

[UUU]

I look foward to following progress. Makes a change from the "mine's bigger than yours" brigade.

[Gomer]

I finally got back to working on my CNC project.

I have the X-axis (or at least what I'm calling the X-axis) working. I've been slowly getting the Y-axis and Z-axis built. I'd guess that I'll have something with all three working in a couple months. I can't say I'll be finished because I've learned that I'll never be finished.

[DonFrambach]

Can you post pictures of your machine? I really enjoy seeing what others are doing with their builds.

[Gomer]

I have all kinds of pictures on my blog. However, if you are leery of going to an external web site, I've included a current picture.





It is made of cutting board plastic.