Introduction and pre-empitve thanks!

[blumpie]

I am just dropping in to say hello and introduce myself.

At this point, I am in the planning and learning phase, but the ultimate goal is to build a CNC. The options are limitless I suppose, or limited to the machine's limits. I'm just poking around for inspiration and design ideas at the moment. But there is so much more to learn.

At any rate, my plans for using this machine includes carving parts out of wood, building model R/C car and Railroad parts, custom aluminum parts for my bike and boat, routing aluminum for plastic molds, and builing a new CNC!

I think I am going to start with a simple design just to learn how everything works, then make improvments from there. I have a roto tool, a laminate trimmer, and a fulll blown 2HP router body.

I have gathered the following parts and I suppose I am limited to what my step motors capacities are. Here is a breakdown of some of the parts that I have gathered. Luckily I am a "Computer Guy" so there is always surplus equipment laying around and one step from the scrap heap. Good thing I'm a pack-rat!

3 Astrosyn Stepper Motors $0.00
Type: 23LM-C355-20
Part: 078259
V/Phase 2.3
A/Phase 1.5
Deg Step 1.8
Ohm Phase 1.5

1 HUGE Power Supply and Cabinet $0.00
I have yet to dismantle it until I learn more about it.
It has a huge 60,000 UF Capacitor. If I don't neet it for this project
I'll use it for my Sub Amp! Anyway, here is the breakdown of
some info on the inside of the case:

Output Level 6
+5V/5A +38V/3.5A
+12V/0.35A +78.5V/5.6A
-12V/0.35A 115~V/0.6A


1 Blower W/Motor $0.00

6 24" Linear Slide Rods $0.00

Various Gears, Belts, Bushings, and Berrings.

24" X 36 X 36 Steel Cabinet on casters and with a door. Also a hood with a glass window. (I might turn this into a small barts blasting cabinet!)

All Above parts scavanged from a Mannesman Tally Line Printer.


8 Small Step Motors $0.00
(about 2"x2" I don't have stats on them right now)

6 24" Linear Slide Rods with Bushings $0.00

3 12V Power Supplies $0.00

Other various parts, aluminum angles, etc.

All of these parts were scavanged from OLD scanners (I have yet to hear of anyone using a scanner for parts. They are BUILT for linear motion!)

A few more small steppers, 1 regular motor (I think. It only has 2 wires and it looks like your standard hobby motor) belts, pullys, shafts, power supplies, pinions, scavanged from old laser jet and ink jet printers.

HP Workstation $0.00
2 Xeon 1.5 GHz
1 GB Memory
2 SCSI 80GB Hard Drives
1 SCSI CD/DVD
1 SCSI CD/DVD RW

17" Flat Panel Monitor with a broken stand $0.00

LinuxCMC.org EMC2 Software $0.00
Up and running on the HP



At any rate, it looks like I am off to a good start. I need to work out the design details. If anyone can tell me if the 3 main steppers are any good or not for this project, I would appreciate it. I have to get a stepper controller. I'm not sure if I should buy one, build one, or see if I can rebuild the board from the Mannesman Tally printer for my use.

I still don't understand how to calibrate it all and get it working with the computer, but I am not nearly to that point yet.

I have not decided if I should work out the physical design first, then mess with the controller and software, or do the controller thing first. With my "ADD" mind set, I'll probably have both projects burning at the same time.

[diarmaid]

Wish I had all your stuff lying around!

Good luck with your build.

[Drakkn]

So I am curious - can you use a control board from an old printer to control 3 stepper motors .If thats the case I will be so p***ed of because I have just sold a pile of computer junk including a hp laserjet - could that have been used for the cnc project?

[chuckknigh]

HP Laserjets have a single 100oz-in stepper motor in them. While I've not heard of anyone using the circuit boards from them, the control electronics to control a motor of this size are obviously present within them.

Wish I had thought of it before I trashed a half-dozen of them.

-- Chuck Knight

[blumpie]

I cant believe it's been nearly a year that I posted this and have made such little progress.

I thought i would comment on scavaging the controllers. Being that they are so imbeded with the rest of the printers hardware and sharing circuits, your better off getting a purpose build controller. If you are building your own controller, a spare circuit board may yield some components.

[epineh]

I know what you mean, it is so easy to hit a brick wall when it comes to building a machine, I had planned to have about 3 machines going by now, but am still trying to get the first one going properly.

For inspiration I like to have a look at the video's of other people's homemade routers. It sounds like you have a good start on the bits and pieces, will be interesting to see what you make of (with) them

Good Luck !

Russell.