Australian controller - lost

[tim99]

Hi,
I am keen to start building my first DIY router and had some emails/ contacts from a fella in QLD ( Australia ) who built & sold his own controllers and sold stepper motors. Unfortuantly i've misplaced the details. Can anyone help me?
thanks
Tim

[epineh]

Not too sure of anybody in Qld selling this kind of stuff, but I am in the process of doing a very cheap servo retrofit on my machine, if it is successful you would be welcome to have a go at something similiar if you want, I could help out where possible.

What level of electronics experience do you have ?

What kind of machine do you want to make ?

How computer literate are you ?

Sorry for all the questions but this will give me an idea on how to help. Where do you live, I am just south of Cairns (Babinda).

Cheers.

Russell.

[tim99]

Hi Russell,
I’m looking at a working area or 2 meters x 2.5 meters x 150mm ( or close to this). It will used to route out MDF or a similar material. I understand computers very well.... Electronics skills are basic. This is for a friend of mine who has a small home based sign business and would like to start out in signs for vacuum forming, he cannot afford the commercial ones. So it would have to be robust.

We are in Victoria.
cheers
Tim

[epineh]

Before I forget welcome to the zone !!!

Probably the best advice I can give is to spend a LOT of time going through the DIY router builds on this site, there is heaps of info here, very overwhelming at first but it gets easier as you go.

You could possibly start on the mechanicals of the machine and continue to research drivers/motors/control software in the meantime.

A lot of this will come down to personal preference, but if the machine will be used commercially I would recommend using servo's, again this is personal choice, others may recommend steppers but that is my 2c worth.

Make sure you post a build log here on the zone for us to drool over

Good luck.

Russell.

[Dingo745]

The company you may have been talking about might be
http://www.lowcostcncretrofits.com/Australia.html
Nice gear but a little pricey compared with other low end products like Xylotec etc.

[tim99]

Thanks epineh & Dingo745. That site was the one i was looking for.
I will have a dig through the site for more information before jumping into the project.

Thanks Again!

[epineh]

No prob's Tim, feel free to ask questions here, plenty of helpful people on this forum, not to mention very smart (not me, I meant others )

Good luck

Russell.