Help to choose CNC Router Plans.

[Moondog]

Hello Guys.

Just joined the group.

I am looking to build a CNC Router to cut boat kits and the machine needs to handle a 2440*1220 plywood sheet. Cutting thickness will vary between 3mm to 20mm, mostly 12mm and less.

I have looked at the following:

1. Machine Tool Camp
2. CNC Router Plans
3. Data-Cut.

The Data-Cut looks the best engineered but the plans are for a smaller unit. It states you can upsize but you have to do the upscaling yourself and determine the best method of moving the X & Y axis. This of course implies you have knowledge of parts available, extrusion sizes etc. I know sweet F@#* All about this.

maybe it is not as difficult as I imagine?...

The CNC Router plans looks great however the base and sides looks 'unfinished'. Maybe there are methods to make it more professionaly finished.

Most importantly the machine firstly has to perform the functions required, be accurate and easy to use. Secondly the parts can be readily obtained without too much outside machining required.

I hope I have given enough information for my requirements and I appreciate any help in pointing me in the right direction.

Cheers

[broncosis]

yeah I thought about buying plans too
there was a few good ones here
http://www.crankorgan.com/index.html
there are hundreds out there
I see this site is set to filter some of them as well oh well
everyone has an opinion and if that is
the opinion of this board the so be it

but then I stumbled on this little place off in the corner of the net
call cnczone

wich open up all kinds of ideas and I realy courious to see what the
group of guys doing the open source machine come up with

take some time read some the huge threads here and see what everyone else has done and
before long you will be asking as many question of yourself as I am I can't seem to put a actual plan down on paper yet becasue it changes to much and cad skills are limited to 2 so far

[CharCad]

Originally posted by Moondog I am looking to build a CNC Router to cut boat kits and the machine needs to handle a 2440*1220 plywood sheet. Cutting thickness will vary between 3mm to 20mm, mostly 12mm and less. I have looked at the following: 1. Machine Tool Camp 2. CNC Router Plans 3. Data-Cut. The Data-Cut looks the best engineered but the plans are for a smaller unit. It states you can upsize but you have to do the upscaling yourself and determine the best method of moving the X & Y axis. This of course implies you have knowledge of parts available, extrusion sizes etc. I know sweet F@#* All about this. maybe it is not as difficult as I imagine?...

Hi,

After a month of research last October-November I bought the Data Cut plans from Chris Lubke. He's employed full time as a CNC operator and is extremely knowledgeable in the CNC subject.
We're using Chris' plans as a starting point and adapting them for our own enlarged design with a 4' x 8' working area.

Changing (scaling) Chris Lubke's Data Cut plans is not difficult IF you buy his "electronic" package with DXF drawings, which I recommend for everyone, and especially anyone considering ANY changes to the basic Data-Cut design. And IF you have some basic CAD ability and also think through how the machine works, what you're doing and what has to be changed.

I also looked carefully at the Machine Tool Camp package and talked to that fellow on the telephone. His business (beyond selling the plans) is buying and reselling used industrial CNC equipment. So he has some good background in CNC also. His designs are intentionally aimed at the less accurate market segment. He covers the more accurate sector with his brokerage business.

My opinion (as an architectural display designer who often has parts cut out on CNC routers and lasers) is:

If you are CERTAIN you only want to cut plywood, plastic and expanded foams, then I'd seriously consider the MTC design. It will be easier and cheaper to build than Chris Lubke's excellently engineered DataCut design.

Chris does quite a bit of aluminum machining on his own DataCut router. He obviously designed it to do light aluminum milling work at home, despite his website disclaimers to the contrary about it not being a mill. You'll notice from his website his current under development project is a CNC lathe, not a CNC mill. Obviously he doesn't feel any lack of a milling capability.

Lubke's DataCut router design requires a number of parts to be machined to extremely fine tolerances from cast precision ground stress relieved aluminum tool plate.

Locally we have -0- cost access to a large drill-mill and very cheap hourly access to a 6' x 12' 7hp CNC router that holds .001" on accuracy and repeatability in X-Y-Z. So getting this machining work done is not a problem for us.

If you don't have similar access to similar machine tool capability be ready for some real sticker shock when you price out the precision DataCut parts at commercial machine shops.

The MTC series of designs are less robust but also use more economical parts, use many more off-the-shelf parts, require far less custom machining and will be cheaper and faster to build. An example are MTC's use of Black Diamond polymer linear guides. The DataCut design uses more expensive steel linear rail guides, which are needed to achieve its accuracy.

Obviously you could substitute Black Diamond linear guides on Chris' DataCut machine. But then why buy those plans and sign up for the custom machine work rather than get MTC's plans if you intend to do that and accept the reduced accuracy?

Obviously the MTC series of designs have 'less' overall "accuracy" and "repeatability". This is unimportant unless your goals include metal machining. In my personal opinion anyone who thinks plywood, foam or most plastics will benefit from .0025" accuracy does not understand the material properties and especially the tolerances these materials are capable of holding.

[CharCad]

Originally posted by Moondog I am looking to build a CNC Router to cut boat kits and the machine needs to handle a 2440*1220 plywood sheet. Cutting thickness will vary between 3mm to 20mm, mostly 12mm and less. The Data-Cut looks the best engineered but the plans are for a smaller unit. It states you can upsize but you have to do the upscaling yourself and determine the best method of moving the X & Y axis. This of course implies you have knowledge of parts available, extrusion sizes etc. I know sweet F@#* All about this. maybe it is not as difficult as I imagine?...

ps

Moondog,

The Data-Cut plan book states that for machines longer than 49" you need to seriously consider using a pair of leadscrews/ballscrews mounted on the sides, rather than the specified single leadscrew centered under the table.

This is one example of what changing the Data Cut plans will get you into. This hasn't bothered me since there is NOTHING in the u-build it field currently that meets our goals. So what I was mostly looking for in plansets was a competently designed gantry mechanism.

I think the MTC plans for the 4' x 8' or 5' x 10' tables are best suited for you based on the information you gave about your goals.

CharCAD.

[bili]

Hello everyone,
i nead metric plan for cnc router 1000x 600x 100 mm. or 800x 500x100
Does anyone have such a plan.
best regards
Ljubisa Djukic