New Machine Build- One years worth of pics and videos of my 43" x 98" MDF machine FIRST BUILD!!!

[louieatienza]

Nicest MDF design... EVER!

[Grunblau]

Originally Posted by agguilar Hi brian, happy new year for you and for all of the members her on the forum can you put some more pictures of youre beautiful machine because i want to put a wallpaper on my computer of you machine. Thank you.

I am sorry I didn't see the post! Hope all is well for you!

In November, we bought a house and I didn't have internet except for at work for a couple months while all of the dust was settling.

We also got a puppy that promptly chewed through my camera cable so I am left with an Iphone for picture taking... hope to remedy this soon.



In August, I dissasembled the 'ship in a bottle' and brought the CNC to Makersfaire. It was nice to finally be able to step back and see the whole machine. In case you missed the post

Here are a couple pics from that day...



I used the machine to print a maze. When it was done, it would return to the center of the maze and people were then asked it they wanted to use the playstation controller to solve the maze.





This kid was not about to stop after he solved the maze.



Then the CNC was broken down and taken to storage while we waited on the purchase of our new home to go through. Keep in mind this was August. and we didn't close on the house until mid November. Almost 4 months CNCless.



Picking up the CNC to take it to its new home... I can now dissasemble and reassemble in about 3 hours. Mostly because all of the 'smart' components are all on the gantry.



First week in January pieces were due for a show I had agreed to do in October. Now the machine was up and running again so I was able to begin working on the pieces in my spare time. One of the pieces would be 24" by almost 6' and look like waterdrops on wood. Finally a reason to have such a big CNC!



The entire job took 16:05 hours! Probably should have been faster but I was willing to wait for a perfect piece.



Overall view of the piece. The lighting makes it look much deeper than it actually is all of the relief is no more than 3/16" deep.



Here is a detail of the surface...



This is after a finish was applied...



I also did some self draining concrete tiles. The troughs slope 1/16" of an inch to the edge of the tile and the pattern allows for design flexibility. I used a spiral toolpath to mill the mold out of foam.



Here is a detail of the resulting surface...



Here are the final pieces in the gallery...



I apologize about all of the camera phone pics and thank you for your comments!

Good luck with your build agguilar!

[bobsch]

Beautiful. I love the water drops. Are you going to be using the concrete tiles or were they made strictly for the show?

[Grunblau]

Originally Posted by bobsch Beautiful. I love the water drops. Are you going to be using the concrete tiles or were they made strictly for the show?

These were really just a prototype for the show. I intended for them to be porcelain as a compliment to the steam tiles on my website that have been forever a WIP. They are steel reinforced concrete so they are as functional as possible. I am sure they will end up outdoors somewhere would need to cast some more tho.

Here is a better view of the digital file and the variations...

[CNC Lurker]

I really like the water-ring effect, looks great.

[Benonymous]

Both excellent pieces Grunblau. The water drop panel is very beautiful but I like the self draining tiles more. "Form follows function", that's my favourite expression for a design and the tiles do it for me

[agguilar]

great work one of my best cnc design i seen and i have seen allot, well here is my smaller version i made with the plans i purchase

[Grunblau]

Originally Posted by agguilar great work one of my best cnc design i seen and i have seen allot, well here is my smaller version i made with the plans i purchase

Thank you very much for your comments! Is this the one you were working on before you purchased the plans? I was under the impression that you were sending out the CNCpart file for processing. It really does make the whole thing 'bolt together'



It also looks good in black.

[agguilar]

yes is the same one i send the plans you send me to AllRout CNC Routing Service. like you said but never got a email back ,so i m finishing the one i started, even so i just got a new machine., but i still want your machine so i hope some day i can make one.

[jjacstcy]

Are you using Nema 23's on the really nice looking machine?

[agguilar]

yes, nema 23

[Grunblau]

I have been getting emails asking about the cost breakdown of the build so I thought I would add it here...


The basic breakdown of my build was..

Between $1500-2000 to put the machine together. People have also built it for less. My breakdown includes things like black oxide finish nuts and bolts that you could easily source at Home Depot (plain zinc finish) for a lot cheaper.

Very basic, easy to remember breakdown is...

$500 for electronics,
$400 for fasteners,
$300 for leadscrews,
$200 for MDF,
$100 for misc stuff.

If you add up the bill of materials in my document set it comes to $1363.17 for a machine using the Gecko G540 driver and including all electronics. I say $1500 because the cost of the prints at Kinko's, cost of Polyurethane and brushes, etc... (misc)

(To have the MDF parts CNC cut by a shop generally runs about $400)

Software could be a major expense, but there are free options available.

hope this clears things up a bit....