Aluminum Cutting

[Tazzer]

I am considering building a CNC Router, however I was wondering on if anyone has cut aluminum on a home made machine and how it came out? I have been reading over at the RC forums and this one and I am really interested in building one but I don't like messing with wood. I hate everything about it from the smell to the mess and everything!

I only have around $1500-$2000 to build my cnc thanks to some unused school grant. Thats not including a PC since I have tons of parts I can scrunge up somewhere. So any suggestions or comments will be great to hear.

[HuFlungDung]

Originally posted by Tazzer
~snip~ I hate everything about it from the smell to the mess and everything!

Rofl,

that reminds me of the horny old man who went .."to the house of ill repute" and after gaining admittance amidst many sneering stares, he dons a set of ear plugs and a set of nose plugs, and his condom. His "escort" asks him what he's doing that for and he replies "if there's anything I can't stand, its the sound of screamin' women, and the smell of burnin' rubber.

[CAMmando]

Tazzer,

I am in the design stage of building a router. I have aquired all of the major components. Linear guides and bearings, servos, limit switches from Ebay. The ballscrews/nuts, gecko drives will be purchased new.

My goal was to spend no more than $1000 on the above items and build a 24" x 24" machine capable of taking a decent cut in aluminum.

Since I have now purchased most of the used items my budget is easier to predict as most of the remaining items are new with catalogue pricing.

Most of the materials of construction I am able to pick up from the scrap bin at work. Though I am still designing my machine, I expect to keep the total cost including router under $2000 and closer to $1500.

I was very judicious in my Ebay searches/bids and actually wound up buying my items separately. For example my motors (matching models) all came from the same seller, but were separate auctions. I paid $70 each for 2 of them and $37 for the 3rd one. I found 2 Lots of 4 THK20 mm LM guides for $25 per lot. The rails that came with them were useless as they were only 5" long. This made them undesireable to others, but I was able to locate 2 pair of 32" rails for them for about $60/ pair. I was able to get these items much cheaper than if I bought the long rails with the bearings, same thing for the motors. 3 matching motors tend to fetch higher prices than individualy purchased ones.

So to answer your question, I say yes if you keep to a budget and take your time looking for components and are willing to utilize some used items.

Of course my machine is months away from being completed so you may want to get some feed back from Balsaman, and Homecnc as well as others who are making chips with teir machines.

[turmite]

Cammando you didn't throw those little 5" rails away did you?
If not what would you want for them? I am doing the same thing you did with Ebay but I am looking for some really small stuff. I am goning to build a much larger than hobby 4 or 5 axis wood carving machine but while I am looking for parts for that I also want to build a very small 6 axis, articulated head router. I hope to use the first machine I build to cut my aluminum parts for the small one.

turmite

[CAMmando]

Nah,

Still got em.

If you want them I have 8 of them THK SR20. Thay are actually 4" long. If you can use them. Let me know.

[resotek]

Now that was funny HuFlungDung! ROTFLMAO!!!