DIY metal working machine

[tekstyle]

Hello there,

I am new to this forum so I might be in the wrong place posting this. The only DIY machine thread I found was in the wood-working forum, but since my goal is to be able to cut metal (aluminum) and plastic, it didn't seem right to be posting in a wood forum.

anyways, I would just like to tell everyone about my background before I get to my question. I am not an engineer but I have a pretty good knowledge or at least enough about material science and their working properties. I am great with tools and computers though CAD, CAM and Gcoding are a little new to me. I have however made 3D designs using solidworks 2009.

Now to get to my intent for joining this community. I am very interested in building my own CNC machine. I wish to use this machine to produce aluminum and plastic parts about the size of a cell phone or smaller. I have read up on several designs, the principles, books and so forth about how cnc machines work (3 or more axes, stepper motors, computer controls, a rotary head for the cutting, defining what's 0,0,0, etc). basically, I can build a good 3 axis cnc machine from MDF, but what I really want to build is a 5 axis machine. I haven't found a DIY 5axis design other than from doughtydrive.com and cnc-toolkit.com. Has anyone made an a, b, c rotational axis from wood and a stepper motor on a belt? This is what I want to know because I plan on integrating C and B axis on the Zaxis.

SUMMARY of above: I want to build a DIY 5-axis gantry cnc router from MDF boards, 5 stepper motors, a computer, and a rotary cutter small but powerful enough to cut aluminum and plastic. I don't mind spending 24 hours to cut 1 thing.


thanks guys.

[bearwen]

I have built several CNC routers both wood and metal and I will tell you wood will be very difficult in a 5 Axis design for rigidity. Now that said why not build a solid 3 Axis machine such as Joe2006 or the joe 4x4 hybrid and then use that machine to mill out parts in a heavy duty plastic, wood or aluminum (as the joes will cut aluminum) to make your own doughtydrive.com type drive and retrofit your 3 axis with it. The drive is really very simple in design if you need help with the drive design let me know. I really think you should build it from metal if your wanting to machine aluminum at least build out of aluminum such as 80/20.

[tekstyle]

I have built several CNC routers both wood and metal and I will tell you wood will be very difficult in a 5 Axis design for rigidity. Now that said why not build a solid 3 Axis machine such as Joe2006 or the joe 4x4 hybrid and then use that machine to mill out parts in a heavy duty plastic, wood or aluminum (as the joes will cut aluminum) to make your own doughtydrive.com type drive and retrofit your 3 axis with it. The drive is really very simple in design if you need help with the drive design let me know. I really think you should build it from metal if your wanting to machine aluminum at least build out of aluminum such as 80/20.

Thanks for your thoughts. The reason why I didnt op for an aluminum machine first hand was cost. however, I have thought of making a 3 axis from wood. and then using that to make a full aluminum or part heavy duty plastic 3axis machine with the B and C axis out of full aluminum. how does that sound?

I really want to make something like the doughtydrive so help with the drive design is very much appreciated!

the book I have read up on is "building your own cnc machine" by Patrick daniel-hood.

[bearwen]

My advice is go over to the wood section there are whole forums dedicated to the joe models the joe2006 can be built with regular tools but if you have a a friend with a cnc router it will be much better. I assume you have a small budget as if you didnt it would probably be better to mod an X2 or an X3. Now a 3 axis wood router is going to cost you some money especially if you dont cheap yourself on the electronics. As for the 4th and 5th axis drive units go and look at the drive units you posted and study them all they really are (simplified version) are metal boxes with top and bottom covers stepper mounts on one side on the inside it has a pully/gear connected to it and then the out drive is a bearing with a plate on the outside and a pully/gear on the inside and there is a belt connecting the 2 pullies not overlly difficult but you will probablly need a machine shop to do some work for the bearing mounts maybe depends on what you can find material (bearing) wise and how you mount it. A second note you might consider the 4x4 joe and just make it smaller if you read the posts on the forum you will see that a lot of the easier to make with regular tools parts of the joe2006 are used in the original joe 4x4 and like I said you can make the 4x4 smaller so it will be more rigid. I should have asked how acurate does this machine need to be and how repeatable as the accuracy level will make the whole thing doable or not doable

[tekstyle]

My advice is go over to the wood section there are whole forums dedicated to the joe models the joe2006 can be built with regular tools but if you have a a friend with a cnc router it will be much better. I assume you have a small budget as if you didnt it would probably be better to mod an X2 or an X3. Now a 3 axis wood router is going to cost you some money especially if you dont cheap yourself on the electronics. As for the 4th and 5th axis drive units go and look at the drive units you posted and study them all they really are (simplified version) are metal boxes with top and bottom covers stepper mounts on one side on the inside it has a pully/gear connected to it and then the out drive is a bearing with a plate on the outside and a pully/gear on the inside and there is a belt connecting the 2 pullies not overlly difficult but you will probablly need a machine shop to do some work for the bearing mounts maybe depends on what you can find material (bearing) wise and how you mount it. A second note you might consider the 4x4 joe and just make it smaller if you read the posts on the forum you will see that a lot of the easier to make with regular tools parts of the joe2006 are used in the original joe 4x4 and like I said you can make the 4x4 smaller so it will be more rigid. I should have asked how acurate does this machine need to be and how repeatable as the accuracy level will make the whole thing doable or not doable

I imagined the rotational axis exactly what you where describing. would you happen to know where I can source the bearing plates, gears, and the belt for the pulley? the closest I found was this http://www.sherlineipd.com/6500pg.htm but the end of the black box looks like a screw head so I don't think i can make this work.

also, what would you use as the "drill" since it should be fairly lightweight for the arm to not sag.

thank you bearwen

[bearwen]

For the belt and the pullies go to https://sdp-si.com/eStore/ some times the belts are cheaper at mcmasters as for the bearings look at http://www.mcmaster.com if you read the info about the drives posted they have thrust bearings. The only thing I see that might be difficult is the mount plate as this should probably be made on lathe so you have a large flate mounting surface and the back is turned down to fit the bearings and the pully if you are interested I have a 9x20 lathe and could make these pieces for you if you need we can work out the cost and what not in pm's or on the phone. if you would like send me a pm with your number and best time to get a hold of you and I will give you a call and we can see what we can do. As i was reading about the drive units on there website there are other issues you are going to have to figure out such as torque needed (gearing) and how fast or what resolution you want to be able to get in the drive read the info and youll see what I mean as there units have 30:1 ratio and has 30 revs equals 360 degrees. As for "drill" this will depend on budget, size of work to be done and how much grunt you need a dremel tool could do the job but it all depends on what you are wanting and needing to do in speed, material, hardness, accuracy, etc... PM me your number and we can get some of this worked out and get you going. Or just keep pluging away on the forum I am sure someone else will chime in soon but until then we can keep going back and forth on the forum. This is my last reply for the night so I will check back on you in the morning good luck and just keep plugin away youll get it its really not that difficult once you understand everything and get your head around it. I still need to know how accurate you need it to be and how detailed the stuff you are working on is so pm me what you want the machine for and the specs if you dont want everyone to know what your doing.

[Fegenbush]

I am going to recommend www.bearingsdirect.com for the bearings. When I was looking, they were much cheaper than McMaster.