Looking at Joe's 4 X 4 Hybrid (R&P)

[KnotsAboutWood]

Hi guys,

I'm new here but I'm seeing that Joe's Hybrid is a fine looking machine. My main question, for those that have built one is: Does the BOM have a list of ALL needed components?

I'm still learning about CNC and building these machines, and don't want to spend $460.00 to find out that I need to figure out what else I need. I know I'll probably be into it for another $2000 or so, but that I can handle. I can't handle spending almost $500.00 for plans that'll I'll never be able to figure out what I need to finish.

I'd appreciate anyone that's built one of these to give me an idea of how complete everything was.

Thanks for the help.

[ger21]

From what I understand, you'll be looking at about $2500 minimum, up to maybe $3500. If you buy the plans for $100, you'll have access to his forum, where you should be able to get all the info you need.

[swaggs21]

I think a machine is easily doable for $2500 now with the R&P, it cuts a lot of the cost out in bolts and bearings, but makes up for it in other places.

Can be done, the rack and pinion is a super-solid and fast machine, definitely enough for any hobbyist, sub-production machine. It actually is close to production capable with some of the upgrades on the forum, but it does make the cost go up some.

[CastCNC]

The superBOM is very complete and even lists vendor options with links in an Excel spreadsheet. I built mine at the end of last year being a complete new guy it only took me about a month to have it running and most of that time was waiting on the mail.

The machine itself as swaggs said is very capable and leaves almost every aspect open so while yes you could build it for around $2500 (even less with some smart shopping) you could also go up to around $3500 with larger motors, an aluminum router mount from K2, A dust shoe designed and sold by one of Joes members in the forum and of course the CastCNC aluminum top out kit sold by myself (more info in the product announcements thread).

I also agree with swaggs on the R&P making it not only a more capable machine buy also simplifying the build. If you can handle building the base the machine will sit on building the rest of it should be no problem and there is a great community in Joes forum that was very helpful in getting me past my green stage.

[Brian Corwin]

Hello, I too am looking at building a 4x4 joes hybrid with r&p. I was curious as about man of the same questions being asked here.

However, I have one additional question (note I haven't bought the plans. YET!). Is the rack setup on the x axis using one or two steppers? IE is there a rack on both sides of the machine with a motor on each and they are slaved together in mach? Or is it just a single sided arrangement?

Thanks,
Brian

[CastCNC]

Hi Brian, Yes Joes design is driven on both sides of the gantry with the two Y motors slaved together. This works very well and makes for plenty of power to drive the large gantry and also gives more positive force to the router when it is at the extremes, when you start talking about a 5' or 9' gantry driving from one side or the middle with a single motor doesnt offer much support against racking out at the edges.

You will be quite please building Joes machine and I would recommend it to anyone. This is very capable design that can scale to a very large footprint for full sheet or even multiple full sheet applications using the same trucks and replacing the parts like 8020 beams, wiring, rail and rack (and of course the base) to convert to just about any sized machine.

Regards,

Harry

[EWARREN]

I am also looking at joe's machine and am new to cnc. One question I have is by having two motors 2 motors driving the y axis, does that require an additional board? The reason I ask is that I might want to add a 4th axis and was wondering how hard it would be to do this. Also, are there any examples of adding a 4th axis on joe's forum?

Thanks

Eric

[dustin1706]

Originally Posted by EWARREN I am also looking at joe's machine and am new to cnc. One question I have is by having two motors 2 motors driving the y axis, does that require an additional board? The reason I ask is that I might want to add a 4th axis and was wondering how hard it would be to do this. Also, are there any examples of adding a 4th axis on joe's forum? Thanks Eric

I have bought the plans and am in the process of collecting the parts for my build.

Yes the Y axis requires 2 separate stepper drivers. So if you add a 4th axis you will need 5 drivers.

There are several members of his forum who have added a 4th axis (rotary axis) to their machine.

I can't say enough about the forum, joe, and the other forum members the $100 for the plans is great value for all the tech support and advice you get from the forums.

[EWARREN]

Thanks. I think i'm going to go ahead and buy the plans.

[rfeatherhawk]

The cost on Joes machine in my eyes would be a minimum of $2500. You really are looking at closer to somewhere around $3500, and up because of the mods that you will want to do.

MODS- More than you can shake a stick at. But, do not fear. You will be reading about them once you join the club. Some are good and others are just OK. The R&P mod is one of the better mods for this machine along with the X axis 8 bearing mod. The speeds that you get from the R&P mod are incredible. Some of the guys reported speeds over 1200 IPM. But who the heck would want to go that fast, in just 4 short feet. LOL

Another mod needed would be the X axis needs to be beefed up. If you are wanting to cut some aluminum parts, with accuracy and a good finish, this is a must. Here again, there is a lot of info in the forum on this mod and other approaches to it too.

The newest mod is the castcnc mod, it doubles the X axis beam with another 8020 extruded aluminum spread out a little, and other stuff to help improve the upper half of the machine. All in all it looks like an OK mod. The additional cost for that is something that needs to be considered before hand. You could also just do an all aluminum upgrade yourself, if you have access to milling machines or even a shop. Some have done this.

I've been building my Joe machine for some time now. I am very pleased with the performance of it so far. A little mad at myself for the cost of how much I put into it though. I thought, like some of you guys are thinking, that I would just build the stock machine. In just a short time, I realized the potential of this machine and for it to do what I wanted, a lot of the mods were a must. Of course, that is where a lot of the added cost will come into play.

Over all this is not a bad DIY machine for the beginner cnc enthusiast. Like they say hind site is always 2020. So make sure, you build what you want and that will keep the cost down or up, depending on what you want out of your joe machine.

Some of the guys approached the build of their machine by making their own parts by hand at first. Once they got the machine up and running, then they remade their parts from the machine, for better accuracy. The plans come with a full size layout from the beginning if you tell Joe that's what you want, at an added cost of course.

The forum has gotten better some what, I think, and there is plenty of help there. There is also so much info compiled over the last couple of years you'll be spending a lot of time just reading before you even get started , and that's not a bad idea at the onset. That will most likely answer a lot of your questions you have and or will have and get you going in the direction needed for you. So fear not, some one will jump in when you need them. :-).

I would recommend this machine to anyone that is willing to do the work.

These are just some of the little things to consider before hand. I hope this answers some of your question you may have.