Joe's 2006 in Boise ID

[gacrwell]

Have thought about this for awhile; first saw Joe's CNC last summer and was pretty sure that was the one. Now the cash is in hand and I've been reading all weekend. Joe's is still the one. I went out and bought the Hitachi router today just to show the wife that I'm serious.

Now, I'm just waiting for an email response from Joe to know where & how much money to throw at him. I sure hope he's got the time to cut at least one more - looks like everyone's building one. Once I get a confirm that a kit is in the works, I'll get on line for the rest of the hardware.

I'd like to use the HobbyCNC controller, largely because it's a kit & I'd enjoy building it (dozens of Heathkits in the past). ...Unless there's a particular advantage to the Xylotex? I've read about both used here.

I'd also like to go up to the 269 oz-in motors that I've read others are using. The one offered by Xylotex is 4-wire and I understand that won't work with the HobbyCNC controller. Are the Keling motors any good? - perhaps the KL23H276-30-8B? - with the HobbyCNC? Three of those and the HobbyCNC kit would cost about the same as the HobbyCNC package with 200oz. Keling gets a good rep in this thread: Keling motors & drives

Dang I missed a good set of motors on ebay, but someone sniped them away - probably for the best; think the price was getting too high.

Gary

[gacrwell]

I had looked around here a bit last summer, and at that time Joe's CNC looked like the way to go. Now I've got the cash in hand and it still looks like the one. I went out and bought the Hitachi router just to show the wife I'm serious.

Now I'm just waiting on an email response from Joe to find out where & how much cash to throw at him. I hope he still has time to cut one out for me - it looks like everyone's building one. As soon as I can get that confirmed I'll get on line and get the rest of the hardware ordered.

Gary

[joecnc2006]

Originally Posted by gacrwell I had looked around here a bit last summer, and at that time Joe's CNC looked like the way to go. Now I've got the cash in hand and it still looks like the one. I went out and bought the Hitachi router just to show the wife I'm serious. Now I'm just waiting on an email response from Joe to find out where & how much cash to throw at him. I hope he still has time to cut one out for me - it looks like everyone's building one. As soon as I can get that confirmed I'll get on line and get the rest of the hardware ordered. Gary

Welcome, and hope you enjoy the reading here on the Zone, There are many talented and knowledgable people here. I take it since last summer you have read quite abit on the machine and seeing more people built them, and The Modifications people have come up with (that is enjoyable to me).

Gary i do not think i recieved an message or e-mail, i do have to clear my messages daily so if it was 100% full it will not work, you can try e-mail, I have caught up and have no kits on the bench so to speak. mailed out last one end of last week.

let me know if you need the link to the files or you have them, to review and look at the machine in 3D.

Joe

[David Da Costa]

Welcome to the club Gary.


David

[jspencer]

Gary-

Welcome and it looks like we are not too far away, I'm in Meridian. I'm just finishing up mine and can't wait to start using it.

Good Luck!

James

[bp092]

Look forward to seeing your build. If you need any help, feel free to ask anything, advice, questions, that's what we're here for.

[DougO]

Weclome Gary. I think you can see from the zone I haven't seen anyone unhappy with their Joes CNC. Some of us had problems getting them running correctly but you are probably going to have that with any homemade build, but once it gets going it is sure a nice machine.

[bp092]

Well put dougO, I had a rocky assembly, but now I'm cutting really well, it's a challenge and a journey, but it's not rocket science, if you have the ambition to get it done then that's all it takes.. and a little capital (not much really)

[gacrwell]

Silly redundant posts of mine, the first one vanished for awhile after I posted it & I thought I'd deleted it somehow; hence the second.

Thanks guys, I've hooked up with Joe and the parts kit is on the way (well, a few weeks away, 'on-the-way', that is). Plenty to do in the meantime.

James, by putting Boise in the thread title I was hoping I might ferret out someone local. I'd love to eyeball what you've done with it.

The plan now is to get the motors & controller, and get them running on the desktop before the cut parts arrive. I'm still leaning towards the HobbyCNC controller and Keling motors.

Gary

[DayneInfo]

Welcome Gary, its alot of fun here and the people are great. I hope you get this thing going soon. You will spend hours just watching it run.

Dwayne

[gacrwell]

Progress Report, 1-week post CNC commitment:

• Purchased Hitachi router, $119, local Lowe's.
• Ordered Joe's full kit, ~4 weeks delivery.
• Ordered HobbyCNC PRO 3-axis controller, $79.
• Ordered Keling steppers: KL23H286-20-8B x3 $54 ea.
• Ordered bearing sets from vxb.com, $45.
• Did my taxes, two months early!

I had pretty much decided on the HobbyCNC PRO controller, but I wanted to look at user's experiences with it on their Yapoo user's group. But, you can't find that group on Yapoo by searching: it's literally invisible. I finally did find the group via a link posted here on CNCZone: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hobbycnc/ Wasn't surprised to find out it's members only, so I asked to join. Twice. Denied. Twice. What kind of brain-dead marketing is this? It turns out that only after you place an order, are you given the above link, and then your membership will be approved. Oh well, it was still the controller I wanted. After ordering, applying (3rd time), being blessed, and reading through the group, I found that someone had good luck with the Keling motors, so those were what I ordered.

On the bearing sets, one was $5 more than the price listed in Joe's instructions, and one was $5 less, so that was a wash. However, upon checkout, on orders over $30 there was an offer of 8, free, 8x22x7 bearings, so I've got those extra FWIW.

Some of the other stuff on hand:

• Plenty of old assorted PC's, monitors, keyboards, parallel cables and stuff.
• An old industrial rack mount PC case that I'll stuff one of those PC's into.
• A monster of a surplus switching power supply.
• An old metal equipment cabinet that should house the power supply and controller.
• I also just picked up a nice little 100MHz oscilloscope for $75; a steal - the guy I got it from had paid over $200 for it on ebay, and that wasn't a bad price. Might come in handy for troubleshooting.

That old power supply has three 15V outputs and one 5V, all at least 16A. Combinations of those should allow output choices of 15, 20, 30, 35, 45, or 50V (I’m thinking 35 would be a good place to start with the HobbyCNC.

Before the motors and controller arrive, I need to stuff a PC into the industrial case, get it set up, and test the stepper power supply. Then I'll be ready to test the controllers and motors on the bench when they get here. Have to get the software downloaded and set up too.

Still waiting on a couple of shopping trips to check out local availability of the rest of the hardware before making an order to use-enco, and the nuts&bolts place. I'd like to have the bearing angles fabricated before Joe's kit gets here.

After reading about the dozens of rattle cans that some of you have used for painting, I think I'll pick up a cheap (costco/harbor freight) spray gun and try that. Wally world has Kilz primer in gallons for $10, and Rustoleum colors for ~$7 a quart. I really liked the white/grey/blue color scheme that I've seen here.

Also looking at cable and connectors, expensive. Might have to pass on what I want for now. ebay wasn't any help. Haven't looked at surplus places yet, they might at least be good for the limit switches.

I don't have a shop-vac yet either; I'm open to suggestions.

I went out to James' house this afternoon to see his Joe's. (Hmmm, put that way, it sounds vaguely dirty.) Learned a lot and it was very enlightening to see one in the flesh. (Oops, still sounds dirty.) You guys should get yourselves in the pictures more often (like - at all - I don't think I've ever seen an actual person in the build photos here), to provide a sense of scale of the thing. I described it to my wife as "a big FoosBall table".

Turns out James and I only live about 10 miles apart and have very likely met before; our respective employers do business with each other.

One other task before stuff starts arriving - I have to make a Joe's CNC-sized clear space in the garage somewhere. The stack of blue astroturf may have to go (James knows what that is; I should take him a piece.)

Gary

[ccsparky]

Hello Gary,

Welcome, looks like you've got a pretty good jump on it.

That's really great that you and James live so close to be able to check out his build. Like Dwayne said, the people here are really great.
I have read each persons log several times and still get a kick out of what everyone has done... very creative people!

Enjoy, and look forward to seeing your progress!!!

Bob