I wish I would have bought!

[Dytoractor]

Hi all,
I want to say just save up your money and buy a reliable good machine!

I found out about CNC's about 3 1/2 years ago and I am a typical broke family male that likes to build things. So when I found out about CNC's I flipped and had to have one! BUT they cost 4k and up really.
So I got to work and researched as much as I could about the subject. This site is awesome for us who want to research!!!
After looking at the designs out there I thought I could build one as easy as pie. I am a designer for a mechanical group, how hard could this be, right?
Well after buying partial board and cutting out a design with my jig saw; I found out that my design was less than accurate. I also found out I am a designer and not yet a machinist.

After that experience I decided that maybe I should just go out and buy the cheapest machine i could find. At the time ZenCNC just came out and I could get their machine for 300ish. When i got the kit it took me maybe 30mins to put it together and I also did things to make its more sturdy so it didn't flex as much, as well as painting it black. Yes i wanted it to look good. They didn't have any recommended electrical hardware like they do now. I have to say the electronics has to be the hardest part about CNC's!!! There are two kinds the old pink printer port which most electronics are or the new USB kind. The USB boards were more than the machine i just bought and hard to find. I probably searched for 4 months before deciding to go with easy-cnc. I like the ability to remove bad drivers if something went wrong. So i get that set up and plug it into my oldest computer with a printer port.

You would think I had a whole machine now but the software is more than what I spent on everything so far! But there is two cheap options Linux CNC (free) or Mach 3 which was 100ish. I tried Linux CNC as free was were i wanted to go. I had already invested maybe 700 into this 7in machine over a long period of time and I didn't want to spend any more. I quickly changed my mind as fighting the unfamiliar OS as well as fighting the program with few options left me angry and little progress. I do have to say when it did work it worked very smoothly. I ended up getting Mach 3 and that program has more buttons than any program I have ever seen. It works on XP well and I got it to run some G-code I found of a smiley face. I was happy with this program because i could always get it to start a G-code string. But at the same time I found out that Windows was messing up my electronics as it gave it a stutter. Stutters are not good as accuracy goes down.

This story is getting long... I want to point out that I spent over 1k when I was done building this machine and it doesn't work well! I fully believe that my settings are not good and my couplings don't connect to my motors well. I get skips while cutting, motor idling, and the z-axes is determined to cut my table top to pieces. I have spent so much time trying to get things to kind of work that I missed all the opportunities I could have had to just create like I want to. Plus if I wanted to sell this machine I doubt I could even make 400 off it.

So now I am saving for a Torchmate 2x2. If anyone wants to sell their old one I am interested.

Thank you

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[awerby]

I doubt you can sell this machine if it doesn't really work (unless you're willing to join the ranks of unscrulpulous Ebayers). If the couplers are causing your stutters, then replace them. If your motor tuning is over-optimistic (which is the most usual cause of lost step errors) then reduce the accelleration and perhaps velocity of the misbehaving axis (Z, from what you say above). If the stutters you noticed are due to Windows software issues, Mach3 has an optimization routine you can implement: http://www.machsupport.com/downloads...timization.txt

If none of that helps, write back and tell us what you did and what happened when you did it.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[thefu]

why dont you build your own "torchmate 2x2"...i built my table for under $15,000 with servos, linear rails, helical cut rack and pinion, etc....its made me so much money that im building a 2nd table later this month.

[Dytoractor]

awerby,
That was my point, I have put lots of time and money into my 7" guy with little results. I have seen others on ebay trying to sell their half custom machines for next to to nothing. I probably wont sell mine but use it as experience and modding.
Thank you for that advice, i had to use the mach 3 implement as my machine was shacking so bad and i will replace the couplings but at the moment i don't feel like playing with it.

thefu,
I have also thought about just building the torchmate 2x2 because there is hardly anything to that machine! I looked up that i could have all my parts laser cut for 300, then buy rails and motors. Which would cost me probably close to 1k for mechanical and with all the other things maybe 2k-ish. If i was going to do this all again I would want USB electronics and maybe have a dedicated ITX computer for it, it goes on and on.
After all the new stuff i would be making, would it be comparable with the torchmate's product? If i could spend 3k and be done today would that extra 1k be worth it?
I know the tables get crazy priced the larger they are and the thicker the metal it can cut. A 15k machine custom build must be a beast.

[Dytoractor]

I thought I should write an update for no other reason than that.

It's been 5 years and I still agree with my first post; save up and buy a new one fully working out of the box. However, there are some things I want to add. Knowledge is important when wanting to build your own machine or using a machine that you bought. The second most important factor is having a friend to help. I never did find a friend to help me figure out issues with my CNC machines but I do have a great friend that helped me build a trailer and a foundry for fun. Those two projects turned out wonderful!

To the CNC's
First, my ZenCNC machine. I bought nice couplings and played with the motor setting and I never got it to run correctly. Not understanding why the CNC didn't work right in the first place, I bought the ZenCNC table upgrade (7"x12"). It was fun to make the machine larger but I had all the problems with skipping, binding, stalls, motor humming and the like. Every time I removed the nema 17 motors from the machine they worked right. But when I put them back on the machine all the problems were still there. Not understanding why the CNC didn't work I bought bigger motors nema 23 to force the machine to work; and it did! I bent the screw and I replaced it with a new one. The new screw worked much much better!
I was sitting there after getting the Y Axis to work "better" and thinking that I needed to replace the other two screws. Then I need to replace the flexible plastic body with aluminum and I needed to replace the flexible rails with real linear rails. That's when I stopped messing with it about 5 years ago.

Because I like to torture myself and because I moved into a tiny apartment. I couldn't run the ZenCNC in my apartment because it was too loud. So, I found the RepRap project or 3D printers for builders. I built the first Prusa Mendel machine and guess what! This printer had the skipping, binding, stalls, motor humming and the death shakes. As the printer was hopping away from me on the kitchen floor I decided to research why these things were happening. (Just to note: I was a piping designer which is not really a mechanical designer) I learned a lot about linear movement and how the machines function. To the untrained person like myself, I didn't know that many of the items in my machines couldn't be used for precision machines. There was just so much I didn't know!

I moved into my parent's house for a time and they have a garage. I finally decided to do it right! To spend the money and buy a machine that works! Again I can't afford some 15k machine unless I was seriously thinking about starting a business and I am more of a tinker with dreams of making my own parts. Not too different than 90% of 3D printer owners who only want to print 3d things they make and from the thingiverse store. I guess you can judge me on wanting this as a toy vs making money.
My next buy was the Precision Plasma gantry rail system and CandCNC electronics PLC. I did really want the Torchmate but it was still beyond the 6k I paid for all of this. Mine didn't come with a table so, I welded up a table and put it all together. I seriously thought that once I got it all together that I wouldn't have any problems now that I have real linear rails and real electronics system! I even spent a lot of time aligning the rails so they were even. I went back to researching and found out I wasn't aligned in elevation, my table is not squre enough, and the rails I just bought look like a theme park ride when I sight down them. No wonder the gantry wants to hop off the rails.

I am still determined to get my machines to work and I do know that I have learned a lot. I have read so many books and went to school for Mechanical design that now I am a mechanical designer.
One day!