DIY CNC Router

[dgray]

Has this been on the forums yet? Its a an American site that sells big DIY CNC router machines, Kits, or just plans if you want to do the whole lot.

Everything is in imperial sizes, but they look very tempting!

http://buildyourcnc.com/

 

[siggy_7]

I've stumbled across their site before, all looks very tempting as a "one day when I have the time" idea. Also check out http://www.cncroutersource.com/ for another good source of info, although it's not a complete site yet. There are a few sites out there selling plans of varying quality.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I have been thinking of making one myself for a while. A small one. I am into programing microchips so was thinking of doing that myself also but doubt I could get the accuracy needed which is putting me of.

 

[Chems]

I don't think you'd need to program the chip yourself. There are lots of librarys out there to deal with G-code. Have a look at Arduino and CNC, I wrote a bit of code last year to run a full sized Nema 17 using arudino just basically. There are librarys out there so the Arudino can interpret the Gcode and the Gcode is fed to it via your desktop PC.

 

[stef]

having build my own CNC from scratch, i wouldnt recommend buying plans for one.
making one often involves adapting the design to the material you can get your hands on.
in my case, i started by purchasing two strong aluminium tubes, which i planed to used as the basis for the gantry. I had very little choice in the dimensions, so the rest followed.
Of course, the design still needs to be planned, but if it is to be a serious machine (not an MDF one) then it is likely to be fully custom made.you cn probably find some posts on here with my machine in (it's 2x1m, and probably i excess of 250Kg)
That's another thing with CNC. you cant half do it. a cheap, inacurate machine will be frustrating to use, and wastefull. you will probably end up taking it apart to sell the bits to try recover your investment.

 

[dgray]

Good points. I like the size of the machines from the guys at DIY CNC. It also looks like they have a fairly aggressive & energetic development schedule. (laser + 3d printing modules) If they manage to get a 4th axis version working I think I'd have to clear a space in the garage!

 

[stef]

Good points. I like the size of the machines from the guys at DIY CNC. It also looks like they have a fairly aggressive & energetic development schedule. (laser + 3d printing modules) If they manage to get a 4th axis version working I think I'd have to clear a space in the garage!

the reference in the field is CNC zone (www.cnczone.com, from memory). you will find plenty of 4 and 5 axis machines in there, even DIY. the major problem with the 4 and 5 axis machine is not so much the hardware. the software gets a little more specialised and thus hard (expensive) to come by.
I could easily fit a 4th axis on mine (just a single stepper on which the part spins, thus making a cnc lathe) but i'd have no software to control it.