Living
Outside
Play
Technology
Workshop
Step 5: Y-axis carriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Step 6: Z-axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step 7: Timing belts and pulleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step 8: Motor mounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Step 9: Bearing blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Step 10: Z-axis drive nut + mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Step 11: X- and Y-axis drive nut mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Step 12: Z-axis motor mount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Step 13: The cutting bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Step 14: The electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Step 15: Electronics enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Step 16: CNC software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Step 17: Using the machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Step 18: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
routers. They are easier to construct and can be built more rigid than a moving gantry style machine. The downside of letting the table move instead of the gantry, is that the overall footprint of the machine in retrospect to its cutting envelope, is about twice as large as with a moving gantry design. Therefore it probably is better to make a moving gantry style machine, if your cutting envelope is larger than about 30x30 cm. Because I wanted to build a machine with a cutting envelope of about 65x65 cm, I used the moving gantry style design. What do you want to cut with the CNC router? This determines pretty much every answer to the questions below. I wanted to use the machine for plywood, hardwoods and plastics mainly, but also for aluminum. If you want to cut materials harder than aluminum, I recommend building a CNC mill , instead of a router. What material will you use to construct the machine? This is determined by the question above. A good guideline is that the material you use to construct the machine is stronger or as strong as the material you want to cut. So if you want to cut aluminum, you should use aluminum or even steel to build the machine. I have seen wooden CNC routers that can cut aluminum (you will find some on youtube), but this went very slow and the machines have to be very well constructed. Because I wanted to cut aluminum with this CNC router, I built it out of aluminum. I could have used steel, but this is more difficult to machine and I didnt have the proper tools for that. What length of travel do you need for each axis? My first intention, was to build a CNC router that could handle standard size sheet goods, like plywood and mdf. In the Netherlands these are 62 x 121 cm. So for the Y axis, I wanted a travel distance of at least 620mm. The machine is placed in a small shed in my backyard, with a very limited amount of space. I couldnt make the machine too big, because then it would really get in the way and take up all the space. So the X - axis only has 730mm of travel. This is less than the full length of a sheet of plywood (1210mm), but I figured that if I wanted to machine something really large a could cut the first part, than slide the sheet forward and cut the last part. By using this technique you can cut pieces that are much larger than the normal X - travel distance. For the Z - axis I figured that 150mm would be enough to possibly use a fourth axis in the future. What type of linear motion will you use for the machine? There are many options to choose from for linear motion: drawer slides, ball bearings on V rail, V-groove bearings, unsupported round linear rail, fully supported round linear rail and profile linear rail. The linear motion system you use will to a large extent determine the cutting quality that you can achieve. I would recommend going for the best system that you can afford. After doing some research, I found that fully supported linear rails would be the best option, that I still could afford. If you search on ebay for SBR12, SBR16 or SBR20 you will find a number of different sellers and sets to choose from. If you are building a 3 axis CNC router, you should buy a kit consisting of three sets of linear rails and two linear bearings per rail. Linearmotionbearings2008 is a good ebay store from China, that sells a number of different kits, even with the ball screws included. What kind of linear drive system will you use for each axis? The basic options to drive each axis are: timing belts, rack and pinion and drive screws. For homemade CNC routers, drive screws are most commonly used. Screw drive systems work by placing the stationary nut on the moving part of the machine and holding the screw in place on both ends.The screw gets attached to the motor. If the motors starts to turn, the nut with the moving part of the machine attached to it, will move along the screw and set the machine in motion. For the X and Y axis, I used ball screws. Ball screws provide very smooth motion, with virtually no backlash. Backlash is the amount of play between the drive screw and the nut and is something you dont want in a CNC router. If you want to read more about backlash, I recommend taking a look at the website cncroutersource.com . Ball screws are more expensive than ACME screws (which are a good alternative), but will again highly improve the cutting speed and cutting quality you can achieve. For the Z-axis I used high quality stainless steel M10 threaded rod, with a homemade delrin nut. What type of drive motor and controller are you going to use? Concerning the motors, there are two basic options: servo motors and stepper motors. Servo motors are mainly used for high end CNC routers and are very expensive. They use encoders to provide position feedback and require more expensive controllers. Stepper motors are widely used on homemade CNC routers and there are many different types and sizes. The size of the stepper motor you need depends on what you want to cut, how fast you want to cut it, what type of linear drive and motion components you use, how large the machine is etc. I used 3Nm stepper motors for my machine, which is probably overkill. The controller must suit the motor that youre using. You can use individual drivers for each motor, as I did, or you can buy a 3 or 4-axis driver board. You can read more about the electronics I used in step 14. What type of spindle will you use? Most homemade CNC routers use a standard woodworking router or trim router as the cutting spindle for their machine. Mine is no exception. I used a Kress router, which is of slightly higher quality than standard wood routers, and it has a nice 43mm clamping flange. If you want to cut a lot of different materials, some sort of speed control can be really handy. The Kress router has a built in speed control but you will find this on most routers. If you are going to be doing a lot of really heavy cutting you might want to look into air or water cooled spindles. You can find these on ebay as well, but they will cost you a lot more than a standard router. They use a VFD for speed control and can be much quieter than standard routers. What will be the total costs for the machine and do I want to spend so much money? I estimated the total costs for this CNC router to be around 1500 euro. A CNC router is expensive but you can save a lot of money by building one yourself. After I had found the answers to all of the questions above, I came up with the final design for my CNC router. As you can see, my design is not extremely detailed. You wont see the exact hole locations on all of the parts for instance. It is difficult to determine how many bolts you should use to put two pieces together, if you have never held those pieces in your hands before. For me, this design was enough to give me a good view on how everything was going to work out and which parts I should order. After the design was completed and rejected/redesigned a couple of times, I could start ordering all of the parts needed. The 30x60mm aluminum extrusions and all of the aluminum plates for the gantry and Z - axis which I used for the X - axis were pre-cut to length. I also ordered some heavy duty anti-vibration leveling feet.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. These holes are for attaching the linear bearings
Image Notes 1. This is the lathe setup I used, to drill the holes in the ends of the aluminum plates
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. Here you can see the bottom plate, fastened to the gantry side plates
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. Linear bearings fastened onto the gantry side plates
Image Notes 1. Drilling the holes, using the same lathe setup
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
2. Digital caliper I used to align the rails and the linear bearings
Step 6: Z-axis
The linear rails of the Z -axis get attached to the moving part of the Z - axis assembly. The rails needed to be offset a few millimeters from the edge of the plate. I used the same method as I did for the Y - axis, to align them. I found two pieces of plastic, of just the right thickness, which I could use as spacers. I knew the edges of the aluminum plate were parallel, so I clamped two pieces of aluminum to the edge of the plate and added the pieces of plastic to space the rails out from the edge. Once I had marked the hole locations, I just drilled and tapped them again. Make sure that you mark where the pieces go, so that the holes still line up when you put everything back together. To mount the top plate to the Z - axis assembly, I drilled and tapped three holes in the end of the router mounting plate. I did this with the same setup on the lathe as I did for the Y - axis plates. I had originally planned to attach the Z - axis stepper motor directly to the top plate. So I tried to mill some slots in the top plate to attach the stepper motor. This didnt work out so well, because I didnt have a proper milling setup. So I cut off the part with the slots and fabricated a different motor mount out of plastic (see step 12). I also made two bearing blocks out of the same plastic material, which got attached to the top plate as well. The drive screw is piece of stainless steel threaded rod (M10). The drive screw is clamped between the two bearings with two nuts. I drilled and tapped the timing pulley for an M10 thread and just screwed it onto the top part of the drive screw. It is held in place by three set screws. The delrin drive nut gets attached to the Y - axis carriage (see step 10). The router mount was pre-made and I ordered it from damencnc.com . It has a 43mm clamping ring, which fits the Kress router that I am using.
Image Notes 1. Aligning the rails and using the pieces of plastic as spacers
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. Motormount, cut on the homemade CNC router from my school teacher.
Image Notes 1. Z-axis drive nut, mounted onto the Y-axis carriage
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. M10 threads cut, to mount it to the Z-axis drive screw
Image Notes 1. Milling the four slots Image Notes 1. Making the large hole using a holesaw
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
If you dont want to spend a lot of money on electronics you can buy a kit from ebay. There are a lot of different sellers with prices in the 200-400 dollar range. Before ordering a kit you should think about what size steppers you need. I you are building a small machine for cutting wood and plastics only 270 oz in or 1.9 Nm motors will give you plenty of power. I choose 3Nm motors, because the machine itself is quite large and heavy and I planned on machining some harder materials like aluminum in the future. If your motors arent too large you can use a 3-axis driver board, although it is better to use individual drivers. Individual drivers can handle more amps and feature microstepping. They are more reliable and will give you better results. The drivers I use actually came with the kit I ordered. They can handle 4,2 amps max and up to 125 microsteps. The main power supply is connected to the drivers with 14 gauge wire, which is mainly used in RC airplanes. These wires are very flexible, but of high quality and can handle plenty of amps. The 5 VDC power supply is connected to the main power inlet. For the cooling fans, I installed a power outlet inside of the enclosure, so that I could use a standard 12V wall adapter to power them. The main power gets switched on and off by a large power switch. The 25A relay is controlled by the computer through the breakoutboard. The input terminals of the relay are connected to the output terminals of the breakoutboard. The
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
relay is connected to two power outlets, which power the Kress router and shop vac to suck up the shavings. When the Gcode ends with the command M05, the machine will automatically switch of both the shop vac and the router. To switch them on you can either press F5 or use the Gcode command M03.
Image Notes 1. Parts that make up the enclosure cut out on the machine itself
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Image Notes 1. Here you can see the toolpaths, that I created
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/
Related Instructables
$400 DIY Drawer Slide CNC Machine (video) DIY CNC Router Plans : How to by stangtime Build by MakeItWithJason
CNC Stomp Pad Project | CNC Programming | G-Code Programming | CNC Plasma Cutting by ivanirons
Advertisements
http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-CNC-router/