OT: paging Nikbrewer and others - home built CNC?

[Max_Andrews]

Nikbrewer mentioned in a post recently that he was building his own CNC machine. I was wondering if he and others would like to share some resources on doing this? If a home-build CNC can be done well for under $1000 it may well replace a set of cools costing considerably more, not to mention save oodles of time and improve the final result.

Update 1: http://www.thebackshed.com/cnc/default.asp

[nikbrewer]

thats i nice looking machine. In my opionion, most people under power thiere home built cnc's, router wise. I am using a 3.25 hp PC router. i should be able to power through 3/4" baltic birch in 1-2 passes with this.

Honestly, for the price of some of these speakers people build you could build a small cnc. Mine will come in about 2500$, but im going big ( 3' x 5' all alumium)

if anyone if really interested in pursuing this, go to www.cnczone.com, they have a DIY forum there

[echrisconnor]

I was looking into this for a while. CNC systems can be made, or bought for relatively cheap. Where the big costs and expense seem to come in is getting good CAD and CAM software affordably.

[jdclark]

I was looking into this for a while. CNC systems can be made, or bought for relatively cheap. Where the big costs and expense seem to come in is getting good CAD and CAM software affordably.

become friends with any type of engineering student undergrad or graduate....get him to buy it for you at the student price, problem solved.

[nikbrewer]

Mach 3 is the controler for small machines, ut there is a great linux one as well. The linux is free, and mach 3 is free up to 500 lines of g-code. ( this does not sound like a lot, buy if you are just doing circles and sqaures in alimited area, its fine. In perspective, a sheet of my car speaker boxes, which have alot of arcs, ect, nexted in a 4' x 8' sheet, depending on what else i add, is between 700-1000 lines of g-code. now most epole wil be cutting a sheet 1/4 that size. unless you are carving, which can get in to 100,000 lines of g-code or more, 500 shoudl work. its also only like 150$ to buy outright.

mach 3 also comes with lazy cam, a basic cam program, but i would think it would be fine for speakers, ect. its just not for 3d drawing.

cad software, search fro free cad software. all you need is something that puts out a dxf. i found one called acad9.0, works and looks just like autocad, same commands, same menus, no 3d though, and its free.

Now, where is Vas when we need him, he seams to be a expert on every topic under the sun, so hopefully he will chime in and set up strait.

Also, cost adds up the faster you want to go, nema 23 motors, pretty cheap ( i run 400 in/oz at 79$ each) nema 34's though get into the 150-200 rang, but they have 1200 in.oz torque ( whick maybe this is not even a good wat to say it, as i really need the motors HP i think, acording to Vas),

Also acme threads get high. single start 6' = 40$, 5 start 6' = 70$, so it all adds up. i dont think an hobbiest is going to throw down for ball screws.

if anyone is serious about trying it, i have some plans i bought i will loan out. if the forum got a few home cnc's going, the projects would grow exponentially

[greysplash]

become friends with any type of engineering student undergrad or graduate....get him to buy it for you at the student price, problem solved.
As an engineering student, this is a slight misconception... almost any software we need is loaded on to school computers, not given or sold to us. Some universities do sell discounted software, but it is generally more common software such as microsoft office, or AutoCAD. Not to open up a can of worms, but almost all the students I know (and some professors) use downloaded pirated software.

As far as CNC software, my roommate and I built a small extruder and used free software found on Instructables.com. This is a great site with TONS of DIY projects, especially CNC.

-Alex

[Hackomatic]

As an engineering student, this is a slight misconception... almost any software we need is loaded on to school computers, not given or sold to us. Some universities do sell discounted software, but it is generally more common software such as microsoft office, or AutoCAD. Not to open up a can of worms, but almost all the students I know (and some professors) use downloaded pirated software.

Well . . that's a bit of a misconception too.

There are tons of places to get deeply discounted software if you're a student and want to have a legit copy.

Here is one my son used when he was in school . . pretty extensive selection.

http://www.studica.com/

[nikbrewer]

not sue abot other programs, but autocad and inventor and solidworks, the student version is only for 1 yr, then it stops working. also the sudent autocad puts a huge watermark across the drawings saying it was made wiht a educational copy

[Hackomatic]

Yeah . . I noticed they started doing that on some of the software . . It depends on what ya get I suppose.