CNC Engraver I Built

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

This is actualy the third one. So far its my favorite. I Built it to cut things my laser cant.

To keep everything acurate duting the design/build I lasered full size templates in illistration board. I then taped them to the parts and hand drilled and cut each piece.

NO CNC was used to build this. I plan on putting step my free step instructions up on one of my sites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcJHmpaC_yc

[Hannu Rinne]

Wow ! Great looking machine - what material is the body made of ?

Hannu

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

This one is made 100% from melamine particle board. I wanted to pick the absoultute worst material to get my design down. If it will work with this then it will work with baltic birch ply.

The thing is after using this material I like it. Its stiffer than MDF and mush lighter. The faces are water proof and the edges esily sealed since paint does not stick to the melamine you can clean it off with your finger nail.

The base is made from Steel.


This designed is aimed at the woodworker as it can be made from basic shop tools. I use only the following tools to build it.

Table Saw
Drill Press
Jig Saw
Portible Drill
Couple wrenches and sockets

The only soldering is to connect the wires to the homing switches. The rest of the wires are attached with screws or twist caps.

The rails can be alumninum or steel and can be purchased at your local home depot or Lowes.

It took me about a month to design and build. It can be built for around $1500 with most of that going twords the electrics and lead screws.

This version has a 14" x 31" cutting area. I did this size for a reason. Its usable for most of what I want to cut plus it can still be take through larger doors. It can be taken through a 34" door opening if you remove the side motor.

[George M. Perzel]

Michael;
Great job-really nicely put together! What software is used to drive it?
Thanks for sharing.
George
Laserarts

[Mike Null]

WOW !!!

That's impressive.

[Hannu Rinne]

Michael,

What would you think, is this construction strong enough to engrave some soft metals ( like aluminium and brass ) ? I've planned to build a lightweight and transferable engraver for a special purpose.

Hannu

[Rodne Gold]

Excellent work - I suppose once you have built your first one , you can use it to replicate itself :)

[Mike Christen]

Very nice work Michael, not only functional but very nice looking also.

What lead screws are you using and what kind of accuracy / backlash do you have. Really interested in part / supplier list, $1500 for everything?

[Doug Griffith]

Awesome job. I'm sure it's very rewarding when you see it run.

[Larry Bratton]

Wow! Awesome job. What HP is the router you are using?

[john passek]

Awsome job Michael, am looking forward to seeing it actually cutting and operating, keep us posted please.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

The router is a Festool MFK 700 EQ. On paper is on par with the 1HP bosh Colt but in reality it blows it away. Unlike the bosh colt it is electricly conductive so works well with probes for setting the Z axis.


Im not sure about cutting metal. But its alot more ridgid than my other builds that were MDF. Personaly I think a metal cutting cnc should have a fixed gantry.

This machine was mainly to cut 1/8" to 1" stock and to engrave profiles. I am working on a Foredome spindle mount so I can use my diamond bits to engrave tiles and glass.

Keep in mind the $1500 I have invested does not count the router or software.

Router, MFK 700 EQ, $400
Mach3 Controller Software, $175
Cut2D CAM software, $149
Corel Draw X5 CAD Software, $399
Autocad Lt, $900
PC, $900

As a minimum you need the Mach 3 controler software. You can use the free version but in order to do any real parts you will need to purchase.

Cut2D is great for converting eps, dxf, or pdf 2D vectors into 3D gcode.

I make robotic controller chips so one of my goals is to create a stand alone interface that lets a wood worker use the cnc to cut simple shapes into project pieces using a simple interface.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Here is a picture of the dust collector attachement. It connects to a Mini cyclone and Fien vacume.

[Frank Corker]

Mike that looks like an incredible machine. Well done.

[Brian J Rogalny]

Great use of FESTOOL, one of the best tools I have ever used.

[Robert Walters]

This one is made 100% from melamine particle board. I wanted to pick the absoultute worst material to get my design down. If it will work with this then it will work with baltic birch ply.

The thing is after using this material I like it. Its stiffer than MDF and mush lighter. The faces are water proof and the edges esily sealed since paint does not stick to the melamine you can clean it off with your finger nail.

The base is made from Steel.


This designed is aimed at the woodworker as it can be made from basic shop tools. I use only the following tools to build it.

Table Saw
Drill Press
Jig Saw
Portible Drill
Couple wrenches and sockets

The only soldering is to connect the wires to the homing switches. The rest of the wires are attached with screws or twist caps.

The rails can be alumninum or steel and can be purchased at your local home depot or Lowes.

It took me about a month to design and build. It can be built for around $1500 with most of that going twords the electrics and lead screws.

This version has a 14" x 31" cutting area. I did this size for a reason. Its usable for most of what I want to cut plus it can still be take through larger doors. It can be taken through a 34" door opening if you remove the side motor.


On the slides, what bearings are you using?
From the video I can't tell if they're v-groove or not.

What leadscrews are you using? acme?

On your X axis, are you running tandem motors?

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

V Bearings
Acme 5 Start with anti-backlash nuts
Two motors on X axis

[Neal Schlee]

Nice job Michael!

Question, why the fans on the stepper motors? Stepper are designed to be used w/o fans.

Also, you might want to not use the "Festool" name as it is a registered trademarked.

Neal

[Dan Hintz]

Question, why the fans on the stepper motors? Stepper are designed to be used w/o fans.
Not necessarily... if you're using active braking, they can build up quite a bit of heat. I don't know if he's doing that here, but just because they're steppers doesn't mean they run cool.

[Guy Mathews]

Real nice machine. Can't wait to see some videos of this baby cutting.

Great job.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

A properly matched stepper motor, power supply and load will run hot. The key is how hot. A stepper should not run over 212F. If you keep in under 185F it will extend its life.

They get the hottest when sitting idle. My controller will drop the current when idle to help with the heat but its not enough. Over time the heat creeps up. It may take them 2 hours sitting idle to reach an unsafe temp. Since I don’t use the cnc for production and I am a tinkerer it can sit idle for hours.

Also these are NEMA 23 motors. They are pretty compact for the power they give and are known for their lack of heat dissipation. If they were mounded on an aluminum mount I probably would not need the fans.

If you have ever brushed your arm or face up against a 250F stepper you would understand why I use the fans. Plus they look cool.

As for the Festool. It’s just the name I gave it in the YouTube video. I doubt Festool is going to get upset about that. That said I have heard that they don’t like you using their colors. Again its only for this build as the next one the edges are going to be black.

FYI if they don’t like the colors they can go after Disney. The color I used is Shrek Green from the Home Depot Disney collection.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I did my first engraving. Its the leter K. I just had to do something.

My mounting system was not finished yet and I was uing a cheap Vbit (most likly with the wrong settings) so it was taking forever to carve out the waist. I wanted to create a raised letter. The bit only has a 1/32 tip flat so it has to do lots of passes to smooth the bottom.

Since I am using Cut2D Its hard to create a nice 3d letter. The bit has to do all the work. At some point I will purchase Cut3D and then I can just use a 1/8 end mill to get a nice 3d profile as the CAM software will do all the work.

Here its engraving at about 160 IPM. IT will do much faster but the piece was moving so I had to slow it down.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxmX8OkW_qg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7pDsQX833I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XDpQ2lt3-E

[Jerome Stanek]

What bsped are you running it at cut & jog speeds

[Robert Walters]

V Bearings
Acme 5 Start with anti-backlash nuts
Two motors on X axis

Hey Michael,

Where did you source the v-groove bearings from, and about how much?

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Ok this is my first cut. I think I have my hold down table just about perfected.

Here is the probe I built. The FestTool router is conductive so I just run the ground wire to the case and when the bit touches this block its makes contact.

Software is special mod to Mach3 that can be downloaded from their site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd4_DDcWhjU

I sure wish we could embed videos on SMC.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

This is my first real cut. I think I have the hold down system working very well not. Probably need to rough up the surface as its a little smooth.


This is a gear cut out of 1/4 popular at 100 IMP speed. I think the Rapids were set to 250. She will do 600 but it gets scarry.


Im not using the dust sheild so you can see whats going on.

The Cut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYdDxrHjJ0

The Gear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cTek4yNx50


I only had to cleanup the small tabs I kept on the part. Other than that I just kind of wiped it with my finger to clean it up. Truned out better than I thought it would at this speed.

I am only doing 1/16" depth per pass. This was the settings I was using with my last CNC. I need to go back in and tweak the tools and speeds for this one as it is much more ridgid and accurat than my last build.

[Dave Spitzer]

Robert,

I know you asked Michael, but I purchased mine from VXB.com, for $7.25 each, I've seen them on sale for $4.99 each.

Dave

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Sorry I did not reply. Thats what I paid for mine. Also got mine from VXB.

[Keith Outten]

Sometime in the next couple of weeks we will be able to embed videos here. We purchased the version 4 upgrade to vBulletin with the publishing suite so watch for some changes here as we move to the new software. It will happen in two steps, first the forum upgrade then we will enable the publishing features a few days later.
.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Very cool.