Building a 4 Spindle/3 Axis CNC Machine Router

Over the last few days I was thinking about a statement a fellow made to me in regards to the Smart Motors from Animatics. A company in my area is working with us on some other projects within our company for automating a few processes and they are a reseller for these Smart Motors.

The comment that got me thinking about other options was in relation to the proprietary aspect of the Smart Motors. If a Smart Motor goes bad, you are forced to deal with them and pay their price. If a stepper motor goes bad, you can pretty much find a replacement anywhere. He made a good point.

As a result, I started looking around to see what the guys that have built Joe's CNC and a few others are using. There were a few companies out there and I have opted to go with Probotix.

I called the company today and was on the phone with a fellow named Chris. When I explained what I was making I could here the disbelief and the excitement in his voice. I directed him to our website and to You tube so he could watch some of my videos and learn more about our company and the machines we are currently running.. The disbelief in his voice went away very quickly.

He discussed the project with me for about 20 minutes. I pretty much knew what I was going to buy from them and fed him slowly to see if he agreed or tried to push me in another direction. Of course I went for the highest priced stuff they had. In talking with me, he actually suggested that I could get away with smaller steppers and save a few dollars. That statement from him, made me an instant customer. I am going with the 400 ounce steppers anyway. I am also going to install a relay so the spindles can be turned on using the M3 command in the code. Chris also suggested that I make my hardware cabinet out of plastic instead of metal to avoid any conductive catastrophes. I was not even a customer yet and he was offering wiring tips and suggestions. He also pointed me to the tutorials that they have on their website for setting everything up. I was quite impressed with this measure of customer service to a person who at the time, was only a potential customer. AAA+++ to Probotix.

I will post photos as soon as I order everything and it is delivered. In the meantime, I will be wrapping the base, ordering the linear rails and guide blocks and installing them when they come in. I was able to source some real nice aluminum to make the uprights for the gantry and I will be cutting them using either the ShopBot or the CAMaster in our shop. The price on the aluminum was great. 2 cups of coffee and 20 minutes talking with the guys at our local machine shop and they gave me access to there scrap pile of aluminum cutoffs. They normally sell the pieces on eBay when they have time, but lately, no one has been buying the blanks and the pile is getting bigger!

More to come, stay tuned.