Tinker toy and waste of money?

[Hoang N Nguyen]

My table is 57x117 with a cutting capacity of 49x97.

I believe the MPCNC is best kept within the 24x24 mark while the lowrider2 can be expended to much larger.

[Larry Foster]

I don't know how long it takes to get here after ordering.
Need to plan my table and cut my conduit.
I may have saved a couple $$ because I have some conduit here that may be suitable to be recycled.
I'll have about $500 in it.

[Bill George]

Attachment 425918Attachment 425919

I recently finished my build made a few cuts with it. Here's a picture of my latest project that came off the lowrider. It's nearly 3' tall and 3/4" pine I glued up. It took 25 minutes to cut out the profile and engrave the letters.

Very nice I like the burnt or dark stained areas contrast with the lettering.

[Jim Becker]

I realize it's not a "real" cnc and there will be limitations.

Larry, it IS a "real CNC"...and every machine has limitations. Understanding them is important so you can best leverage the capability you have and set expectations for what you can cut, including things like cut time, etc. Enjoy!

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I don't know how long it takes to get here after ordering.
Need to plan my table and cut my conduit.
I may have saved a couple $$ because I have some conduit here that may be suitable to be recycled.
I'll have about $500 in it.

He ships everything priority mail so it should only take 2 days once he ships. He usually sends out 2 or 3 shipments per week.
I would suggest going with stainless steel pipes instead of conduit. Conduit is pretty soft and the steel bearings riding on them would wear down or flatten the conduit over time causing slop in your gantry. Stainless steel would hold up better over time and depending on where you get it, it may not be that expensive. I had my company order 1" OD 11ga stainless steel round tubes for me and it only cost me $56. Also, don't start printing the parts until AFTER you've already gotten your pipes. Like the lowrider2, the MPCNC has different 3D printed files for different size pipes. Many people have had to reprint their parts because the pipes they order/received is different size than what they thought. This will cost you a lot of time and wasted filament/money on printed parts.

Very nice I like the burnt or dark stained areas contrast with the lettering.

Thanks, the wood was charred with a blow torch and engraved letters filled in with paint.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks, Steve.
Time is only important due to age, not production needs.


Hoang, I don't have a printer so I ordered all my parts from Ryan.

I considered 1" stainless but availability, rather than cost, madw me go with 3/4" conduit.
Also, I'm making a much smaller build than yours.

It seems that it is pretty simple to upgrade bigger if I decide.

[Bill George]

Thanks, Steve.
Time is only important due to age, not production needs.


Hoang, I don't have a printer so I ordered all my parts from Ryan.

I considered 1" stainless but availability, rather than cost, madw me go with 3/4" conduit.
Also, I'm making a much smaller build than yours.

It seems that it is pretty simple to upgrade bigger if I decide.

You might check second hand or salvage yards. Not far from where I live there is one, and sometimes they get new on pallets stuff from the John Deere plant. They also get discarded machines and scrap metal odds and ends. If you know your new prices and don't mind a little work you can get some real bargains. Stainless steel tubing comes in pretty often. Thin wall 3/4 inch conduit is not very good to build with a CNC machine that is.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks for that tip, Bill.

Unfortunately, I have already ordered the printed parts for 3/4" EMT.
I had considered stainless but, finally, went with the EMT for several reasons.

Size: my build will be a good bit smaller than Hoang's; I am setting it up, initially, for a 24X24 work area.
Designer recommendation: Ryan at V1 says that the 3/4 is adequate.

Since I haven't gouged my first piece of wood yet, I don't know what my needs will be.
A good thing is that it is easily expandable.
I would be limited to available space in my shop which is at a premium.

If I were to expand the size, I would definitely look for the stainless

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Larry,
I will look forward to seeing some photos of your progress as your build progresses.
Thanks,
David

[Larry Foster]

Thanks, David.
Wii do

[Bill George]

Call and change your order, why buy twice and waste your money, very short sighted? You can never make it too strong. If it was me I would use 1" steel round bar.

[Larry Foster]

It's already shipped, Bill.

Like you, I tend to over build things but feel comfortable with the recommendations they have.
Seems like quite a few running 3/4 EMT.

They indicate you can go bigger if you support the x and y axis.

It may be a long time, if ever, before I have a need to expand it.

New parts to change to stainless are fairly inexpensive if I need to change to stainless somewhere down the road.

[Bill George]

Go over to CNCZone where the DIY router builders hang out, you will never see anyone saying, "gee I wish I would have made mine less stable or ridged". The suggestions above from a guy who has built one told you the limitations of using 3/4 inch TW conduit. It looks like to change over to 1" stainless tubing would be next to impossible after its built. The soft TW conduit would be a very poor choice if its going to be used much.

[Larry Foster]

Thanks for the the tip on CNCZone.

I'm past that point.
My stuff is ordered, paid for and shipped and being delivered in the next couple days.

I really do appreciate your input.
I've learned from you.

Hoang's build is a lot bigger than mine and he is capable of doing a lot bigger stuff.

I don't have the space to have something that big and I'm about as big as I can go.

If I could have found stainless I would have used it.
But it's too late for this go around

[Bill George]

Not hard to fine if you look.. https://onlinemetalsupply.com/ , trying to save you money. Doing things twice is not wise.