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I've been doing a bit of math on this one and it turns out I might as well buy a new or second hand CNC mill. Maybe I'll pick up this project later but for now it's shelved.
This is a work in progress, I'll add to it along the way and would love to get some comments with feedback and ideas.
For a while I was thinking I'd build a milling machine from this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-to-Build-Desk-Top-3-Axis-CNC-Milling-Machine/
This might also have a few good pointers for my own design:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_a_mini_milling_machine/
But when I was talking to the local jobcenter(the people that help find work for or retrain unemployed people here in Denmark) they suggested I took a course as a CNC-operator, so I'm on a course in working with manual and CNC mills and lathes between 2009-04-27 and 2009-09-30.
As part of the course I can make stuff I want to if the teachers think it'll teach me the right things. I asked one of the teachers and he seemed to think it'd be a nice idea. I have to pay for some/most of the materials myself though. I'll make all the non-electronic parts of a milling machine there, write the software at home and Ruediger, a friend from Germany, will do the electronics.
So why do I want a CNC mill anyway? The main reason is to use it to quickly and easily do prototype circuit boards for my projects, it's annoying to have to deal with chemicals and I need to work with them outside anyway because my room is too badly ventilated. I've also been ponering engraving things like nametags for pets and such, a CNC mill would come in handy for that as well.
Project requirements:
Cheap-ish, quality and precision over price within reason though.
Highest possible degree of self-reproducibility, with manual assembly of course.
As fully open as possible, BSD/MIT or GPL or CC-BY-SA licence on everything as far as possible.
Easily customizable.
This is a work in progress, I'll add to it along the way and would love to get some comments with feedback and ideas.
For a while I was thinking I'd build a milling machine from this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-to-Build-Desk-Top-3-Axis-CNC-Milling-Machine/
This might also have a few good pointers for my own design:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_a_mini_milling_machine/
But when I was talking to the local jobcenter(the people that help find work for or retrain unemployed people here in Denmark) they suggested I took a course as a CNC-operator, so I'm on a course in working with manual and CNC mills and lathes between 2009-04-27 and 2009-09-30.
As part of the course I can make stuff I want to if the teachers think it'll teach me the right things. I asked one of the teachers and he seemed to think it'd be a nice idea. I have to pay for some/most of the materials myself though. I'll make all the non-electronic parts of a milling machine there, write the software at home and Ruediger, a friend from Germany, will do the electronics.
So why do I want a CNC mill anyway? The main reason is to use it to quickly and easily do prototype circuit boards for my projects, it's annoying to have to deal with chemicals and I need to work with them outside anyway because my room is too badly ventilated. I've also been ponering engraving things like nametags for pets and such, a CNC mill would come in handy for that as well.
Project requirements:
Cheap-ish, quality and precision over price within reason though.
Highest possible degree of self-reproducibility, with manual assembly of course.
As fully open as possible, BSD/MIT or GPL or CC-BY-SA licence on everything as far as possible.
Easily customizable.
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Signing UpStep 1Hardware specifications
License:
CC-BY-SA.
Moving part:
Moving head(preferred for space requirements, arbitrary size through modularity but much more limited than with the moving table approach?).
Head type:
Rotary tool of some sort, possibly home made.
Tools:
Various drills.
Various grove cutters for screws and bolts?
Engravers.
Various chamfers.
Knife for cutting paper and cardboard if spindle rotation can be stopped.
Marker pens?
Other useful stuff.
Working area:
At least 320x200x100mm.(If the modular approach is chosen it'll be made so it can work with only 1 table module and 1 Z axis module, but I'll be making my own one so it'll be about 320x200x100mm).
Maybe make it a modular design so it can be extended to almost any size.
X axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Y axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Z axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Can work on these materials:
Copper layer on blank circuit boards.
Whatever materials it itself is built from.
Plastic.
Plexiglass.
Wood.
Cardboard?
Paper?
Should be able to reproduce most of it's own parts.
One idea to improve step sizes is to make a gear box for each motor. Will this introduce too much error when reproducing the gears for new machines? Can they be made precise enough to make all steps the same size, also the first and last ones?
Currently identified exceptions to self-reproducibility:
Electronic parts apart from the circuit boards.
Screws(Might be possible, depending on step size and tools, but why bother?).
Grove bars(Hard to do but might be possible, depending on step size and tools).
Attached picture is the current design. It's missing motors and lead-screws. I've been thinking about changing the drive system for moving the gantry so it'll use thin steelwire, rollers and a single motor instead of two lead-screws and two motors.
CC-BY-SA.
Moving part:
Moving head(preferred for space requirements, arbitrary size through modularity but much more limited than with the moving table approach?).
Head type:
Rotary tool of some sort, possibly home made.
Tools:
Various drills.
Various grove cutters for screws and bolts?
Engravers.
Various chamfers.
Knife for cutting paper and cardboard if spindle rotation can be stopped.
Marker pens?
Other useful stuff.
Working area:
At least 320x200x100mm.(If the modular approach is chosen it'll be made so it can work with only 1 table module and 1 Z axis module, but I'll be making my own one so it'll be about 320x200x100mm).
Maybe make it a modular design so it can be extended to almost any size.
X axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Y axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Z axis step size:
Max. 0,005 inch. Smaller if easily achieved.
Can work on these materials:
Copper layer on blank circuit boards.
Whatever materials it itself is built from.
Plastic.
Plexiglass.
Wood.
Cardboard?
Paper?
Should be able to reproduce most of it's own parts.
One idea to improve step sizes is to make a gear box for each motor. Will this introduce too much error when reproducing the gears for new machines? Can they be made precise enough to make all steps the same size, also the first and last ones?
Currently identified exceptions to self-reproducibility:
Electronic parts apart from the circuit boards.
Screws(Might be possible, depending on step size and tools, but why bother?).
Grove bars(Hard to do but might be possible, depending on step size and tools).
Attached picture is the current design. It's missing motors and lead-screws. I've been thinking about changing the drive system for moving the gantry so it'll use thin steelwire, rollers and a single motor instead of two lead-screws and two motors.
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Australia's okay, but everything's so disconnected. No, that's not a good thing. As soon as I finish uni, I am so moving to Germany.