CNC FROM SCRAP

"DO IGNORE SOME SPELLING MISTAKES IF YOU SEE ANY "

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ZAIN.

Any one can create a CNC it easy and the possibility of changing it to a different machine are tremendous, by this I mean that you can change the machines tool to perform a different task for example

LASER CUTTER OR ENGRAVER (wish I had one of those) can be used to do laser engraving ,design stuff on the wood or plastic (my hobby).

DRILL can be used to carve designs on wood or metal. and one more thing .

3D printer can also be made from this CNC machine how?

the answer lies again in the tool trust me. Ill be teaching that too in the future.

Step 1: GATHER SOME MAIN PARTS FOR CNC.

I'll start things off by saying :

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"THE POSSIBILITY OF YOU CREATING SOMETHING DOESNT LIE IN THE WORDS OF OTHERS , JUST MAKE THINGS POSSIBLE BRO".

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The CNC machine we are about to make can do a lot of stuff depending upon the tool you attach to it 1.It can used as a laser cutter . (USE A LASER CUTTER TOOL). 2.It can be used as a router.(USE A DRILL MACHINE AS TOOL). 3.It can be used as a modified form of bottle opening machine in food engineering by attaching a robotic arm. 4.THE POSSIBILITIES ARE MANY.

Its not easy to make a cnc machine but its not even impossible , I believe anyone can make this machine and mesmerize the world around him . So lets get started to build the machine. You need the following parts

1.Ball screws and metal bars.

2.Motor drives plus motors I prefer buying Vexta or Mycom drives from oriental motors or ebay.

3.Welding equipment.

4.Software MACH 3.

5.A pc with windows xp installed.

6.Lastly some out of the box thinking.

I scavenged the metal bars plus the ball screws from an old market in Karachi (Pakistan) known by the name of SHERSHAH.I also bought the motor and drives from the same market, but purchased them .

LASTLY ,WHEN I THOUGHT OF BIULDING THIS MACHINE I REALISED THAT I NEED A CONTROLLER ,WHICH WAS THE MACH 3 SOFTWARE AND MOTORS TO CONTROL THE AXIS.

Step 2: DRIVES AND STEPPER MOTORS.

After getting all the stuff namely metal bars , ball screws , linear rails , motors and drives,

its time to start thinking about how to design the CNC machine use Autocad for designing.

You seriously wont need the motors or drives in the start , they are mainly for automation which will be fixed in the end .

Do take solid metal bars otherwise you will have problems in the end controlling the cnc as oscillations will start to occur

In the pictures above you can see some drives I have and the connections I did to make sure thing go the right way.

Step 3: THE SOFTWARE MACH 3.

Get the Mach 3 software its free on the internet , google it or tell me if you cant find it ill send you the link for download.

You need one more thing to make this software work with the cnc machine .You need to install this software on a pc which has a parallel port a 25 pin connector at the back normally known as printer port and secondly you need windows xp installed to make the drives and software work properly because If you have later versions of window mach 3 will not work properly.

Step 4: MAKING THE BODY OF THE MACHINE (PART A)

The cnc part shown in the AutoCAD diagram is shown basically to give you guys the idea of how to design the cnc .It is shown in standing position with the base in front and the top part attached with the y axis . The base is in standing position ,and the other axis is attached with the base in the bottom.

We will firstly design our X-axis or the U shaped part ,which will have a y axis attached to it to make the tool move downward and the x axis to make the tool move left or right.

Step 5: THE BASE AND THE U SHAPED (TOP PART) .

Now to design the base what we really need is metal , and by metal I mean you need enough metal to make the square base because you will need the area to weld the metal first . In my case my area was 27 by 27 inch

so I made the base ,on the bases of my area. I took 4 metal bars of 28 inches just to make sure after welding things stay the same. It was easy to create the base with out any hassle . Just a square shaped base you can see it in the pic .The base was actually for my z axis as the two axis x and y were made on the top part (U shaped) the z was the only thing left ,which will help the u shape part to move in front or backward direction.

Step 6: ATTACH THE U SHAPED PART WITH THE BASE.

The only thing left now is to weld both the base and the U shaped part together to form a perfect cnc .You will have the complete cnc at you disposal but that's not the end as you will still need to connect the motors on the x y and z axis to make them move when you turn on the mach3 .

Step 7: THE THIRD AXIS FOR DOWNWARD MOVEMENT.

The picture above shows the axis which I luckily got with the ballscrews I scavenged. I made this axis as my y axis to move things upward and downwards . I attached this axis as you all know with the left and right moving axis or the x axis .Do ignore the wires attached in the pic they are just temporary wire which came with the part initially

Step 8: MOTOR TUNING OR SETTING UP THE MOTORS.

In the first picture you will all see a round steel rod ,now this rod is the ballscrew rod which will make the ball screw to rotate once it gets attached with the motor by a coupling or by any other means .The second picture shows a motor and a coupling attached to it.

You can scavenge a coupling to , or can by it with the perfect fixing specifications with the motor and drive.

The third picture shows a 5 phase stepper motor which I will connect to the z axis as it is powerful enough to move the z axis which has x and y axis attached to it

Step 9: CONNECTING THE STEPPER MOTOR TO THE DRIVER .

here I have two different drivers for making the motors work . The first one is vexta and the second one is mycom .Both the drives can be purchased online with the motors either 2 phase or 5 phase. Luckily I have both of them .The connections are really important for the motors to work properly . Now for the connections you will have 5 motor wires BLUE ,BLACK, WHITE, BROWN AND RED . You can connect the wires easily by lookin gat the colors and matching them on the drives.

LAST PART ABOUT THIS IS TO CONNECT THE MOTORS TO THE BALL SCREWS, AND THEN CONNECT THE DRIVES WITH THE COMPUTER HAVING WINDOWS XP INSTALLED TOGETHER WITH MACH 3 .

You will need a parallel port connector to connect you drives with the cpu's parallel port .The starting pins you will need are from pin 1-9 of the port use them and use 2 and 3 , 4 and 5 , 6 and 7 specially for th eport connection as these are the input pins for direction and pulse.Like for example 2 and 3 are direction and pulse pin , you need to connect the wires of one drive like for example vexta to these pins .The direction pin from the drive will get attached to pin 2 and the pulse pin to pin 3 and these wires which are connected to the drive , are basically connected to the pulse and direction pin on the drive together with a 5 volt dc on the drives CW + and direction +THE FINAL STEP IS TO TUNE THE MOTOR FROM THE SOFTWARE , MACH 3 WHICH IS PROVIDED IN THE MANUAL. OF MACH 3.

Step 10: IMPORTANT POINTS AND STUFF

Do remember to buy a ball screw which moves easily and has a point where it can get connected with a stepper motor through a coupling.

Secondly buy linear rails or guides for the movement of the metal base , as it will support the metal base plate while moving together with the ballscrew's base.

"NEXT PART WILL BE ABOUT MAKING THE POWER BOARD AND INTERFACING IT WILL BE POSTED SOON AS SOON AS I MAKE IT "