Firstly, a major thank you to Ryan for this awesome shared project. I am in the process of gathering as much info as possible to make one with these dimensions 600mm x 900mm and a very small 100 - 150mm Z axis. one one thread i have read about supporting midway along the Y & Z axis. One member had some very cool supports. Have any been drawn or is it a case of DIY?
I would suggest you start smaller, especially if you haven’t done CNC before. It’s a relatively cheap process to make it bigger (longer pipes, more belts, more wires). The expensive thing is changing the size of the pipes (outside diameter) or buying new steel pipes, but the first set is cheaper.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll decide to build a small low rider instead of a large MPCNC after you get started.
Ok. What kind of material would you use? Foam? Thin wood? Balsa wood?
Is it 3D carving or through cutting?
Sounds like fun. I hope you post your builds here. I know there is a pretty active group of rc enthusiast on the flighttest forums using a needle cutter on the MPCNC.
Think of it this way, if you plan on cutting 5mm max you only need 10mm, so 25 or 50 is more than enough. Changing the size is way easier than learning on a large machine…
I have had a very busy day researching where to purchase the items needed to make this project MPCNC.
Here is my findings and purchases. After much searching, I ended up buying Stainless Steel 25.4mm with a 1.63mm wall thickness. I couldn’t find seamless and so had to settle for seamed. From what I have read, if I put the seams opposite to the bearings all should be ok, I opted for precut tubing and this was for an extra few £’s
I picked up a 710 watt Palm router 6 & 9mm collets and I also found an MKS integrated 1.4 ramps board with a 3.2 touchscreen. I then upgraded the stepper drivers to DRV8825.
The power supply is a 12v 6A 80w regulated power supply with built in fan.
I purchased all nuts and bolts as a package from a UK supplier along with 5x NEMA 17 stepper motors with 84 oz.in torque.
All the above and two reels of PLA for my printer, 1x Black & 1x yellow for what i think is an amazingly good find price of £243 inc VAT and delivery.
So I think a well worth day and I hope you agree a worth while use of my time
I am from the UK my MPCNC is 900mm x 1100mm with a Z of about 100mm, although I only ever need a bit clearance of 25mm so a Z of around 50mm would be enough for me.
I went for the really cheap option of Galvanised 25mm OD tubes with a 1.6mm wall, think these were £7 or £8 for 3.5 meter lengths, so far no issues with them.
For me the biggest issue with my MPCNC was printing the parts with a cheap stock A8 printer, so I had some issues with the alignment of my Z gantry as half my dimensions were out, its still not great and my Z axis does miss steps from time to time because of alignment issues in the screw, which I will fix at some point.
Firstly thank you for the kind greeting. I am in Cambridgshire for the record. I have finally just finished ordering the components and went for stainless steel tubing,
I have just started printing the parts. to begin with i have only printed one foot. with a 25.4mm hole for the tube. from what i read the advice was to measure the tubing before going too far. Luckily I have a Da Vinci Printer which I have greatly modified and is dialed in very well. when i did a test of a 100mm cybe it was on average 0.015mm out.
if you need help printing parts let me know and ill put them on the list lol, I am going for a colour scheme of Black and Yellow. Not as bid as your but still i think a decent size ay 900 x 600.
I must say the postman as never been so busy. I have received the SS tubing today, very precisely cut lengths, millimetre perfect. they were packed very well. when unpacked I decided to check the trueness and found two of the long lengths had a 1mm bow in the middle. Not being disheartened, I called a close friend and have arranged to have them all tested and straightened, He as a lathe that can take the tubing length, he will then spin them and measure the run out. After detecting the error he will manipulate and true them. I have also decided that I will drew and print some custom adjustable supports for mid way of the X & Y axis.
I have also received the power brick, most of the nuts and bolts. My chosen router and the bearings.
Printing is coming along nicely and the fit to the tube is perfect, a nice sliding fit and only a small amount of pressure to seat the tubes.
Well Progress is being made. I wont start the build until I know I have everything ready and is to a standard the best I can manage.
Well did I speak too early or Did I speak to early LOL
left the printer running over night and woke this morning to find the god of 3D printing had left me an error, the dreaded Heater Decoupled Warning. After some investigation, found that the heater wire was partially broken and so as the carriage moved around it intermittently disconnected. Resoldered , tested and on with the printing.
good progress today with printing Black parts until I ran out of black Filament. Not to be deterred, I switched to yellow and on we go.
Another praise to Ryan for these parts go together so precisely and smoothly, I have only had to run a drill through the holes to make sure their clear.
Also from the UK, Manchester. a bit late to your thread, looks like you have everything in hand.
I used the deta pipe from screw fix 25mm od.
I have yet to finish my build as life keeps getting in the way.
My corners have cracked so I need to reprint those. My anet a8 is a bit out of whack at the moment after moving it from my house to my detached office/garage space.
tried printing petg recently to build nese 8p 18650 modules for a friends ebike and haven’t cracked that yet. PLA is so much easier it seams. Its a mixture of wrong temperature, insufficient cooling at the hotend, enclosure is keeping the ambient temps too hot and if I don’t use the enclosure I will have layer delamination as I’m printing in a concrete garage through the night which gets cold.
