First, a big thanks to Ryan (@vicious1) for sharing his design for a 3d printed CNC
The first time I did any interaction with CNC was at school in 1986 (yes, I know, I’m old) I was very fascinated with the computer controlled lathe, and an itch to do manufacture something that I designed on a computer has been there since. I do have a small mill and and a lathe, but 3D design is something I had to learn. I kind of knew it when I bought the first 3D printer 5 years ago, but from then until one month ago I only printed parts I downloaded.
The build was very easy, but from a working machine to a machine I would called finished toke a longe time. My build used some stainless tubes I had stored for more than 10 years, and finally the 25 mm tubing could be used for something.
I build my machine with the goal of using it to mill aluminum parts in small dimensions, but most importantly, to learn how 3D machines works. I have #d printed a lot (5k kms of filament used in 2019), but milling is something totally different.
The basement of my garage is already cramped, so I had to find a way to mount the MPCNC where it could be stable and not polluting the environment. The room next doors has some storage and also host the air compressor. I had to use this space for the vacuum as well, and as you see from the pictures below I constructed a cyclone and a shelf with the small shop vacuum on wheel “shoes” to prevent it from falling off the shelf.
The first “crown” was drawn, and then milled in MDF a few months ago, but how fun is that? I really wanted something not ruin my basement with dust.
A few takes on designing a dust shoe. This took time because I also had to learn CAD and CAM. I’m on Mac, so my only real option was Fusion 360, so that was what I had to learn. There is a lot of info out there, but the videos from Lars was the ones that really opened up Fusion for me. You decide if it gives value: https://www.youtube.com/user/cadcamstuff
My first milling project on MPCNC. Only a litte dust is shown, but my cabinet liked like it was in a midle of a snow storm after milling the 5 samples I needed to make two parts.
Here is the MPCNC out for cleaning, only four screws hold it in the cabinet.
The dust shoe with brush and air blower
The vacuum system with cyclone filtering, on top of the small space I got above the air compressor and below the electric distribution cabinet.
The shop vac was unstable on the small shelf, so I had to make some shoes for the caster wheels. A fun and small project for someone new to F360.
The cabinet itself is based on IKEA bench parts (80x80x60) and some hinges, doors and drawers fronts. Cheep and easy stuff
The glass on the top door is a glass shelf from IKEA, the bottom is partly acrylic. Bothe milled by hand, as my MPCNC is too small.
I made a custom connector panel based on RJ45 extensions. This was the very first part I designed myself and 3D printed, and I followed aa advise from this fora to use two leads for each channel, meaning one RJ45 pr. motor. This seams to work fine for the kit I bought from Ryan.
Some more pictures of my MPCNC cabinet
Some aluminum milling will happen soon, and I’ll update this tread with info then
Cheers Marius
