Hello all
Firstly, this is an amazing forum, software, advice everything is amazing! Glad to be here.
Recently decided I want to get back into making and have been furiously printing stuff on my Ender 3.
Decided my next machine will either be a K40 laser or a MPCNC. I am leaning towards the latter as I only want to print useful things on the Ender and not busts…
So my questions are:
— 2x2 foot or should I got for 3x2 or 3x3 from the onset? Im sure I can find the pipes as I have specialist dealers near where I live. But honest opinions (semi ignoring this is my first machine) is appreciated.
— MPCNC or Lowrider, can someone give me a laymens difference between these two in terms of material I can work with and restrictions?
— In addition to CNC I would love this machine to also be able to use a dragblade for cutting. Instead of me sinking 300± pounds into a Cricut for the girlfriend I would rather have something proper setup which we both can learn and enjoy.
Other than that, I have lots more questions but will wait and research those first. Appreciate your time.
OH… last question - any UK people who have build this and is running it, would love to catch up on hardware suppliers etc.
The LowRider is cheaper and able to cut much larger work, and leaves most of your bench space available when you’re not using it, but you do have to make some flat plywood parts, and it hangs off both sides of the table. The MPCNC feels more like a traditional CNC machine and is easier to enclose, but I don’t think it’s actually any more accurate in practice. The MPCNC feels like it should be better for aluminium, but some LowRider owners have posted good results too.
Consider if you really will do large jobs - feed rates are typically under 10mm/s, so large jobs can take a long time, and you can’t leave a CNC router running unattended because it can catch fire in seconds.
There’s a list here of UK owners. Screwfix sell 25mm OD DETA conduit, which a lot of us have used. Stainless steel appears to be most common in 25.4mm - don’t assume you can get it in 25mm! You can get everything else from ebay, although a pre-flashed board from Ryan may be worth the postage costs, depending how comfortable you are with loading code onto arduinos.
Thanks so much for the response Robin, really helps a lot.
Thinking Im going to go for the MPCNC as I can enclose it etc. I dont think ill do hardcorer stuff, just products for myself and for gifting and of course as a craft machine for my girlfriend.
Is the screwfix pipe stainless? Ill check them out in any case and measure.
Can you link ryan please? Im comfy with Arduino’s but not comfortable with wiring, hence me asking about locals
At 3x3 you’ll really want to consider your uses. Mpcncs have been built bigger, but they aren’t as forgiving. In the other hand, the lowrider has been called more fiddly to assemble and set up. I’ve done 3d carving on mine, but it’s best suited for through cutting thanks to the geometry of the thing. Several people have cut aluminum on them, videos on YouTube. It’s a rather slow process, but it works. I haven’t seen any dragknifing on a lowrider.
With the mpcnc, I don’t think there is any real restriction on materials you can cut (given the diy/price of the machine). Of course, you AIN’T running inconel on this thing. Pretty confident with that. But some of us have cut steel respectably. Ryan had a video in his YouTube playlist cutting his logo out, I’ve got one in my teeny tiny build thread just testing paths. Neither machine is 3x3.
Re the cricut, Fwiw, i bet you could find a used machine for a hundred bucks. Pretty competitive compared to the hoops you’ll have to jump through on setup, learning, tooling, time, etc. Those machines are really quite good at what they do, so if you’re going to do A LOT of vinyl cutting, it’s worth considering.
The screwfix pipe is just cheap galvanised steel conduit. It’s £10 for 3m. It doesn’t rust, is smooth enough, and you can cut it easily with a hacksaw.
Sorry, I forgot it wasn’t obvious, but Ryan is the chap who runs V1. He’s active on the forum, so I used his name when I meant “The V1 web site shop”.
For a basic machine, the wiring is really simple; although the wiring kit (from V1) makes it plug and play.
Think ill be getting the wiring kit as I SUCK at anythign soldering or wiring etc.
Robin, just been in the UK post and will look at the screwfix stuff for the first run, can always upgrade to stainless or carbon later
@turbomacncheese thats very helpful. Im not actively looking to cut metal, more just thin alu or similar for house signs etc. Most of my use will be for butcher blocks and other crafts.
The cricut is a little beast, I just cannot stand the proprietary tech surrounding it. Web interface, Cricut monthly service (for designs etc).
With the CNC, I know it will be a hassle, but Ill learn the thing in any case and can adapt. This just gives me a bigger space and more features for less deskspace (in total)
We’ve had both cricut and silhouettes. I think it was the silhouette, somebody wrote an inkscape plugin for it. Super easy to install and run from Linux, never got it going on windows. Silhouette studio for sure let’s you import dxf and has a quick trace function to send the cut. Can’t remember if the cricut does.
Still worth considering since you’ll have to do all that for the mpcnc anyway.
Either way, go for it! Make sure to get us some sweet, sweet video of the mpcnc cranking out some vinyl!
How thick is thin aluminum? I think most people are slotting at 0.5mm or less, adaptive/trochoidal clearing at twice that. With a bigger machine, even those settings might be aggressive, but I don’t think so. What I’m thinking is that if you CAN get some wiggle room with smart toolpath strategies and airblast chip clearing. There are guys here with a LOT more experience than me, but I’m sure learning a lot really quick. I bet you could get through 1/8in or thinner quick enough. Let us know when you get that far.
@turbomacncheese thanks man. I dont know yet, a stiff thickness of alu for signs etc. So I would still need to explore the options available.
@jeffeb3 thanks man. That link is awesome, checking the dragknife now and also saw an adapter on thingiverse which uses those utility knife blades, Ill deff try both and see what works.
Currently finishing my 34 + 1 hour print for this and then a quick swap over to RED PLA+ and starting my parts print on the MPCNC.
Also just watched THomas Sanladerer and is building his with a 25mm OD tube at 800mm x 800mm to get a work surface of 500± mm square. Might do the same.
Ummm… That whole thing turns into a trainwreck. Caused not shortage of consternation here, and I think Ryan is still dealing with the fallout. Just be aware that, despite what Tom does/says, we are here as a source of information and help, and if anything seems off, please let us help. This forum is a fantastic resource, and someone here (probably not me) can help you with any build issue you might run into.
A few lessons learned (not all from Tom’s debacle):
zip ties do work.
belts are plenty strong and really don’t stretch under load
it’s likely your grub/set screws, double check them
no, you do not need to crank down on the bolts to get things tight and rigid
count your bearings before and after your build; are the correct about in the machine?
don’t chase 0’s, they are elusive, demanding, and usually costly (in time, money, and often sanity)
there are Real Engineers here, who can (and often will) take your hare-brained ideas and actually do analysis on them
Yeah I saw that but I take things like that with a pinch of salt The view of the many is that its a good machine and works well, so Ill look at the wisdom of the many in any case.
Making modifications to the parts, and sharing them is encouraged, copies of parts just need to be CC-NC. Just look at the number of remixes on TV (well, you could look, if TV wasn’t so slow right now).
Ummm… That whole thing turns into a trainwreck. Caused not shortage of consternation here, and I think Ryan is still dealing with the fallout. Just be aware that, despite what Tom does/says, we are here as a source of information and help, and if anything seems off, please let us help. This forum is a fantastic resource, and someone here (probably not me) can help you with any build issue you might run into.