I building the cnc and I created this thread to make some type of building report.
what i have done so far:
printed most of the pieces, i now starting to print the Z parts. Printing using my own printer, the g&c printer (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1003119). all pieces are printed with pla, most at 0.30mm with 35% infill. I using yellow, white and orange not because i like the colors, but only because i have almost 1kg of each one.
Build an table with 80cm x 120cm x 2.7cm, the cnc was and dimension of 100cm x 80cm. The working dimension will be something like 70cm x 50 cm
I now finishing to put together the x and y axis, but still need to make the final adjustments
I using 10cm tubes on the feets for testing only, they will be changed to 20cm tube on the final version. The goal is to get 20cm of movements in the Z axis.
Some info about my cnc:
Is the IE version (25mm tube), using 1.8mm stainless steel tube for the x and y axis, and 2mm aluminium for the Z axis and feets.
ramps 1.4 with 1/32 stepers, lcd 20x4, 4 motors 1.7A name17 for the x and y and one motor of 2.5A nema17 for the Z.
brand new makita RT0700C
4 endstop, min and max for x and y
xbox 360 (135W) power supply for the ramps.
I will need more of one month to have the cnc working because i buy some hardware from china (ebay) and it take an long time to get here…
looks clean because i building the cnc inside the house and not in the garage.
I planning to move to the garage only when i will start making the routing tests.
Aww come on I ran mine in a spare bedroom for a few weeks. It isn’t that messy…hahaha, okay Seriously it is, only run it somewhere you can sweep or use a leafblower!
if you will build the printer in can help you, i already help other people to build one.
Overall is an very good printer, very reliable and top print quality with several possible hotend configurations.
But this forum is to speek about the vicious cnc, if you have questions you can post on the next forum or send me private msg.
I printed my ramps enclosure and the lcd box, some photos in the attachments…
The ramps box will be fixed in the left corner and under the table. I have used the next ramps box and make some little modification to support an silent 50mm x 20mm fan. The ramps box is 2 pieces, one yellow that is fixed by 3 screw under the table and the black pieces to has the fan and can be easy removed by sliding.
I have made some little modifications to the motor support to allow to have the next printed pulley.
The original design use an fixed washer to guide the belt, i prefer this one because it will rotate at the same time the belt moves.
That is going to be a very cool ramps board, nice.
The printed pulleys are going to cause a small issue, so small I’m not sure if it will be measurable but you belt will not be inline because of them. This means your axis will move the tangent distance not the correct distance.Which will also change as the angle changes when it moves down the length. If you can move the belt attachment points at the end on the blocks you can fix this issue. A very small deviation but still a deviation. If it shows in your parts it’s an easy fix.
The roller have moved the belt +/- 2mm outside.
But i do not agree with this change will make the axis move in an tangent distance, the axis will allways move on the metal tube, but with some little lateral force. When the stepper motor make an full rotation the distance will be exactly the same was on the original design. The only difference will be some lateral force made by the belt on the printed roller.
I love this, I have no idea who is right. Here is my train of thought. The stepper moves the right distance, the conduit keeps it straight, but it’s the angle of the belt being pulled on. I spent a lot of time worrying about this during the original design but had no one to bounce this off of.
Think about it in a more extreme case. If the pulley was 100mm out of alignment and you were really close to the connection point on the corner block. Even though the stepper turned the correct amount it would be pulling on an almost vertical belt. It would move ever so slightly in the correct direction and the rest of the energy would be pulling in the vertical direction. Right? Or because this is a fixed system all that is being effected is the amount of force it takes to move?
What you say about the alignment make sense and i do not know how is correct…
I decided to make an pre instalation and posted the photos. From the photos i think i will not have any problem, but it is necessary to put the belt outside the printed yellow piece.
Make some slow progress, only have some time each day after work…
New progress done:
I have fixed the ramps box under the table and the lcd box on top.
replaced the testing tube feets with the final one (17cm each).
X and Y endstops installed and tested.
installed the X, Y motor cables, still not tested because of the min temp error. I will in the future add an sensor temperature to check the temp inside the ramps box and configure to reset the ramps when the temp will be superior to 55ºC. I will put the motor cable connector inside the tube and add an printed tube cover.
-still printing the Z axis, there are lot of piece. I only print one piece at the end of each day… it is missing 4 piece to print to finish the Z.
I have done some more work on the cnc:
-finished to print and installed the Z axis
-connected and configured the x and y motors
-added temperature sensor to check the temp. of the ramps board
-put varnish on the table
Know the cnc building will go on standby because i need to wait to receive the motor pulley and belt from china…
Made my first tests…
I got some problems was it was expected, but solved most of them.
1º problem was because i was using the wrong type of flute (noob error…), burned 2 flute because of this.
2º problem was because the mdf pieces was not very well secure.
I still need to build an metal platform that allow me to easy secure the pieces and that can be leveled in 4 points. I order several 2020 aluminium bars to build this platform. When is will be ready i will post some photos.
You don’t need a special jig you can just mill your work surface flat. You would benefit greatly by cutting down on your height or moving your work material way up. You really only need a few inches of Z and it looks like you have 8+
My Z axis need to be shorted… at first i was planning to build with big legs, but them understand that 15cm of the Z was enough.
About the platform; my work surface is only an mdf board with 16mm and is far to be perfectly flat. I pretty sure over time and because of the humidity the mdf board will less flat. So i planning to build this aluminium platform that will allow me to have an perfect level. The 2020 extrution bar will allow too to easy secure any type of wood.
