Ok folks, I’m a pretty smart fella. But Ive had a hard time understanding a few things here. I have all my parts printed, and my 3/4 conduit bought. I’m now trying to decide on the size. I’m thinking 30x30 or somewhere there about. The calc is somewhat confusing too. So for a 30x30 the x and y would be 40.4 total in correct??
Estclam software…Yeah, thats got me baffled too. Basically, I would hope for a MPCNC for dummies video LOL…
Thanks folks
Yep, 40.4 inches, or just round up to 40 and a half, inched per tube. Then your shorty tubes for the legs and whatever you decide on the z axis.
Thanks berry. With 3d printing, I had to wrap my head around firmware, and slicing software and what did what. I’m having the same struggles understanding this CNC.
I’ll be looking to route / vcarve signs etc mainly. Is there an easy button for that
Close, but you have to visualize building the easy button from scratch. 
You’ll need something that takes code and sends it to the CNC via the USB/serial port. Repetier-Host does that and there are other options. You’ll need software that generates that code from your drawings. Estlcam (the latest beta version) does that and there are some other options. Finally you’ll need software to create the drawings in the first place and there are more choices that you can shake a stick at for that. There are tutorials here for Repetier and Estlcam, so you can get to a working start point with a little reading.
I used repetier host when I first started printing but quickly switched to cura, and more recently simplify 3D. So I should be good there. I think Estlcam is probably my best option from what I’ve read and I’ve downloaded it and “attempted” to learn it.
-In my slicing applications for printing I can visualize each layer if I want. I can’t seem to be able to do that in Estlcam. I’d like to see what’s ill happen prior to cutting in case I’ve made a stupid mistake.
Plus, that helps me learn. The tutorial is great, but didn’t help much. I need one that steps you threw a small project step by step in plain English.
Estlcam doesn’t really have a preview like most 3d slicers do. It will show you moves after you save your project, but all that shows is the actual moves, not the milled surface.
Here is a fairly quick rundown of the steps to go from an idea to using your MPCNC
There are two separate steps depending on whether you are 3D printing or milling:
3D Printing:
– load the stl file into Repetier Host (free) and slice it (it is actually using Cura or Slic3r internally) to create gcode
– Repetier Host can communicate directly with the MPCNC to print the part
Milling:
– Create your design in EstlCAM or CamBam - or - load an stl or dxf file into EstlCAM or CamBam
– I have found that dxf files require much less work for milling than stl files
– Create the tool paths and operations you want to happen using the functions in EstlCAM or CamBam
(mill, drill, profile, engrave, etc….tool diameter, depth of cut, etc….you will have to specify all of this for each item cut)
– Generate the gcode from the menu “File – Save CNC Program”
– Load the gcode into Repetier Host to communicate with the MPCNC to run the program
Thanks folks. I’m sure il have more questions. I’ll post my first trophy build created from this soon