Thought I would share the build here, maybe it will be of interest to others. Also, I am still reading posts here, so sure I have missed many great pearls of wisdom from the members here, please feel free to point me in the right direction!
Been wanting to build a CNC that could score and cut double wall cardboard. We need to make custom boxes a lot at my office and it is a real knee killer and a time consuming process. You know, crawling around on all fours measuring and cutting.We start with a 4’x8’ double wall pad of cardboard, these are large boxes. This is the type of work that screams for automation!
I originally thought something like a Maslow might work, but upon further research I knew that wasn’t going to work well. Then I eventually ran across the Low Rider, and I even found some info of people using drag knives with it.
First off, Ryan has done a great job on the STL files. Wow, they printed out great. We have a couple of Prusa Minis at the office and they knocked it out just fine. Not a single issue with the printing. I even left them in fine mode and with a high infill since I was not in a hurry. Here are the first parts I printed.
After a day of printing I ordered up the parts from Ryan. Went with the SKR option as that is what was available and should work well. Dang, those shipped out fast and arrived today. So thought I would print up some cases for the screen and SKR. I ended up using this for the screen:
A well done case that seems to work very well. I turned on supports only for the ball mount.
Fits very nicely.
SKR case is currently printing. I’m using these STL files:
Next up to print will probably be a drag knife. I think this will be the first one I try:
If the simple drag knife does not work, I might have to give this one a try:
I imagine there is a thread here in the forum for this project?
Hope to be able to get to work on the actual build next week. Right now it is easy to send some parts to print, but the building will take some real time, and that is rare right now.
The table will be a pretty simple affair, and probably on wheels. It will double as a nice big table when not in use. That is one of the attractive features of the LR2, it does not have big rails and stuff ruining the use as a table. Since I do not need very tight tolerances for the cardboard, I’m not going to go crazy on the table. With this said, I think I will set this up for a router as I may use it after hours and on weekends for making wood chips.
I’d also like to build it with the idea of using a vacuum to hold the cardboard in place. Will need to do some testing on this as I’m not sure how well this works with cardboard, but think it will be fine. I’m planning to draw a vacuum through the surfaced MDF on the top of the table. No drilled holes.
No plans for a laser as I do not want the liability of that in our shop. The goal will be for a rather simple to use machine that my team can put to good use in a safe manor.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
