I have build my mpcnc and then rebuilt it because I had my gantry backwards and found better conduit at Home Depot. Here is some of my pictures. Now I am ready to get this thing dirty!
Thank you for the great design and this 12" by 24" build feels very ridged.
Excited about learning the cam side and experimenting with cutting different materials.
Fancy! Too clean…
I like that you found red and black braid to match your color scheme!
Thank you, I am a Bearcat for life!
I am really excited to start getting this thing dirty.
I and trying to determine if I need to build a cabinet for it as I have small children.
It would be nice to keep them in one spot, but it’s probably not safe to keep them in with the CNC. Probably better to make them a separate cabinet. Good thing you have a robot to do it for you!
There was a very scary link posted here about wood dust, but I can’t find it at the moment. The essence is that while the chips are visible and obvious, the dangerous bit is the really fine dust, under 2.5 microns. This is small enough to bypass many of the body’s defenses and causes long term lung damage. Not as bad as asbestos, but bad enough that the wood working industry has had to clean itself up a lot.
Most DIY dust collection systems are great at collecting the chips, but just the fines don’t get picked up, and if they do, they go straight through the filters and get blown back into the workshop air.
IIRC the main recommendations were a mask when you’re working, an open door and ventilation fan for an hour or two afterwards to clear the air, and to vent your collector outside (where moisture causes the dust to break down quickly)
truth be told they would thrilled with a box to play in.
Thank you for the info. I have a dust collector I picked up last year when on sale with intent to get a 1 micron filter for it. But my main focus after I learn what I am doing is to cut aluminum stock.
Yeah. A cardboard box full of balloons is the perfect gift for small kids.
I’ll eventually vent mine outside, but at the moment it vents into the larger part of the barn, my shop is a room built inside a large bank barn. @vicious1 found out the hard way about wood dust. Wear a mask until you get the collector sorted out with wood.
Got my machine close to finished. Have been getting it dirty. Here are my first engravings and a picture of my cabinet.
Thank you for the cabinet picture! I was trying to think of a good design and I really like the extra elbow room of your swinging door design. 
I think my version will have down-draft dust collection, so I’ll add a top and interior lighting.
I actually have everything I need to finish with dust collection, electrical, and interior lighting. I have been having fun using it and having a hard time at the moment, finishing the cabinet correctly. Maybe this weekend and I will update my picture if I get it finished. 
Is it okay for the stepper motors to be in hold position for extended periods of time? I notice after a couple of hours they become warm. Is there a way in the firmware to lower voltage but still hold after a set amount of time? Or is it nothing to worry about?
I like the design. I might copy this. Do you think it would work better higher or lower in the room?
The steppers have the same current stationary as when moving. There are some settings for trinamics to reduce the current hen not moving, but I think that is dangerous, because when we are milling, there is a lot of force on the Z, but the z is not moving through most of the cut.
Warm is ok for them though. They will be fine, as long as the drivers don’t overheat, or the motor mounts sag/melt.
I’m not sure there’s a proven mathematical or technical reason but for me the space was the reason and that even with the filters the fan does create a bit of a draft which is needed to keep the airflow in the shop going. Most professional air filters are designed to be hung too, so I guess there’s that.
What is the reason for having multiple filters stacked in series that way? Does it remove more particles?
yep!
