New build in the UK, perfectly timed: Coronavirus

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Your Builds
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Hello all, I stumbled across MPCNC project early in February and thought I’d have a shot, and although there’s been a little difficulty (I’m looking at you Repetier-Server) from time to time, overall it’s gone pretty smoothly.
Maybe it would be of interest for me to run through the things that went well, lessons I’ve learned and future plans…

My first decision was whether to order or produce the 3D printed parts. I knew nothing about 3D printing, but I felt like that would be a good opportunity to learn, so pulled the trigger on an Ender Pro, ca. £200 and a couple of reels of PLA (Blue). It was a good decision, because it’s allowed me to print additional things, some MPCNC related, some not. Learnt a bit about 3d printing too.
I heeded the advice to print off one piece (I chose a foot) and check it for closeness of fit. I took it to screwfix, checked it on their conduit, and concluded it was a good fit. Bought 6m for about £20. Then downloaded the correct parts package and started printing. Annoyed the missus and the kids by printing 24/7 (the printer isn’t that noisy, but some of the sounds penetrate walls quite well!). After a few parts, I created a simple table with a picture of each part to make sure I printed all the parts and their mirror images without duplication, after getting a little lost a couple of times with what I had and hadn’t printed. Simultaneously ordered the rest of the stuff from Ryan (I owed him this, it’s a stunning project)

Mostly Printed CNC Parts Bundle × 1
Wiring Kit × 1 (Series)
Mini-RAMBo 1.3 × 1
SD Card 8GB × 1
Full Graphic Smart Controller, Big × 1
$356.39 USD (Got stung for £45 in duty, so be prepared)

In terms of size, I went with approximately 30" (x-axis) x 20" (y-axis), because that was about right for my plans (mostly engraving wood I think), but also because it was the size of a spare piece of 18mm ply I had lying around. This gives me a working area of about the size of a piece of A4.

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Construction was pretty straightforward. I fitted some of the belt holding corner pieces the wrong way round because of an otherwise helpful YouTube video, but that was easily fixed. I fitted the longscrew guide to the bottom of the tool mount, and since I’d already fitted the board, it was a pain to swap round (I have used short legs, because I don’t plan to use much height, but I may alter this later).
Before I started the Z-assembly, I thought I may as well try out the X and Y motors. Basic mechanical stuff, I’m OK, but electronics and software are not really my thing. I downloaded Repetier host, procured the correct lead from work and set about getting some basic movement from the motors (I have the LED controller, but I hadn’t connected it at this point). Nothing. Tweaked things, checked wiring, nothing. Got seriously frustrated, tried moving using the Arduino software (I’m still not sure what that’s for), nothing. Arduino gave me a hint though, no access to port COM3. Discovered Repetier server was running. Quit that and all problems solved. I had read about this problem and definitely didn’t intend to download and run server too, but I did.
Fitted Z assembly, printed pen holder, crown test: all good. Very pleased. Chinese spindle arrived along with various endmills, that’s next, once I overcome my last mechanical problem: the mount brackets I’ve printed mean the supplied bolts aren’t quite long enough to reach the (implanted) nylock nuts. I think these are M3 (metric), so I need some longer bolts.
Then I have my biggest challenge: Estlcam. I need to be patient and I need to think clearly about CAD and CAM and precisely what I’m trying to do, but so far it’s all a bit strange and my progress is really slow (think glacial). I may try F-engrave too, as I plan to mostly, well, engrave.

Once that’s sorted, no matter the occasion, birthdays, Christmas, wedding, whatever, you’re getting a wooden engraving.

I think a final note on suitability of the project for people: this isn’t a Lego kit, but neither is is rocket surgery. Honestly, I think the quality you need most to build this is persistence rather than technical know-how. Just my $0.02.

Lastly, thanks Ryan and forum members. It’s been a privilege to put this together with all your help (that you didn’t know I was using!)

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That put a smile on my face.

Agreed.

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AWesome build man!

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I think they’re technically the wrong way around now - but if there’s enough room on the belts for the rollers to move, it doesn’t matter. Obviously the most important thing is that they’re all the same, otherwise everyone who sees the machine will notice and nitpick :wink:

It’s for programming Arduinos, such as the one on the RAMBO. You may never need it, unless you want to tweak some settings (such as turning on end stops) or upgrading to a newer version of Marlin, if some cool new features are released.

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I really appreciate this. I have a hard time remembering how hard the first build was. But I was an experienced 3D printerer and an engineer. The docs weren’t as good back then (I’m not talking about the mkdocs update, the other work Ryan has done on the instructions was an enormous task).

I personally think of this CNC as an entertaining journey, and not really a kit. It’s a fuzzy line, for sure. It is not as easy as even the more complicated ikea builds, but it is easier than making your own band saw (I assume, I haven’t done that personally). If you don’t enjoy this kind of thing, then you might be ok if you get a kit with controller from Ryan, but otherwise, you’re definitely in for some hard work.

Ryan (and the contributors to the forums) have spent a lot of energy making sure the solutions to problems are available. But there is an another enormous amount of energy needed to make it as easy as an erector set or an ikea closet organizer. It won’t really pay off, because even if I went to your house and built an MPCNC for you, you would really have to hit the pavement on CAD/CAM/Controller to use it. Not to mention all the other maker/woodworking knowledge that you’ll need to pick up.

I’ve seen several people decide to install arduino, even with a flashed board from Ryan. Since you seem so helpful, do you mind telling us where that idea came from? It’s ok if you don’t know. Arduino can be pretty intimidating, and catches a few people.

I’m hoping you’ve read through the milling basics page and the estlcam basics. There are also some old youtube videos from Estlcam and some newer ones from some old guy coding. And I’ll also point out the learning section of the docs, which includes the software workflow.

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Bugger. Well, it doesn’t seem to be a problem yet, but at some point I’ll ascribe some minor problem to it and consider swapping them :smiley:

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I know nothing about it, I bought the full kit from Ryan, and it was only when I was stumbling around trying to solve the Repetier port issue that I installed it thinking it might help. My hardware is simply the Rambo from Ryan.

That’s what I need to do next, before I head back out there and start turning everything in sight to dust and destroy my endmills. The build you can get away with the trial and error and little mental effort; I need to put a lot more mental effort into Estlcam. Thanks for the pointer!

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You can learn awfully quick by making a mess out there. Just remember to not get mad.

Thanks. I am not trying to belittle you for that decision, I was just hoping it might have been from a particular docs page or something that we could easily fix. It seems like a reasonable troubleshooting step, and we talk about arduino a lot. So I totally don’t blame you for thinking that.

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The first step under Setup mentions installing the Arduino software to get the drivers installed:
https://docs.v1engineering.com/software/

Not sure if that is necessary though.

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Ok. I am not a windows user. Does anyone know for sure if that is needed for windows after 7?

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Yep. I believe you have to install a serial driver. Should be included with the IDE. @snash if it doesn’t work lmk and I’ll find a link to the driver

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I got it working, thanks @reloxation I had an old version of Arduino installed for an old project from a few years ago, so had to manually install the drivers for the Rambo doing something similar to this: https://www.lulzbot.com/manually-installing-drivers-windows

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This was the absolutely right approach. Sure, I’ve broken two endmills, but I’ve sorted out a whole load of things. I have a reasonable idea what speed I can run with wood, and how much harder knots are than the surrounding wood. I’ve got my spoil board system sorted (I extended my work area limits markings to the edges of the machine, and then always screw outside these areas). I have learnt to be patient when it comes to checking the level of the board with respect to the bottom of the end mill in exactly the same way as with the 3d printer. I’ve learnt to do an ‘air’ cut before the real one to see what’s going to happen. I have slowly realised that a large depth of cut (for my kind of engraving) is of no benefit at all. I have learnt that mode of cutting, especially for lettering, is not scale independent.

I have had a couple of inexplicable interruptions (jobs stopping before the end), and 2/3 times a weird dragging of the cutter back across the piece to the origin before the job was finished, but I suspect these are either due to dust (I really have to sort this out anyway) or electrical issues (I’m on a single extension to the shed, so other stuff is always running, but it’s intermittent and I’ll work it out

Overall though, a magnificent few days. I thought this was appropriate:

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Thank you Ryan and everyone else! Such fun!

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Oh this is such fun

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Ok… now do a photorealistic cat!

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No problem! Although if I told you quite how long it had taken me to get this far, you’d know you’re in for a heck of a wait :wink:

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Great art is worth the wait :smiley:

I need to still learn all this stuff… first up though… Fusion 360

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I’ve found estlcam hard going, but it’s starting to feel easier, I think it’s just a question of time spent using the software.

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That is some great work, and I am happy you are having fun. High five!.. I mean 6ft away wave!

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There seem to be some extra little circles where the bit changes direction, like the corners of the M and N, and the O and A of the previous picture have extra marks at about the 7 o’clock position. Is that part of the font, or is the machine deflecting when the load changes?