New Build, Washington

Hey Everyone. My buddy and I are starting 2 builds together here in washington. Wish us luck and any good advice is appreciated.
We have started the printing of our parts at this point and 1 of 2 have ordered all electrical equipment. Still to order bars and 1 more electrical setup.
Also any upgrades that you have done for future knowledge would be great.
Thanks.

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Good luck and most of all: Have FUN!

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Hey Jonathan, buckle up, you are in for a wild ride. :slight_smile:
I’d recommend just building the Basic Primo and then add upgrades when you are comfortable with it. A classic is the tape measure trick for example, others use drag chains.
Maybe add a droptable, while you are at it? :stuck_out_tongue:

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While the parts are printing and the electronics are in transit is a perfect time to figure out the table (or other location) where the machine will live and work. Consider the table structure (drop tables are very handy for certain types of work), work holding, possible enclosures (for dust and noise control), and any additional safety equipment you might want to have on hand. I don’t know what else you’ve already got, but safety goggles and hearing protection should definitely be used. If you don’t already have on in your workspace, I strongly recommend an appropriate fire extinguisher.

You can also use this time to plan your digital workflow. Where and how will you create the cut files, and how will you get them to the machine? I’ve had really good luck with the v1Pi image on my machine (which doesn’t have its own LCD or SD card), but I don’t know if it has been updated recently.

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Welcome and congrats.

Take your time and enjoy the builds.

I agree with @B-26 I didn’t plan my bench ahead and it held things up. I wish someone would have gibes me his advice before I got into the build so I could plan it out. So I’m now working on making space, and getting the bench done so I can finish my build.

I’ll also add, START SMALL. We all want bigger. But the common advise is to go no bigger than 2’x2’. This is for rigidity. I’d add that the bench will need to be bigger than that so keep it in mind.

Finally, once you get everything. If you don’t know CAD and CAM there is a lot to learn. So keep in mind that this is a tool to learn things. And making cool stuff will happen as you learn!

Oh yeah, CAD/CAM… There are a lot of choices. I personally like the 2.5D Approach, like LibreCAD (worked with it at the beginning) or AutoCAD (it’s soooo much better than Libre, but it is normally really expensive. You can get it for free as a teacher/student), but it seems most people here go for Fusion 360 and design in 3D.

Jonathan,

Welcome to the party. The best advice I can give is to stay simple and get some experience then rip it all apart and build what you need once you understand the machine.

I started with a 2x4 sheet of mdf on sawhorses for a table and I’m still using it.

I would advise you to get the wire management right and figure out your cutting workflow first (SD Card, vs V1Pi vs Repetier) first. The switch to v1pi really changed the whole experience for me for the better.

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@Mcunn NOOOOOOOOO

really? More decisions?

One thing I love with this project is all the possibilities.
The thing I’m starting to hate most is all the possibilities.

As someone totally new to all of this I’m finding it a total pain in the south side of the horse to figure out some of these things!

That said, it seems like each step is a journey in itself and a massive amount of learning.

So I can’t complain too much as it was my goal to do this to learn. I guess it’s the old careful what you ask for adage.

For OP, I hope they look at many of the builds and read all they can and watch as many videos as the can tolerate.

Then the bug strikes, you notice the spoil board on the pic above… guess what I was making.

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Yea the bug bites hard.

This all came about for me from getting a 3D printer. After all when you just get a printer, what better way to learn then to print parts for an MPCNC!

Mights ye be making parts for a Low Rider or other CNC type machine?

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On the bright side, it’s much less frustrating than golf!

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@B-26 Golf? OMG that’s a game I never understood. Hit a ball with a stick 300 or more yards and try to get it into a hole not much bigger than the ball. And then wonder why it’s so frustrating,

All kidding aside, my biggest frustration is making time to work on this and all of the learning. But it seems to be a nice community here ans learning always fun even if it seems overwhelming sometimes.

IF I could do that, I’d likely still be playing! (Of course that would have to be 300 yards within 10-15 degrees of where I was aiming) :rofl:

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So here’s the typical order of events:

Me: I’m going to spend the Xmas money from work to buy a 3D printer.

Wife: Ok what are you going t do with a 3D printer?

Me: Build A CNC Machine

Wife: Whats A CNC machine?

Me: It’s a machine that cuts wood.

Wife: Didn’t you already buy a table saw, circular saw, chainsaw…

Me: Yeah but this one can cut more complex shapes really accurately. They use them to build things like kitchen cabinets.

Wife: So You can build me the mud room cabinets you told me you needed the table saw for?

Me: No but it can build the machine that can cut the wood to build you the cabinets…

Wife: …

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Funny thing. I am suppose to go golfing with my wife’s bosses husband in a couple weeks. This will be my first time. Never even tried it before.

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Oh, it can be excruciatingly frustrating, but when you hit that sweet spot and watch it doing exactly what you told it to do, it’s really pretty cool!

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We plan on it. Shouldn’t be to frustrating. I see thats been posted a couple times. Been a maker for a while and my printer is pretty tuned in. Plus having a friend and this support group here it should be pretty easy going. I’ll continue to post updates as things come along.

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This is an awesome setup. Didn’t think about building it vertical.

we are just planning on building 2 MPCNCs with the exact same parts and upgrades. Nothing special yet. Little differences in size due to constraints of work areas at home.

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No doubt the forum here adds greatly to the entire experience.