I’m interested in ordering and making a MPCNC. I live in Norway, and hope to get in touch with others at the same location. I have read a little on the forums searching for a spindle available locally, and seen that Johannes has recomended the RT0700CJ spindle. It seems like a very good option, though a little pricy… would you say it’s good enough to mill aluminium? How useful is this router for other routing/milling tasks? I’m thinking of using it to flatten pieces of wood and making profiles on long boards. It seems a little simple for these kind of tasks.
I’ve found25mm wide steel pipes at Biltema (Art.nr. 79-613) They are quite cheap, but only 0.059" thick. I want the CNC to be as stable as possible from the start. Has anyone tried these? Would you recommend something else? If I wanted to mill aluminium, I would assume that I should get somethign thicker than 0.065" (2mm). I guess the local steelworks would be a good place to start.
I don’t have immediate access to a 3D printer. Are there any Norwegians around interested in selling me a 25mm set? I live in Tromsø, but can pay for national postage of course.
I want to get this first and foremost for milling wood, but I also would like the option to engrave/cut with laser later on. Are there anything I should be thoughtful of in this regard?
Many questions, and I’m sure that many of them are already answered around the forum… I’ve read up a bit, but I guess I’m a little eager to have all my questions answered as quickly as they can…
Greetings! The Makita will do fine, there are examples of MPCNC aluminum cutting with much lesser routers. 25mm diameter, 1.5mm wall steel tube will be good enough for 600mm x 600mm builds or smaller. I went with buffed and polished 25.4mm/2mm 304 stainless, very pretty… and heavy. The extra cost didn’t bother me, and the metal supplier cut them to length.
I too have been pondering lasers, can’t help you there, yet. I do advise getting a 3D printer ASAP, you’ll be needing all sorts of 3D printed attachements/mods/accessories as soon as you finish your MPCNC.
I think 600600mm is sufficient for my plans. None the less, I want the rig to be as stable as possible. Would there be any noticable difference with 1.5mm thickness, even if its smaller than 600600mm?
Yeah - you have a good point with the 3d printer. Roaming around the web and looking for different mounts and accesories, I quickly realize that it would be way easier for me to print on my own…
I’m planning to use the same tubes as you do due to cost, and they are easy to get hold off.
Currently the printer is running 24/7 and all the big parts is done! The plan is to use an Euro pallet as table. 1200x800, and make some kind of stiffener in the length direction for the legs.
For controller i’ll be running Mach3 or linuxcnc, havent decided yet.
Great to hear from other norwegians building the MPCNC.
I’ve just ordered all the parts that I need from abroad - some from Ryan, and some from Ebay and Aliexpress. (trying to stay below 350 NOK) I hope that I will find all the nuts and bolts at the local hardware shop (Biltema, or more specialized shop).
I also have an Ender 3 Pro on it’s way to get the printing going. I hope that the printing will solve itself relatively easy. I plan to make a bench in a small room in a garden shed (old chicken coop room), that I will dedicate to printing. Good idea with pallet! Hope its flat enough - guess you can get some decent plates to mount on top of it. Have you thought of how to make the “floor” for the mill?
I’m waiting for parts aswell. And it takes forever in the mail. ?
I have recived my Mach3 interface, and got the IO working, so i have to decide if it will be a Mesa/Linuxcnc og Mach3 setup.
I was thinking maybe to put a 6mm (approx 1/4») sheet of steel on top of it for stability. Then attach 20mm MDF on top of that as a wasteboard, screwd from the underside. Then mill that flat. The MDF plate has to be smaler than the steel plate so the legs will be mounted to the steel plate.
I have acsess to some great cnc plasmacutters so cutting the steel to size with hole pattern is the easy part.
I am so lucky that I hawe an old school hardware store close by. And can buy bolts pr kg.
Just figured out that 3 pipes of 2 meter biltema steel pipes is precisely enough for a 60*60cm work area!! I figured I had to get 4, just to be sure. But they only had 3 in stock, and whadda ya know - after doing some spreadsheet-kung-fu - its perfectly enough, and gives just a few cm for cutting.
Sound very sturdy with the steel plate. I’ve been thinking alot of what table/plate I should use - and it honestly seems that people are using all sorts of bedding - and it’s more up to the rigidity of the build itself?? Or am I wrong - do people have steel/heavy plates under their work area?
I wouldn’t over think it. For a big table you will be milling sheet goods, so as long as the table is flat along the short axis a bend or bow along the long axis is not a big deal. If you really want to try and do a nice one it doesn’t take much to use the bessel points and a simple table to get good results, my opinion.
How is the build coming along Bjørn? I’ve used the biltema tubes on my build, and they seem rigid enough. the makita router seem pretty solid, and more than powerfull enough. So far I have only tried it on wood, and i rarely use more than half power.
Sorry for hijacking your thread but I’m interested in hearing both @turbinbjorn and @johtus experience with the Biltema 25mm tubes as I’m in the process of building with them myself (in Sweden). Did you do any post cleaning/sanding of the tubes (they are sturdy but are handled quite rough in the store I think). Was the 60x60cm work area well suited for the MPCNC and these tubes? What was your Z height? Any other suggestions?
Don’t worry about hijacking, that’s how things are done around here! Soon we’ll dive deep into tractors, brisket and polar bears.
My build is 60x70, using the Biltema pipes. The frame is very rigid, more than enough. My z axis is minimal (1cm gap showing), but I have the feet on a 2cm frame.
Just make sure the pipes are as straight as possible! Roll them on the floor (just dont mind all the looks you get )
The rollers did not move very well on the pipes, they rolled unevenly and made a lot of noise. I therefore used this to sand/polish the pipes: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2923047
The sanding didn’t help much, other than making them nice and shiny! The only thing that improved the rolling, was getting proper bearings from Ryan.
Thanks for the link @turbinbjorn ! I’m still astonished by the ready made functional prints that are being available out there!
About the bearings… I was a little concerned when I read about your experience, because I had been assembling 30 or so “china” bearings that was given to me and I also had a few metal capped bearings that I now also tested. I have recorded videos for both of them:
There is definately some uneven resistance to the rubber bearings, making it almost wobbly in my hand. The metal capped one is much more even and also silent. Is this what you are referring to? Should I pay up for better bearings before I continue my build or will it be better after breaking in the bearings? Glad though I found out about it this early in the process.
The first video is very similar to my experience with the Aliexpress bearings! They were very uneven, and very noise - totally the same. I got another chinese batch, and the sealing was not good, you could actually see through the bearings. So the third time, I ordered from Ryan. I looked into sourcing bearings here in Norway, but that would 5-double the price compared to Ryans shop. I think metal caps are good, can’t see why it matters? Protecting the inside against debris is the main goal - I think.
The rattling bearings would work I think - since the belts are supposed to be firm enough. But I guess it would be more noisy. Perhaps the uneven rolling increase the chance for skipping across the belts?
The tubes in the video are for prototyping only - it’s from a wardrobe hanger or shower curtain and very thin. I will either go with Biltema 1.5mm thick or Swedol tubes that are 3mm (SWEDOL HYDRAULRÖR SÖMLÖSA - köp billigt hos Swedol) with a nice finish.
I can definately see some skipping of steps if I go ahead with these bearings. As you say, they can be very costly if bought in store. I’ll probably order from ebay Germany, as I do with electronics, which is usually fast, customs free (wink wink ) and much cheaper. I’ll be in touch!
)
) and much cheaper. I’ll be in touch!