Backstory: I had a 60x60cm MPCNC for maybe 2 years, and kept planning to rebuild it larger because the work area was rather limiting; also, the electricals consisted of an arduino clone + cnc shield and an orange pi zero screwed to the table, and a makita router (the non-adjustable kind, the adjustable one is kinda expensive). I’ve tried a 48v DC spindle for a while, but there was no comparison with the makita router’s power, and I kept blowing up mosfets on the chinesium 555 PWM controller thingy…
Eventually I managed to gather up the energy to rebuild it, and after a hiccup[1] here it is:
80 x 120 cm, usable area 49x89 cm, 25mmx1.5mm wall thickness stainless tube (was a pain to find)
uses the new feet and burly parts
800W 65mm liquid cooled spindle
all electrics in a metal cabinet
same driving combination as before (had to get a SMA to ufl cable so I could mount the orange pi's antenna on the outside of the box), but 24V, and with 2.5A steppers
there are still a few things to do (replacing the RC filters on homing switches with optoisolators, replacing the connector for the spindle with a bigger one so there is no chance of someone plugging a stepper into the VFD, adding indicator lights that light up when cncjs is ready, and maybe cycle start / pause buttons for grbl...), but it moves and was able to flatten its table :)
Well, the vacuum keeps it from getting dirty (but now I want a quieter vacuum, since that’s the largest noise maker at the moment…)
I already gave it a try on a quadcopter frame I needed to rebuild[1] and a round thingy my wife requested, looks like I’ll have to dial back the speeds for small stuff (the spindle is slower than the makita, the chip load is higher so the system might be flexing a bit due to cutting pressures; forgetting the screw size I planned for when I added the fixturing holes also didn’t help, the machine … adjusted the head size on a few and then the rest was cut with a chipped end mill) and add some bracing to the table (which was already planned, but I haven’t decided if I’ll add an apron with drawers to the front - it already has one on the back, just without drawers, or build in some proper cabinets; the latter is way more attractive and also way less likely to happen)
(but now I want a quieter vacuum, since that’s the largest noise maker at the moment…)