Hurrah,
MPCNC arrived in Namibia (Africa) 
Only ordered the hardware kit and I am totally happy that I received it today! I started last week with printing the parts and I am about 80% done. Will only start putting everything together early next year unfortunately but will post some picture when done.
Thank you very much for putting together something like this and I can’t wait to get it going.
Keep well!
That’s how I designed it. I kept thinking, I’ll make 1 part a week…as soon as I made the first part, I could not stop. After that I was always waiting on the printer for new iterations and geometries. I printed 24/7 for at least a month. I actually set an alarm to get up and start parts 2 times.
LOL, this is how I feel about getting the MPCNC going. Unfortunately I will be away as of next week any only be able to continue early Jan. This is the main reason why I still did not buy the conduit - this will be the only way I can stop myself from continuing the assembly and concentrate on other things I still need to do 
Hey at least something really nice to look forward to for the next year
Ok, I got back from leave and went out yesterday morning to go and buy some 25mm conduit and started the assembly. Thank you very much for the good write up - did not have any issues but still need to do some fine tuning.
Still need to print the feet but I am out of plastic and first need to order some as for Namibia does not stock locally
Just for testing I added a laser diode that I scrounged out of a DVD writer with a custom build driver and hooked the RAMPS controller to a Raspberry Pi running Repetier-Server and did my first test run. All good although in Mirror image but hey, that was the first test run
The end mill will be a Makita RTO700C as for this is all I can get here. Will only be able to hook it up in about a months time
Thank again for the great product!!!
Nice! You can just screw the corner blocks into wood blocks or anything the right height. The feet are nothing special if that helps get you going faster.
I’m getting serious about getting a laser now.
Sadly I had to discover today that moving the X and Y manually by hand while all is powered on but steppers are in sleep mode, you blow your arduino
I was busy aliening the frame and moved the X and Y by hand and then I smelled smoke was not quick enough to catch all the smoke and try to get in back into the IC … so now I need to order a new one . Unfortunately one does not get anything here locally so I will order a new one including the LCD as for last time they were out of stock when I ordered my kit in about 3 days.
Just for interest sake, I know that stepper motors do generate power when turned and this is why I am kind upset to why I did move the X and Y while power on, but is it also safe to move them by hand while powered off or should one disconnect the stepper cables totally ?
So I move mine by hand every time. I believe you only cause issues when you move them really fast.
Have a look and try to figure out what went bad. I would guess the voltage regulator on the arduino maybe. If you can find what went wrong wrong I have some spare parts I will let you have for the shipping cost.
I did move it kind fast once . But good to know that if done slowly that it is ok. The only part I could see that blew was the 5v regulator AMS1117 but the rest I can’t tell. Not biggie, I will order a new set with LCD - just waiting for the my myus account to become active in about 2 to 3 days (just easier and safer to send stuff to Africa) .
Thank again!
Ok,
After I have managed by utter most stupidity to blow up my first controller within one hour of my first startup, I made some progress
I bought a new replacement board, loaded the firmware and hooked up a LCD (this is a must have - really makes it much easier to work with) and did some dry runs just to make sure all is fine. Took a lot of circles in the air to finally have all the paint worked off on my conduit and she started to run very smoothly. I could not find any milling bits in Namibia and had to order online for which I am still waiting.
Today a friend handed me a few bits that he had so I could not wait to try out my Makita! I have absolutely no experience what so every in regards to routing or milling and this is my absolute first try. Loaded Estlcam and opened Vicious Logo and followed his instructions on this site and did my first cut. After about 3 minutes my 2mm milling bit came loose and I had to do an emergency stop. Used some muscle to tighten the bit again and restarted the program - supper happy with the outcome of my (well I have to call it my second cut as for the first one my bit came loose ) second cut Now its time to start learning Estlcam and how to tune my settings !
Thank you Vicious for this amazing design!!!
After playing a bit with my MPCNC it was time to do my first real job with it.
I was thinking of how I will clamp anything to the bed for milling and came up with an idea of using the machine to cut some nut traps into the superwood, drill holes through and insert nuts and flip the board over. Print some clamping blocks and hope it will work.
Quickly draw a 6mm nut profile, imported it into estlcam and spaced 35 of them over my working area. I used a 4mm endmill, 0.5mm deep cuts at a time 5mm deep with a feed rate of 2.0mm/s . I am super happy how it turned out! the nuts are a perfect press in fit! The holes i drilled through by hand afterwards. I am still printing the clamping blocks I downloaded from thingiverse and hope everything will work out.
Just want to let know that my clamping system turned out very well. Did a few runs and I am very happy with it.
The last peace was a failure as for I messed up the tool change and could not run the finishing moves to smooth the peace This is only the rough cut. Supper happy with what the MPCNC can do!
I’d say it works well, you clamped a raw log in there!
