I am an Austraila based hobbyist who built a MPCNC to compliment my REPRAP Prusa I3 printer. I will update this first post with details of my machine and sources that I find useful.
Machine specifications:
Machine type: MPCNC International Edition.
Print material: ABS plastic.
Pipes: 1000 mm X axis pipes, 800 mm Y axis pipes, 340 mm Z axis pipes, 120 mm leg pipes. All 25.4mm diameter galvanised steel.
Bed size: approx 700 x 500 x 100 mm (a conservative estimate for a range of tool heads).
Build time: approx one month of printing, ordering and gathering followed by 2 days of assembly.
RH1N0s verdict:
The MPCNC is probably the most versatile and cost effective hobby CNC platform I have come across, and an excellent progression from owning a 3D printer. Can’t thank Ryan enough for his efforts and for sharing his design.
I’m glad I decided on building my own REPRAP style 3D printer as the skills and knowledge gained have transferred well to this project.
With the machine in its final stages of assembly, I decided to try some pen plotting. This has been a good way to tune the machine and gain some experience with the new software.
The following pen plot is done with a 0.4mm felt tipped pen on A4 paper. I used Inkscape to generate a vector graphics .dxf file from a .jpeg image, Estlcam to create the toolpath .nc file, and then Repetier-host to generate the .gcode file for loading to the MPCNCs SD card.
I hadn’t spent much time on bed leveling and you will see me make a slight adjustment to the bottom RH leg when I noticed the pen starting to drag.
Thank you for the info on materials used and source, will be very helpful for others.
When I first tested my machine I found that a ball point pen, disassembled and a spring added to the ink tube worked great.
This helped until I leveled most components up.
