Quick video of my MPCNC running for the first time. Apologies for the average video quality, and even worse cinematography lol.
As you can see, not finished yet. Still waiting on cable chains, need to complete spill board, and make a permanent enclosure for the electronics and power supplies. But its a first step, and getting up and running has motivated me to push forward and complete the build.
Big thanks to everyone who offered sage like advice during the build process thus far, and a huge thanks to Ryan for his amazing design, and generosity sharing it with the community.
Hey, nice pen holder idea! I mounted my DW660 with two uppers so I could use a dust shoe, and was thinking about making a pen holder insert. This is much better!
The mounts are actually Makita RT0700CX mounts designed and generously shared by joeskilton a fellow forum member. Link. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1008647
It was a last minute “quick fix” with a couple of silicone o-rings to attach the pen. I had always planned on printing an adapter to mount a sharpie in to the mounts properly, but the o-ring trick works so well I don’t think I’ll bother.
I’m working on my spill board now, glue will have to set overnight, then tomorrow I’ll set up the mill with the RT0700CX for the first time and let the MPCNC drill its own holes for all the threaded inserts, and “deck” the spill board if I can hunt down a suitable milling bit.
I found a decent 3/4" flat mill at Lowes. I think it was a 1/4" collet insert though. Does a good enough job, though I could probably greatly decrease the stepover. My 1000mmx1000mm wasteboard takes a few hours to flatten at roughly 30 inches/min.
If that mount is for the US conduit version and you find that it is not stiff enough try mine: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1039033. Sorry that I did not make an international version.
alan,
Can you give me a link to that flat mill at Lowes? I don’t understand which router bits work well for facing. Router bits all look very different from dedicated facing mill bits.
Thanks for the link mate, but I’m an Australian resident. I purchased a couple of cheap router bits from Bunnings (similar to your Lowes stores) and will experiment with them until my proper end mills arrive. What depth do you cut when you flatten your spill board? I’m very new to milling and am looking for some recommended feed rates, speeds, and depths to cut?
I spotted your Makita mount first, and liked the look, but sadly I need an IE version for my machine. I’ll experiment with joeskilton’s mounts, and if they prove too weak I’ll just design some different ones in Fusion360 (which is my new favorite software, SOOOO powerful and simple to use). Your MPCNC looks great, I like the wooden legs. I almost went this rout, didn’t (and still don’t) like the design of the recommended feet.
Feed and Depth of cut rates depend greatly on size of bit, material, and RPM of your spindle.
My wasteboard had a serious “bowl” to it, so I had to cut almost 1/8" (~3mm) off it, and I was doing it at something like 7 passes with a rate of 30 inches/min. I’m using a Chinese spindle that came with my machine. If I had something like a Dewalt 611 (660? I forget which one is “popular” now) …I’ve seen people chewing through MDF at well over 90 inches/min with something that powerful.
But really, if it’s already mostly flat, chances are you have to take off less than 1mm total, and could do that in 1-2 passes if you’re using a decent router as the spindle.
I was thinking of starting with a couple of test passes @ .5mm (on scrap mdf) at approx 20000rpm, with a conservative feed rate, then try speeding up the feed with each pass to see where I can get to?
My spill board is rather large? (600mmx900mm) so the faster the speed the better I guess.
Holes drilled for inserts and through bolts. I also at this stage sealed the back side, the edges and the through holes with a 50/50 mix of the PVA glue and water. Its horribly humid here for most of the year, so I wanted to minimize the chance of water ingress.
Sorry for the Google Drive links, but it was heaps easier than re sizing all the files and then having to post twice because there is a limit of 4 files per post.
Wish me luck tomorrow for the first proper milling attempt. Should be fun!
Spill board successfuly decked! I was lucky and only needed 3 passes @.5mm to get the usable area (800mm*600mm) true.
Apart from a frustrating few minutes getting to grips with estlcam (I used a 3d model of my spill board to generate g code, probably the wrong way of going about it, but still learning these things) it did my head in until I realised what I was doing wrong.
It really is a brilliant piece of software, but the documentation is pretty vague. It was a great learning experience though. And now I feel much more comfortable using it.
Sorry no video, my camera had a flat battery but I’ll post up a couple of pics soon.
Next up, I’m going to mill some pieces of 3mm ply to construct a permanent enclosure for my electronics and PSU. One because MDF dust is horrid! And two because active cooling the drivers is critical. They get very warm, very quickly otherwise. I now have a small fan zip tied “ghetto” style to keep them cool. Function? Yes. Pretty? Nope.
The fusion 360 design is almost complete. Again slow going as I am still learning the software, but I really like fusion 360. The documentation and tutorials are amazing. Makes learning to use it a joy.
Thanks mate. Milling was a success. Couple of small headaches aside.
Two quick questions.
Do you make available the vicious logo files? I wanted to carve/engrave one on my electronics enclosure?
Second. I’m still a little confused as to where to start/finish my cuts.
I’ve been starting the CNC programme ‘at origin’ and finishing ‘above origin’ in the setup in estlcam. Will this work, or will Repeater Host override these commands?
I have not attempted to run g code straight from a sd card yet. Does it simply things running straight from a sd card using the LCD controller?
Sorry if these are silly questions. I wish I had more time to spend experimenting and reading/learning. It seems there is never enough hours I’m a day lol.
Quick first engraving attempt (thanks for the logo Ryan)
Forgot to change the position of the origin, so I ran off the edge of the stock (rookie mistake) but I’m really happy with the movement of the machine, smooth and accurate. Not sure about the choice of cheap router v bit, but still waiting for my order of proper mills to turn up, so it’s all I had on hand that was suitable for engraving.
Feed rates of 1200m/min for x and y, approx 20000rpm (this is hard to judge as the speed dial is just numbered 0-4) and depth of 1mm. Please feel free to critique and offer advise. Sorry, no vid this time.
First off, HELL YEAH! That is awesome!!! I have been printing parts nonstop, and haven’t done any milling in a while.
I think it came out really well. I am not sure if those little errors in the cut are the software, my dxf, your bit or the machine, or cut speed. So many variables at this point! how far away is the top of the work surface from the bottom of the gantry?
I’m so jealous I want to do some milling! Thanks for doing the logo, it’s what I would have started with for sure.
Speaking of the logo…It is leftover from my younger days in the clothing biz. I do have a more “corporate” looking one. Should I switch?
but I’ll post up a couple of pics soon.
