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Will's CNC Machine Setup by Will Sasse

(Original thread started on 05-05-10 by Will Sasse)

Well, I finally got enough of the mods done to report on so far for those contemplating CNC purchase. Bought the 6040 router from Alibaba.com.  See HERE   Tony S (from 'RATTM) was very easy to deal with and responsive to my questions/queries.

 

It arrived almost plug-n-play. The frame came in two parts - base & gantry. Motors were then attached. Assembled very easily. Plugged into control box, plugged that into the PC and Mach3 was moving things immediately.  All the bearings & motors seem solid and tight.  I have changed the spindle to a water cooled 24,000 rpm unit with frequency inverter - source again through Tony S at RATTM. The new spindle is much quieter & faster than the air-cooled one.

 

I have installed a Thermaltake PC water cooling setup - an idea I saw at cnczone. I fixed it to the back of the gantry as I didn't want to add the weight and potential twisting force to the Z drive. I may have to service the tubes occasionally to ensure integrity:

Wills 14

 

Wills 15

 

Wills 16

 

Those sharp eyed among you will notice its still very clean! Yes, I have yet to cut anything with it.

 

Things yet to do:

- Install limit switches

- Brace the water tubes to stop them from flapping around

- Use it!

 

I am currently going through what many here seem to have, a re-evaluation of work space. So it may be a while before I can report on use. I will do so when I can.  Total cost so far around $1,600 USD (plus shipping) - I had the water cooling unit sitting around already. So far, I am pleased with my acquisition.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 05-05-10)

Your CNC looks nice and I'll bet your excited to have it and can't wait to start cutting something!  It sounds like so far your having a better time than I was when I set mine up.

 

Cast Acrylic plastic, key word "CAST"

 

If you don't already have bits, start with a couple 1/16th inch double flute bits. I do 95% of my cutting with 1/16th inch. It has a tight enough radius that it is a none factor in most cases.

 

Long story short, it is a bit of a learning curve to run a CNC machine but once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy it! Keep us posted and we want to see some plastic chips!

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 05-05-10)

Nice looking machine! Good luck with your first cutting! I'm jealous of that nice aluminum bed with lots of slots for clamping! Do use a sacrificial board! You don't want to be milling into that nice bed! Also clamp your sacrificial board in place and mill it flat first before attempting to cut anything to spec. Just a couple of tips to get you going. One last tip, as a rule of thumb, your pass depth should never be greater than 1/2 the diameter of the bit you are using. Okay, 1 more! Calibrate your movements in Mach3 using their utility so that you can cut to spec. About once a month depending on usage I check my calibration and repeat it until I get it to within .005" or better.

 

I calibrate over a 6" travel for x and y, the further the travel the greater you can get your tolerance. It's tougher with the Z axis as your travel is limited, but do calibrate.

12 years ago I started this thread!  Time does fly.

Now that this forum has been relabelled “… & cool tools” I thought I would give a bit of an update and comment on a very cool tool I recently got, so cool that it’s hot!!

Firstly, the CNC has definitely been used…a lot. Making all sorts of things from sim parts to spice racks, to machining and installing silver monograms on the stocks of faux old duelling pistols.

There has been some upgrades over this time… I added a DIY vacuum attachment which has worked very well.  It’s just a piece of PVC pipe which is a good fit for my vacuum cleaner hose at the top, and at the bottom I can choose all manner of PVC adapters/converters/angles so I can duct the inlet up close to whatever is cutting.  None of the PVC pieces are glued together, it’s all slip fit held in by friction.  I even have a setup that has twin inlets for either side of a router bit.  The main PVC pipe is attached by 2 pipe clamps on the pipe and 2 pipe clamps on the spindle, with a ‘bespoke’ bent aluminium flat bar offering some vertical adjustment to the assembly.  This can be pivoted from one side to the other fairly easily, and can be clamped at any point in that 180°.

About a year ago I found I needed more ouputs to control ancillary equipment (pumps/vacuum/ blower) so I ditched the generic controller and replaced it with an AXBB-E, new stepper motor drivers, added a couple of power supplies, mounted it all in an enclosure,

I also switched to UCCNC software. I do find UCCNC easier to use than Mach3.  It uses the same G-Code with a “.nc” extension not “.tap”, so all my code generating programs are happy.

Some of you may have noticed there is a square tube in front of my spindle motor.  Yes, I bought a laser.

I started with a cheap Chinese laser, but found it next to useless.  It would at least engrave paint on the panels.  Recently I bought a Neje E40 11W twin-beam laser module ( https://neje.shop/products/e40 ).  Now I can do things! I mounted it to the front of my spindle using their optional mounting bracket, plugged it in using the previous wiring, and away it went. It has air-assist so I pulled out my old hobby air compressor which also just  plugged into the system and played. As this laser is fixed focus at 5mm above work surface Z axis setting is simply a short piece of 5mm x 10mm brass bar. I did a test for laser height from 4 to 6mm in 0.1mm increments and true to the instructions 5mm was best although there was not a lot of difference from 4 through to 6 anyway

Once I got the feeds and speeds right, away it went. I cut at 100% power at 450mm/min for 2mm plywood sheet, and engrave at 20% and 1000mm/min (again the factory recommended speeds). I am impressed by the ease and cleanness of cut. It cuts a 0.4mm kerf.  Here is a photo of it cutting parts for a model I have designed, more on that soon...

An issue is smoke/fumes removal.  Depending on your material some fumescan be very toxic (look up “Bielstein Test” for chlorine).  It is important to effectively remove fumes from your workspace, I have built a frame from 20x20 CNC rails into which I will insert clear acrylic sheets to make a box, with a vacuum port on the top and duct it through some HEPA filters to outside. That’s the plan anyway. For the moment I use a vacuum cleaner, an air purifyer, and a face mask – and that’s just for wood! I wont laser cut plastics till I have an effective fume removal system

I don’t know whether you can call a laser a ‘cool’ tool, but it sure is cool to watch it at work, and the result are some pieces with very nice crisp clean edges.  I am very pleased  with the E40 so far.  To give you a bit of an idea as to the fine repetitive work possible here is a photo of the scraps after a cut, the tiny round pieces are the inside plug of a 2 mm round hole cut on the inside edge, that is they are all about 1.2mm diameter plugs of 1.5mm plywood.

BTW: To calibrate my X and Y axis I use a 300mm digital calliper. Align the calliper on axis of choice, clamp one side of the jaws to a block on the table of the CNC – you may also need to put a stop block at other end of the calliper to prevent sideways movement. Put a steel pin in the spindle motor, position the pin anywhere in between the jaws, close the 2nd jaw on the pin, zero the calliper, then move the gantry as far as you want, pushing the jaw of the calliper. At any point you can stop and read the distance on the calliper.  It takes me a couple of minutes to set it up and run, so I can do it regularly.  My calipers read to the thousands of an inch, that’s accurate enough for me!

 

 

Nice work Will. Impressive setup you have there !