slngsht Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 before starting on FRANKN7's replacement fun car project, I'm building a CNC router to prototype some of the parts. The one I'm wrapping up is actually for my friend, I'll start mine next. This one is 8'x4'. Meant 90% for wood working, maybe light aluminum work. He wants to be able to slip a whole front door in to do some custom designs. This also has 14" vertical travel. Got the router operational the other night, and cut the first thing with it last night. I think it's a happy router. The code was generated with sketchup, and I think it translates circles to polygons, so the circle does not look totally smooth. In this vid, just testing XYZ motion for the first time. The cross members will be moved around a bit when it's finally done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHKflyer52 Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Hi Mazda, Looks like you built it on top of a pool table.....very cool.... You might want to see if you can upload using an IGS file or an STL file. The STL file is the smoothest and is used by a lot of machines. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Automoda Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I've always wanted one! SWEEEEEET! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Ha, great minds think alike ;-) I got my new CNC last week. But I went the easy way and just bought one (The CNC Shark Pro Plus from Nextwave Automation). A bit smaller at 25x25x5" operating space and also mainly for wood and plastic. Well, maybe an aluminum dashboard may be possible. Just noticed you can spend a fortune on carbide endmills, ball noses and carving bits. http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/39500-01-500.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mebrahimi Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 very nice, what are your plans for software and electronics? I'm using a geckodrive g540, EMC2 on linux. I think the g540 I got had a bad Y axis module... worked fine at higher speeds, but would not move motor at very low speeds... eventually fried. Waiting to call them now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Well, I am a total consumer here....the drive electronics and the software came with the machine. Not much of a project except bolting the gantry to the table. But I did build a mobile stand with noise/dust enclosure and integrated cyclonic extractor to keep the shop clean and the neighbors goodwill intact. The bundled CAM software is the Vectric Vcarve Pro for 2-D applications and Vectric Cut3D for full 3D capability. Actually pretty nice and it can do 4-sided models. If you buy it separately it is only 300 bucks but you would have to write your own G-Code postprocessor for your specific homebuilt machine. I do my 3D designs in IronCad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 (edited) I had a pretty steep learning curve in the meantime, ruined a lot of good wood and burnt a few cutters. But I am getting the hang of it. While I got the machine in the first place for some mechanical prototyping I found that the carving business (what most people are using such a machine for) is also quite fun. Here my first Se7en related project, not sure yet what to do with it, though..... Original Photoshopped for edge-detection: Imported into CAM software and converted to carving vectors: Result, carved with 90-degree bit from 1" maple board: The whole carving job ran about 3 hours..... At some point I want to do a more 3-D style relief carving but the available 3D models for Sevens (e.g. on Turbosquid.com) come at a pretty steep price for a fun project. Edited May 10, 2011 by slomove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzempel Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 That's really nice work--it makes me want a toy like that. :-) It sounds like you should get the CNC Shark Touch Probe so you can digitize a 3D model yourself. http://www.nextwaveautomation.com/CNCShark_Touch_Probe.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHKflyer52 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 At some point I want to do a more 3-D style relief carving but the available 3D models for Sevens (e.g. on Turbosquid.com) come at a pretty steep price for a fun project. Hi Gert, You can always rent a Next Engine Scanner and scan your seven or even better is to build your own scanner. Here is a link that tells you how on the cheap. http://revision3.com/systm/laserscan So three hours of carving at say $25 per hour and say three hours of digitizing the photo to be accepted into the program at $25 per hour, would you do another for $150 if someone wanted one of their 7.....just thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanG Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 You need to sell signed and numbered wood block prints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnr Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 At some point I want to do a more 3-D style relief carving but the available 3D models for Sevens (e.g. on Turbosquid.com) come at a pretty steep price for a fun project. Very cool stuff Gert. Some folks have been using the Microsoft Kinect for 3D modelling as well and I believe there is an SDK release coming this summer. http://boingboing.net/2011/02/27/kinect-as-3d-scanner.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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