Tuesday, August 4, 2009

DIY CNC Router

There are many approach to own a CNC machine, you can buy one of those industrial CNC machine center or you can build one with recycling printer stepper motors, some bearings and guides.... For me, I'll skip the baby toys and jump straight to building a Mechmate; A full fledged real McCoy CNC router. Like this one here.


This beautiful design is the work of Gerald. D, he generously give away his design for free and will provide selfless support from his forum. Thumbs up to Gerald.

Why not design myself? Surely I can, if I spend the next 10 years on it... And since this thing isn't going to be cheap to build, I might as well take the "safe" path and get it to work as-soon-as-possible.

I will build one that can take in a full size 4' x 8' sheet. wood based material such as plywood, MDF, chipboard.. etc. Soft metal such as aluminum, bronze, copper. Plastics such as Teflon, Darline, acrylic, prospect, polycarbonate... etc

My Spec.
working size : 2440mm x 1220 (8' by 4')
Tool head : 2.2kw Water Cooled Inverter Controlled High Speed Spindle head.
Drive Motor : NEMA 34 stepper motor
Motion Control : PC based
Precision : +/- 0.01mm

Had been spending like no tomorrow for the past month and the spending never stops....

I am scheduled to start construction by end September or early October....

Wise me luck...

2 comments: