Virides - DIY CNC Router : An Ongoing Project

[Virides]

This isn't just about Virides getting a router, but it is also a personal project of mine too. I have always wanted my own CNC router and price has always been a factor. I also doubted my ability to make my own in the past, but these days, thanks to work and all the manufacturing design I do, I have attained enough to be competent to design and construct one.

So I have officially started this project by purchasing some initial parts, about $300 so far, so I am committed to this plan Bought some support rails, linear bearings, ball screw and support bearings. The frame will be made from 10mm Aluminium (maybe 12mm) and cut on the router at work - making a router with a router.

I have been designing the router in 3D CAD at work and below is a progress shot of it's design. I am going for a workable bed area of 1250 x 1250mm and whatever Z depth I can achieve - probably 150mm. The spindle is a 1.5Kw Watercooled system and I may have a vacuum hose for sucking up the dust. Given that I am in a residential area, i will also be investing in a sound proof enclosure (which will also contain the dust).

I hope to have this made in the next 6months. Combined with making some thing for the business like vents etc, I also want to put the router out to service for people in Brisbane to cut panels for their enclosures if they wish Maybe get into some specialised fancy enclosures - but not full scale enclosure building - we will see.

Has anyone else embarked on something similar?

I will post photos as often as the progress follows, so watch this space

 

[AUSHERP]

Awesome project, thats great you have the means and capabilities to do something of this nature. I am interested to see how it turns out.

 

[Rogue5861]

I would love access to a cnc router, they are an awesome bit of kit. Will be watching this thread mate, would be great if you could continue to list costings of this project


Rick

 

[Virides]

Created some bracing to ensure the plates do not sag or vibrate during operation.

Sides are milled out to ensure the linear bearings do not collide with the bracing.

 

[Virides]

I would love access to a cnc router, they are an awesome bit of kit. Will be watching this thread mate, would be great if you could continue to list costings of this project
Rick

So far:
1 x 16mm x 300mm Ball Screw : $63
1 x Ball Screw Bearings: $29
2 x Full Support Rail 20mm: $60
8 x 20mm Linear Bearing: $95

Postage about $50 for the lot

The biggest costs will be the Spindle + VFD, the drivers for the motors, stepper motors and the Aluminium stock. Luckily at work I can get this routered for no cost.

My budget is $3000 and this is generous. Likely will cost $2000ish.

 

[solar 17]

"VERY" impressive ... solar 17 ~B~

 

[Virides]

Not as detailed as I would like for the motor, but wasn't able to find any drawings (which was weird).

I managed to find a much better quality Spindle + VFD from the US using Chinese made equipment, but this company atleast has a better QA system and warranty than direct to China. So it is double the cost, but I would rather pay the dollars to save on the stress of failure.

 

[Fuscus]

CNC Router Source: The Ultimate Information Resource
CNCRouterParts

 

[Virides]

Thanks for the links. There is a hell of a lot I need to read almost daunting actually. But just pace myself I guess

Thanks again!

 

[Virides]

Update

Extended out the linear bearings as much as possible to maximise stability during operation. With the design as it is, I should be able to get 130mm of Z-Axis work area out of the rig - this means I could affect material upto 130mm thick.

Also at this point I have to ensure that the spindle (router motor) carriage plate can withstand the flex under load. I am not exactly sure at this point of the load imparted on this part, however I chose 100kgf (even though I would never expect to hit this figure) just to see how the materials performed.

This image doesn't represent that actual degree of displacement, it exaggerates the bend to suit the scale of the least displacement to the most displacement. The below figures are the actual dimensions of displacement.

10mm 316 Stainless @ 100kgf = 0.0433mm
10mm 250grade Steel @ 100kgf = 0.041mm
10mm Aluminium 5083 @ 100kgf = 1.13mm

Considering that 100kgf is a lot of force, these figures show that absolute worst case scenario that stainless steel and mild steel still perform to tolerances that are sufficient for an accurate machine. However, these are more expensive to produce by laser cutting or water-jet cutting (if I want to eliminate all warping from heat). So I chose 20kgf to be a more realistic force on the part (but still a guess). The results are:

10mm 316 Stainless @ 20kgf = 0.0086mm
10mm 250grade Steel @ 20kgf = 0.0083mm
10mm Aluminium 5083 @ 20kgf = 0.0223

Provided that 20kgf is as high as I would normally be going with the machine, aluminium has now fallen into a good position. If the price to machine the stainless is reasonable, I may opt for that for the very slight tolerances shown (despite stainless being weaker than 250grade it is negligible and stainless won't rust).

 

[Virides]

Update

Initially I tried to make the Z-Axis carriage as tight as possible which allows you to have as much workable area on the Y-Axis (Across the bed), but I would much prefer to continue using 10mm Aluminium 5083 as this is material I have the most access to. So with the above test I added in a Channel Brace. The results were great:

(Only concerned with the area directly bellow the holes where the brace contacts the front plate - this is where the router would impart the force at, so the red areas on the tips are actually not affected but this can't be isolated in this simulation)
10mm Aluminium 5083 @ 100kgf = 0.0084mm
10mm Aluminium 5083 @ 20kgf = 0.0016mm

Once again, if 20kg is a more realistic load, then the displacement is microscopic. That's 1/1000th of a 1mm...

10mm Aluminium + brace it is!

 

[Andyk]

Gday just a bit of info for you i notice you mention the 1.5 kw motor ,i have a 1.5 kw water cooled variable spindle which i use on my little nc mill i bought it because they dont make any noise which is good and although the 1.5 suits what i use it for which is generally small v bits and cutters up to about 2.5 mm with not very deep cuts i think if you put a big router cutter in these it would just stop as it has happened to me before ,for routing i would go for a larger motor

 

[Virides]

Update

Fitted in the Ball Screw Nut's mounting plate. Also some further adjustments to elements that may collide during operation. This is the big advantage of using this kind of software - you effectively build a virtual model to validate your design. This way when I build it there will be a lot less problems with assembly.

Gday just a bit of info for you i notice you mention the 1.5 kw motor ,i have a 1.5 kw water cooled variable spindle which i use on my little nc mill i bought it because they dont make any noise which is good and although the 1.5 suits what i use it for which is generally small v bits and cutters up to about 2.5 mm with not very deep cuts i think if you put a big router cutter in these it would just stop as it has happened to me before ,for routing i would go for a larger motor

For the most part I am cutting wood and some plastic on this machine. Maybe aluminium, depends. I am copying systems that already exist as kits that currently cut aluminium.

Also the motor I am getting has an ER16 collet which as I recall can take upto 12mm router bits. Feed rates depend on how deep, your IPM, the DIA of the router bit and its cutting profile - there are entire forums on this. I will be referring to these and running my own tests to get the best results for my feed rates - if you do it properly, your motor doesn't kill itself.

I am not building this machine for blistering speed, but neither to be turtle slow. It's going to be upper intermediate as such. Besides that, the 2.2kw and 4kw heads are quite outside my budget and I can always upgrade later.

Thanks for the info though, appreciated

 

[Virides]

Update

Finished the Z-Axis Carriage (adjustments will come later when the Gantry is complete)

Reduced the Z Travel to increase rigidity and lower the gantry to the bed. Should mean I can process 10mm deep stock, but I should be sticking around maximum 30mm or less 90% of the time.

Had a problem where one of my imported parts from the net (linear bearings) was a couple 1/1000000ths out. So incredibly small but enough to make the model not build correctly, so I had to rebuild the part myself based on the parts I received a couple of days ago. Lesson learned - make your own parts.

The gantry isn't as complicated as the Z-Axis, so this should be a lot easier.

 

[Virides]

Update

It has been a while but I am on my way to finishing up the bulk of the Y-Axis gantry. The uprights are going to be from 20mm 5083 Marine Grade Aluminium. I have sourced a panel from Capral hopefully, a bit costly at $420 for the sheet including freight but if I can get it cut to the size I actually need, hopefully more like $200.

I thought about it for a while weather I would have a single ball screw attached to an undercarriage but I have now opted for 2 ball screws mounted on each upright. This will mean that the motors will share the load in this direction and I could get away with 2 x Nema 23 Steppers. The price is slightly higher with the extra ball screw but the plus is I don't have to worry about the table structure being over engineered to compensate. You will see what I mean when I get to the table.

Due to parts availability and restrictions the bed size is slightly larger - 1400 x 1650 and effectively a 1300 x 1300mm workable area. I don't mind the change though - more room

 

[Virides]

Update:

No real design update so far. I haven't stalled but a lot of the next phase in design depends on the correct selection of motors and I have since worked this out. So hopefully next week I can validate the Y-Axis and start designing the X-Axis and table.

I have also purchased the 20mm and 10mm Marine Grade Aluminium to start producing components - $850 including delivery. I have also sourced someone to do all my thread tapping using a CNC machine for accuracy. They will do this for $1.40/hole so that's good. They will also mill my spindle mount. I will get this done for about $400 to get 3-4 made, keep one, sell the rest off and hopefully make profit back that means I got the mount for nothing. The spindle mount I am basing the design off comes from the US for $99 but the postage is $180 so $280 for a part that I can make for $100 here... it's a no brainer.

I also initially budgeted $3000 but I always knew that it would change. It now looks more like I will be spending about $4500. I have costed most of the significant elements of the build, so there isn't much more costly items left - mainly bolts, nuts, washers, and other peripherals.

I was also concerned with making a soundproof enclosure for it, but considering that I would likely use this between 8 am and 6pm Saturday/Sunday and not at night, I feel I don't need this extra expense just yet, maybe later.

Hope people are enjoying the journey as much as I am

 

[AvidRepSupplies]

Very cool project mate.
Looking forward to seeing the build progression shots.
You are going to be doing them right?

 

[Virides]

Very cool project mate.
Looking forward to seeing the build progression shots.
You are going to be doing them right?

With about $1300 committed to the project, I can't back out now. The assembly will be done by myself and lucky for me I have 2 guys who use CNC routers for a living to help with tuning, feed rates and other things I wouldn't have thought about.

First photos of constructed segments of the machine will probably starting coming around May/June - hopefully sooner. However I am not in a rush, slow and steady wins the race

 

[Virides]

Update:

No picture today, been stuck on a problem with positioning the ball screw drive for the Z Carriage on the Y-Axis. I think I have come up with a way of maximising cutting area while ensuring the drive is supported enough. I may use a belt driven drive here but this depends on how well I can mount the stepper motor to ensure the belt is firm enough.

I finally received my 1500mm 20mm Fully Supported Rails today, they are pretty heavy for what they are which is good. The heavier your Y-Axis Gantry, the less likely it is to move when the Z-Carriage is moving side to side/back and forth. On the other hand, you also need to ensure your motors can move the gantry. I will be having 2 stepper motors on the X-Axis, so this shouldn't be an issue.

My wedding is happening on the 1st of May and it is looking like I will be out of funds for the router for a few months, but luckily I am still in the design phase.

 

[Virides]

Update:

Sorted out the Y-Axis drive position. The advantage of using aluminium and having access to another router to make the parts for this router is that I can make customised milled areas to accommodate nuts that act as spanners for me - basically a captive nut without the welding. This is how I solved the problem of my ball screw support (small black rectangular block at the RHS of the image) intersecting with the bolts from the motor.

On the LHS the end support was easy enough, but i have bolstered the support here by using Oil Impregnated Nylon as a bush. I will get this milled on the router which should fit snugly in and provide plenty of support for the ball screw - I might be able to increase speed this way.

I was contemplating having a belt driven system, however I have opted for the simpler route and done direct drive. To help protect the motor I will get work to make up a folded aluminium cover which will protect it from bumps if they occur. I may do the same with the top of the Z-Axis' motor.

I also got my dB meter today which I will be using to help determine how loud the machine is and whether it supports me having to make the machine quieter for the sake of my neighbours.