CNC machining for miniatures

[blind pig]

Well after a bit of a delay due to ill health I have finally resurfaced.

I have also used my Tax Return (Thanks ATO!) to fund my hobby for the extended future with these:

http://fslaser.com/products/lasers/hobb ... obby-laser

and one of these with a 4th axis incoming:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

I'll be scouring the interwebz for PDF's of various scratchbuild tanks and other builds to see what that laser cutter can do.

[mangozac]

Hang on, so you're getting enough tax back to buy the laser cutter PLUS the 4 axis router? JEALOUS!

I actually have to pay a big lump of tax this year, so it's a good thing I ordered my CNC a few weeks ago

My foray into templates has proven them not to be the goldmine I had expected for CNC machining. It seems that most templates are only the basic structure and lack a lot of detail. No matter, it's so much quicker to whip up drawings of detail layers in Inkscape than it is designing and cutting them out by hand so I can use the templates as a good base. Not to mention the million times better squareness and accuracy that the CNC will provide!

[blind pig]

[mangozac]

It makes sense to go with the Australian seller for that machine - if there were a local seller for the 2520 with a similar margin I would have bought mine locally - but buying direct I saved myself about $500 which will pay for the upgraded electronics and maybe even ballscrews if I decide to go down that upgrade path. Between myself and a friend who has a proper sized CNC mill I would expect to be able to sort out any issues myself, so the customer support really isn't an issue for me personally.

The laser engraver will be very interesting indeed! Just how fine a cut can it make? I'm looking at micro endmill cutters for my router but much under 1mm diameter gets expensive and only a very small cutting length. I think about 0.6mm will be as small as I can go.

Sounds like it's a race to see whose machine gets here first

[blind pig]

[Grimnar42]

Well if anyone wants any of those model plans I think I must have nearly all of them out there just give me a yell. Also if anyone is looking to build their own cnc machine I have a couple of sets of plans for them as well one I paid for and a free low cost one off the net

[mangozac]

[blind pig]

[mangozac]

[blind pig]

[mangozac]

[blind pig]

[Lane]

[mangozac]

Yeah I have done a bit of research and reading around. The Planet CNC system is the same USB solution offered by Probotix (just a custom PCB design since the hardware design is open). I agree the website is a little vague, but the guy who develops it seems to be actively participating in a couple of forums and seems to give lots of support.

I downloaded the software and tried it in demo mode and honestly it seems quite professional. I wasn't expecting the level of quality it has. Everything ran fine in demo/test/offline mode without any strange behaviour or crashes. I know that's different from actually running the machine, but hey it's a start.

With regards to the smoothstepper and Mach3, from some of the things I read it doesn't sound like it has the level of reliability that you would expect when paying those prices.

Good point about ventilation for the electronics. The PSU I'm going to use has its own fan so I might run that past the stepper driver heatsinks too. At the very least I'll setup an isolated air channel so that the dust and swarf don't enter where the electronics are.

This is the second time you've made a book suggestion but personally I feel confident that anything I can't work out myself (or with advice from the friend with the CNC mill) I'll be able to find out on the internet.

[blind pig]