Also i added some support plates under the Z axis motor mount plate as it wanted to tilt forward a hair binding the leadscrew. Thanks for all the info and hope to hear back about the uprights Reply 7 years ago on Introduction. That's great that your building the machine, please post pictures when its done.
The holes on the gantry uprights allow you to adjust the height of the gantry and the clearance between the bit and the work table. I designed it this way but did not fully follow through on the other change that makes this more useful. The idea is that for tall parts you can move the gantry up to get the needed clearance. For shorter parts, like sheet material you could move the gantry down closer to the part. The part I have not done is add a second set of mounting holes on the router mounting plate.
The other set of holes would allow you to space the bearings on the z-axis further apart. This does two things. With the bearings further apart the router mounting plate becomes more rigid to resist higher cutting forces but it also reduces the travel of the z-axis. This reduced travel is fine though because you can move the whole gantry closer to the part and because the part is not as thick you don't need the full travel.
The idea really boils down to, if your cutting short materials, like sheet material, you can adjust the machine to optimize it for the material. Then if you want to cut something thicker you can adjust the machine to get max clearance and travel.
You are right about the holes though, I could have done less, maybe just enough for a low ,medium and high setting. But the router mounting plate still needs more holes to make this complete. I actually plan on doing this soon because I want to use the machine to drill a bunch of holes and moving the gantry lower and gaining some rigidity would make the machine better suited for this purpose. Here are the pics of my build of this machine.
Very straight forward instructions. Also the dust boot i had to make for the machine. Question 3 years ago on Introduction. Hi I am in Australia , cannot get a Nema oz in , they have Nema oz in rated at 3.
Do you think this motor would be suitable for a CNC built to router wooden signs , boxes etc.. Thank you Gordon Johnson. Reply 4 years ago. I am planning to build also. It is a great help for me and think before i start creating. This is one of the best instructables I have ever seen. I will be using a lot of your ideas and parts references to build my own. Thanks again for all the effort you have put in, and the attention to detail. I really love it.. Here i'm trying to make my own CNC..
IDK if it's going to be strong enough to hold it , if i needed some help , can u give a little? Reply 6 years ago on Step 5. By Doug Costlow Follow. More by the author:. For those of you who already know about CNC routers here are the specs for my machine. One of the aspects of any home built CNC machine is the use of each material in the construction of the machine vs the quantity of that material you have to buy. You are only building one machine so you don't want have to buy more material than you need to build that machine.
You especially need to consider this when deciding the length of travel you want for each axis, because this decision effects almost every other part of the machine.
This was the general design process I went through for my CNC machine Decide what length of travel you need for each axis if you have a specific project in mind for your cnc then start with it's sizes requirements Decide what type of linear motion system you will use for the machine Decide what kind of linear drive you will use for each axis Decide what type of drive motor and controller you will use Decide the material you will use to construct the machine Based on the previous decisions, design a machine on paper or a CAD software of you choice this does not have to be a complete design, just enough so you know the total quantity of the materials you'll need Determine if you will need any special tools for your design Determine the overall cost of your design, which includes the cost of tools you may not have Decide that you can't spend that much money on the machine and return to step 1 I went through this process 5 times before coming to a final design.
The pictures show the different versions of the router as my design progressed. I know most people would consider this to be overkill but for me doing all this important. I knew that once I finished actually building the machine I would have something that fit my needs and my budget without any headaches do to poor planning. Here is my thinking for each one of the design steps I outlined: Travel : My first thought for a CNC machine was to build molds for the vacuum forming machine I have already built.
Linear Motion : There are many options to choose from for linear motion. Commonly used methods for CNC routers include, drawer slides , skate bearings , v-groove bearings , round linear rail and profile linear rail. These are ordered in terms of cost, I would recommend going the best system you can afford. You can save some money in other areas of the machine but getting a good motion system will pay off in cutting quality.
I chose to use round linear rail. This system uses precision ground and hardened steel shafts and linear bearings that use small steel balls that roll on the shaft and re-circulate through channels within the bearing. This offers smooth low friction movement and has good resistance to forces placed on the bearing in any direction.
There are many different manufactures of these types of rails and bearings and costs can vary quite a bit. I got my rails and bearings from a reseller in China on ebay. The ebay store is linearmotionbearings and the prices were the best I found online.
They often sells kits with three sets of rails and two bearings for each rail, which is what is needed for a 3-axis CNC. The kit I got uses 20mm x mm long rails for the x-axis, 16mm x mm long rails for the y-axis and 12mm x mm long rails for the z-axis.
Linear Drive : The three basic options to drive each axis of a CNC router are ribbed belts, screws, and a rack and pinion. Screw drive systems work by attaching a nut to the movable part of each axis, a threaded rod is then fed through the nut and locked into position at both ends. The screw is turned by the drive motors and the nut moves along the screw. ACME screws have trapezoidal threads that are either cut or rolled into a steel rod.
ACME screw threads are used on common C-clamps. Their thread shape makes the screw stronger than the threads on standard bolts. When these threads are precision cut they are perfectly suited to drive a CNC router. Ten threads per inch means that if the screw in spun around 10 times the attached nut will move 1 inch along the screw. For any screw size multiple individual threads can be cut on the screw, this is referred to as the number of starts the screw has.
A single start screw has one thread a 2-start has two threads and a 5-start has five threads. What is the significance of multiple threads on a screw?
Well there are two things that make multiple start screws better for CNC machines. First multiple start screws are more efficient at turning the rotational force on the screw into linear force on the nut. This means it takes less torque for the drive motors to move each axis. Second, multiple start screws increase the lead of the screw, which is how far a nut would move if the screw was rotated once.
To determine the lead for a screw divide the number of starts by the number of threads per inch. This is important because the electric drive motor can produce the most torque at low speeds, and with a higher lead the nut will move farther per revolution of the screw and that means the motor can spin at a lower speed to move the axis of the machine.
Another important thing to note is how precise the fit between the nut and the screw is. A standard nut on a bolt will wiggle a small amount back and forth and in CNC terms this is known as backlash.
You want to reduce the amount of backlash you have between the nut and the screw because every time the screw changes rotation direction that small amount of play in nut will throw of your CNC position off and your parts might not come out correctly sized. There are ways with both hardware and the software you use to reduce the amount of backlash you have.
On the software side there are simple settings that can compensate for backlash and on the hardware side you can use an anti-backlash nut.
I purchased anti-backlash nuts from dumpsterCNC and again you can find part numbers on the parts list. Typically the effects of backlash can be reduced to the point that parts can be made to within a few thousands of an inch. Most people will need to buy these parts in order to build the machine. In order to build this CNC router you will need to drill about a million holes in both steel and aluminum. You will also need to tap about half an million holes. Use a sharp drill bit and set your drill press to a low speed RPM if possible.
I would recommend purchasing a new 19 drill bit for this project because that is the size needed to drill and tap for an M5 screw, which is used on the vast majority of the machine. This is the ten step process I used while building the machine.
Apply Dykem near the locations where holes are needed on the part Use your scribe to mark the locations of the holes with two intersecting lines, use a combination square to measure for the location of each hole Use a small transfer punch to mark the location of all holes transfer punches normally have a sharper tip which should make marking the center easier Use a center punch placed in the dent made by the transfer punch to make a larger dent for the drill bit Place the part on your drill press and center the mark and the drill bit by bringing the drill bit down onto the part with the tip of the drill in the dent made by the punch, hold the drill bit in this position Clamp the part to the drill press table; I usually did this with a welding vice grip.
Bring the drill bit up off the part and turn on the drill press, slowly move the drill bit down onto the part making sure the bit centers on the dent. Bring the bit back up, turn off the drill press and squirt some tap magic directly on the drill bit. Let it flow down through the flutes of the drill bit until a few drops fall on the part. Turn the drill press back on and proceed to drill the hole.
For the best results you should follow a technique called peck drilling. This allows for the chips to fly off the drill bit which ensures that the bit will not get jammed up in the hole. Then repeat this process until you drill all the way though the part or to the depth you want. Its also good re-lubricate with tap Magic during this process. Un-clamp the part from the drill press and de-bur the bottom side of the hole and clear any chips off of the drill press table.
This ensures that the part will still sit flat on the drill press table for the next hole you drill. Proceed to the next hole in the same manner. Tapping a hole is the process of cutting threads into a part so that you can fasten a screw to the part. I made a special tool to help in tapping the many M5 holes for this machine. The hole is drilled with a 9 bit, which is the same size as an M5 tap. You place the tap in the hole and hold it in place over the hole in the part you are tapping.
The tool holds the tap square and true to the part you are tapping which is very important. Here is my process for tapping a hole.
Make sure the tap is clear of any chips or debris. I used a air compressor and blow gun to clean the holes and tap. Put some tap magic on the tap and put it into the hole of the tapping tool. Hold the tool in place and turn the tap clockwise for a standard right hand thread. Therefore you will be able to find solutions to most of your problems online.
However, the official updates for Mach 3 have been stopped. The software has a simulation mode that unlocks all the features. Meaning you cannot control the CNC machine while simulation mode is enabled. Mach 4 is designed for newer computers and works using the USB port to connect to your CNC machine via a motion controller.
It has a better graphical user interface than Mach 3 and can handle large files. It has a modular design, meaning you can easily add, remove or create features and provide great customizability. Sadly, it runs only on Windows, just like Mach 3. Control software acts as the interface between your computer and the controller of your CNC machine. It reads the G-code instruction and converts them into commands that the breakout board can understand. It can also be used to manipulate your CNC machine manually.
LinuxCNC has been around for a long time and has been used to develop other software such as the Mach 3 software on this list. It can control up to nine axes simultaneously. However, a USB interface is not recommended as USB communication is slower in transferring instructions than parallel ports.
You can even run it on Raspberry Pi4 and above. It uses the parallel port on your computer to interface with your CNC machine. You can also use the ethernet port to interface your machine via ethernet breakout boards the most popular ones are from Mesa.
However, using an ethernet card such as mesa helps in hardware step generation and encoder counting rather than using just a parallel port cable. LinuxCNC has a large online community, and the software itself has a forum-like feature that lets you post questions to other users around the globe. It has a graphical user interface that is highly customizable, and it supports touchscreen interface devices and pendant controllers.
However, PlanetCNC is a combined hardware and software solution. This controller is then connected to stepper drivers. If you wish to connect this controller to a parallel port stepper driver like the Gecko , you need to buy the DB25 adapter that's sold by PlanetCNC. Apart from generating G-code, you can also edit the G-code you have imported and scale the design according to your workpiece size. You can download it from the UGS Github page for free. There are two options to choose from, the classic and the platform.
The platform is the recent version and is more advanced than the classic version in terms of the graphical user interface and support for various controllers.
It is a control software that interfaces your computer with the CNC machine and is best suited for hobbyists. I liked the graphical user interface to be quite intuitive with a well-organized and clutter-free design. You may also simulate or edit your G-code. You can also use your smartphone to control jogging by connecting it to the same WiFi network as the computer. It can be downloaded from their Github page for free, and you can install it on Windows or Linux computers.
The user interface is minimalistic and easy to use. Furthermore, you can map keys on your keyboard to control the axes.
You can import, view and edit G-code. In addition, you can view the path the tool makes before and while cutting. The interfacing with the controller is via USB.
However, it can only support a maximum of 3 axes. It is suited for hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts. These are software that are run only on the controller hardware of the CNC. This firmware is connected to the computer through a USB connection and does not need a parallel port, which is a major advantage.
Primarily due to the popularity of Arduino. There's a large community of people who contribute to GRBL and that helps in the constant development of the software. These software programs are used for simulating the G-code you obtain from CAM software.
It helps you predict the problems you might face when you do actual machining using G-code. You can visit their website and input the G-code your CAM software generated. NC Viewer is a web-based software.
Hence it can run on any OS platform, and hence is a good choice when you need a quick check on your G-code. You can even use it on your smartphone. It supports 5-axis simulations and has support for a wide range of file types.
NC Viewer can also simulate turning operations on lathes. But, a computer with good graphics performance will make things quicker for you. It can be downloaded and installed on Windows or MacOS computers and requires a connection to the internet every four weeks.
You can simulate the G-code from your CAM software. G-Wizard Editor will point out the G-code errors and tell you how the G-code can be improved.
It has an extensive library of CNC machines and tools, which makes it suitable for hobby use as well as industrial use. This is a premium software used by leading manufacturers across the globe, and hence you can trust its reliability.
CNCCookbook provides a good amount of training material and troubleshooting guides on their website. Moreover, you can reach the helpdesk and guides right inside the software. It supports a wide range of machines, tools, and controllers. But requires an internet connection to use. You can run it on any computer running Windows 7 and above, and it has an average user interface. The official website provides tutorials, examples and videos to help you learn and use the software. In addition, they also have an official YouTube channel which can be helpful.
The software has a free version with limited capabilities that requires you to visit their website for license renewal every month. It is important to know your application with the software. For example, if you want complex designs, you will require a dedicated design software. Are you good at diagnosing problems in electrical circuits? Can you read through all the spec sheets and properly determine which components are compatible with one another?
Do you enjoy all that? These days, I prefer to choose products that have a decent-sized community. To have a decent community, products need a lot of users. You can learn more about the market share of various controls from our CNC Controller surveys:.
Back to Homepage. Shop All Our Products. LinuxCNC My personal favorite! Mach 4 Mach 4 is the newest solution in this category, and has by far the smallest market share. TinyG claims to do some things better or differently : While grbl is 3-axis XYZ , TinyG is 6-axis so can support additional rotary axes. By default, TinyG controllers have 4 stepper motor drivers while gShield used with grbl has 3. TinyG claims its implemented on a higher performance microcontroller that has more memory. Direction: If the polarity of direction is one way, it commands the motion to be clockwise.
Switching polarity reverses direction to counter-clockwise. In fact, polarity is perhaps not the best term as it may simply be signal for one direction and no signal for the other.
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