CNC build

[DarkPenguin]

Building a CNC from a kit. The style is the OX CNC by Ooznest although not by Ooznest. This kit from china was under $350 (plus a LOT shipped) and is nearly identical to the Ooznest kit to the point of knocking off the Ooznest name plate.

The fact that it is a such a good knockoff means that the Ooznest documentation is perfect. The only differences were 8 spacers made of plastic instead of aluminum and the lead screw nut wasn't anti backlash. Oh, and none of the holes were tapped. (Tap Magic is the shit.)

I feel like a piece of shit for buying this much of a knockoff but it was so cheap I shelved my 80% done home made CNC to buy it.

Oh, and don't buy from Panucatt. They shorted me a bigfoot driver and have largely ignored my emails about it.

 

[DarkPenguin]

For the record I have never once in my life felt like a piece of Shazam.

 

[Cagey]

Good for you! I know I, for one, would love to see build progress pics with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one describing the scene of the build. Those knock-offs can be a tremendous money saver, but often what you save in dollars you lose in time due to sparse/sketchy/unintelligible/non-existent documentation, so as much real-life experience as you can relate will undoubtedly be helpful to someone.

 

[DangerousR6]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

 

[Cagey]

Careful! If that bench was any cleaner, I'd be forced to think you had a sick mind.

 

[DarkPenguin]

Will add pics once I put them somewhere.

I've video somewhere.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

Hmmm... Would seem like an unholy combination. A mill sending bits and pieces flying around of whatever material you're machining sitting right next to a PC with mouse and keyboard. Or does the CNC seal off the working volume?

 

[Cagey]

Good observation/question. It's not like he's not milling cylinder heads, so perhaps the mess is minimal, but still. Any amount of metal dust/chips/oil/etc. around a keyboard/mouse is not a Good Thing.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

Is that a Harbor Freight Workbench?

 

[DangerousR6]

Good observation/question. It's not like he's not milling cylinder heads, so perhaps the mess is minimal, but still. Any amount of metal dust/chips/oil/etc. around a keyboard/mouse is not a Good Thing.

Correct, it does throw chips about, but I have a shield i put up when milling larger object. So it keeps the chips at bay... :toothy12:

 

[DangerousR6]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

Is that a Harbor Freight Workbench?

yes it is... :icon_biggrin:

 

[rgand]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

Nice to see where all those beautiful parts get created. :icon_thumright:

 

[DangerousR6]

Yes, pics please...CNC's are the Shazaam...

This is my little bundle of joy...

Nice to see where all those beautiful parts get created. :icon_thumright:

:laughing7:

 

[DarkPenguin]

Since I still have put anything up I thought I'd post some background stuff.

This is the kit that I bought a knockoff of...

http://ooznest.co.uk/3D-Printer-CNC-Kits-Bundles/OX-CNC-Machine

I'm giving up some real estate in order to sink the spoilboard into the frame. There isn't very much z axis movement in this design and the spoilboard eats into it.

I got it with steppers but without any other electronics.

I ordered the Gradus M1 Pro CNC controller with 4 bigfoot drivers. I've two cheap Chinese power supplies. One of them will work.

https://www.smw3d.com/gradus-m1-pro-cnc/

This is a straight forward grbl solution. Planning on using fusion 360 cad/cam and gcode sender to start with.

I also have two of these.

 

[DangerousR6]

:headbang:

 

[DarkPenguin]

Four minutes of mumbling and shaky camera work....
[youtube]https://youtu.be/hdARuDLruW4[/youtube]

 

[Cagey]

Cool! Starting to look like a machine!

I got the impression those drag chains didn't come with it and are an improvement you're making, or was that just me? If they didn't, how did you find/specify them?

You mentioned not installing those limit switches right away. If they're some sort of "non-maskable interrupt" designed to save the the thing's life with a dead stop in the event of overtravel, it seems a bit risky to leave them off early in the unit's life when unwanted movements are more likely to happen. Just a thought.

I left a temperature sensor off an engine one time due to some difficulty involved with mounting it, thinking it unlikely I would need it while the build was still fresh and new and having convinced myself I'd be taking care of it asap anyway. Bad mistake. Deep, meaningful bad. Damned thing badly overheated due to low coolant, a condition I had no warning of, and a valve seized in a guide, allowing that cylinder's piston to come up and smack it. Trashed the engine. For want of a $2 sensor  :sad1:

 

[DarkPenguin]

Fair point. They should be easy to hook up. I just haven't printed anything to mount them on. Probably 150 choices at thingiverse.

You can buy drag chains for the machine but they are a bit expensive. The upshot is you get the mounting hardware. I had these. I think they are 1M long and I bought them like a year ago for just over $10 for the two of them. (Banggood.) You can pull sections out if they are too long. I'm sizing them by hooking them at the mount points and pulling sections. 1M seems fine for the long run.

One other change I want to make is to replace the braces in the middle. Instead of 2 8020 runs I'd like to go to 3 6020 runs. Then I'd mount MDF until it cleared the aluminum frame. Give me just enough to surface the spoilboard and add a little bit to the z-axis travel. (The spoilboard eats into the z-axis. I'd like to get some of that back but not by overweenieing the spoilboard.)

 

[rgand]

Looks good so far. Thanks for the progress video.

 

[DarkPenguin]

Someday second winter will be over and I'll go back out into my garage again.