![]() ![]() I am very used to using Mach3, there are some differences to note. There are some notes I included on the schematic. And yup, my costs include my time, but since I am retired ::::shrug:::: what else would I do, go around annoying the neighbors? Telling them old guy stories that begin with "Back then.". Sooo, buying the pieces of those things and assembling them myself is a huge cost savings. Whoaa!!! They have employees, equipment, a building, managers, a guy to clean the parking lot, who knows what else, they all have to get paid AND turn a profit at the end of the day. If I make myself scrambled eggs at home (3 eggs, not two) and have two patties of Jimmy Dean sausage and a diet coke the cost is about $1.25. If I go to McD's and grab up two sausage and egg mcmuffins and a large diet coke the total is $8.52 including tax. Paying a person to assemble all the parts into a control box, then wire it up on a machine frame gets expensive real fast.īeen figuring this out for a while. This electronic stuff is assembled, soldered, and packaged by automated machines. These days a lot of the cost of anything has to do with labor. I don't think that the folks building cnc machines are necessarily ripping anyone off (well, actually I do think a select few are). It’s hard to believe these are real for $12, but I’m a believer.īeen thinking about that. No pictures yet because the electronics are all over my desk in a big rat's nest of wires, LOL. I will try to keep this thread updated with how things go. Now that I have basically got the electronics worked out I will start on the mechanicals which is more my forte. I am not going into business, just want a machine to do smaller stuff that I am interested in. Those are issues that can be solved and not for a whole lot of money. Typically underpowered and abysmally slow cutting, stalling, etc. I am not keen about the cheap 3018's coming out of china. The problem with that is off the shelf machines are not all that cheap so right away there is a $$$ limitation. In the past I have posted that a way to make money with cnc routers is to have multiple machines. Some will drive the Nema 17's but if need be I will use Nema 23's and I do not want to have to reengineer the entire system if that happens. That is because they typically come with small stepper drivers on them not suitable for larger stepper motors. The mechanical stuff is not all that expensive either these days.īTW, I did not purchase a "cnc shield" for the Arduino. So, for about $300 plus the mechanical stuff I will have built the machine. ![]() That is going to get dedicated to running the new machine. 75 and costs less than $20?Ī while back I bought a really cheap NUC type computer and monitor. Who woulda thunk that you can drive a cnc machine with an itty bitty card that is about 2in X 4in X. About keeled over in shock! The whole thing is working! After getting it all plugged together on top of my desk I loaded up a 3D model (a labrador retriever of course) and hit the go button. I am wanting to try some new drive systems, the flat belt style that acts like a gear rack is winning the race so far. From this point the electronics end and the mechanical begins. The next obvious crossover is at the end of the stepper motor shaft. (I should note here that I am intending on doing small work, really small, typically with small tapered ball nose bits so the Nema 17's should be able to handle it). Not a big deal, but bigger ones do cost more. What this means is that if I have undersized my drivers and motors all I need to do is plug in more powerful ones. The Arduino does not give a hoot about what it is driving, tiny stepper motor, big honking motor, no difference, it is just pumping out steps from the GRBL software to the motors. The first one occurs at the stepper motor drivers. Seems like there are pieces of info scattered everywhere but no comprehensive "Hey dummy, here is what you do".Īn interesting thing about this is that there are some distinct crossover points (that is what I call them for lack of a better term). That took a lot of digging around on the internet. Spent the last few days stripping wire, downloading free software like GRBL, Arduino IDE, Universal G Code Sender. I can guarantee you that the electronics on my current machine cost way WAY more than that. (4) Nema 17 2A 84 oz in Stepper Motors 40.00 (4) TB6600 4A Stepper Motor Drivers 37.99 Did some research into Universal G Code Sender while I was at it. Kept seeing things about Arduino so got involved with that by adding a power feed to my manual mill. Poking around on the internet I hear a lot about GRBL and some of the folks here use it. Actually not much, around $2500 including mechanicals and electronics, not software. I built my current one and it is basically an Avid machine, using a lot of their parts. I have been wanting to build another machine for quite a while.
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