And plexi mouse... and plexi printer, and plexi scanner... and plexi engagement rings... Oh the possibilities.. (was that over the top???) Sorry.. I will behave... mostly..
Actually, I am currently designing all plexi mouse, keyboard, headphones, case w/ folding up (15" or 17", not sure which yet)lcd panel for lan parties... but just started last week, and have only had about a half hour to work on it though. Will hopefully have more this weekend/during xmas
Router mounts Hoorah, first cuts made today! I needed some decent mounting plates for the spindle, so decided to mount me old router on the cnc and cut some ali. Here's some action shots: And after they had been cut: They were cut from 12mm aluminium, so I think this clears up a few questions as to whether I can make waterblocks and such! Here's Mach2 in action: In the centre, you can see the toolpath, roughly the same as the finnished product, but includes some extra moves to get the router in position. Top left is the g-code file. If you look at the "G" moves, you can see how it works. G0 is a rapid traverse, no cutting, to position the router. G1 is a straight line cut to the x,y co-ords given, and G2/3 is an arc or circle cut. The F words are to set the cutting speed in mm/min. Top right is the current position of the cutter in 3d space. Cool eh?! I have not got them mounted yet, but here's an idea of how they will work: I guess that's next!
Re: Router mounts What? No movie of it's first steps? Surely that's something that any loving parent feels required to inflict on anybody they can collar... Very, very cool project Kong. Just had to subscribe to say that. (Noob alert!) Mind you, I've been lurking for the past couple of months watching this come together (and occasionally fall apart again ) Lupine.
sweet... nice. I love it. /me drools all over. i also agree... a video with sound would be lovely.. I'm sure you could get someone to host it for you. I would but my main router is still out of the job. And welcome to the forums Lupine.
Sweeet! Well I guess that puts the metal-cutting question to rest Those mounts look pretty awesome. The only thing is if you run a light climb-cut pass as the last cut, it'll give a smoother finish. I'm sure you must already know that tho. But that was without coolant? Not bad
If you look at the pics fairly closely, you'll notice it is looks quite good. Or as far as shake-adge (i know.. not really a word, or at least spelled correctly) goes anyways. I think it looks VERY pretty
Thumbs up! Fantastic work you've done here! I've seen on the web many CNC routers to cut polystyren foam, or thin wood... But yours is definitly the toughest I've ever seen! Worth a soooo expensive professional model!! Greetings from France, keep on the good job! Sham PS : I also vote for an action video!
Wow look at all the replies! Don't worry guys, the mchine still needs a t-slot table top, that's next after I fix the new router in place and tram it in (check for squareness, etc). Then the video! I hope to make the first proper cuts on Sunday or Monday, so I will shoot the video then. I aim to do a simple photo-engraving in some nice Maple, but whether it will have a border or not I don't know. I'm sure you guys will just be happy seeing it moving! Marcello, youre right, no coolant. I used a 6mm slot drill for the cut, which tend not to clog up with chips like smaller cutters, so I felt I could get away with it just this once! As for the mounts, that cheap-ass router that cut them with had no guts, so I finnished off the mounts with a file for quickness.
Ah, I got ya. This will let you mount the spindle motor from the lathe, right? Just a couple more questions, then I'll shut up What did you use to cut the slot for the clamping part of the mounts? And what was your feed rate and depth of cut? I see on your screen it says 300 for a feed rate, but is that inches/minute or cm/minute? If that's inches/minute, that's pretty fast.
Lol, Inches per minute I wish! We are talking mm/min! As for the spindles, the red one was the one I used to cut the mounts, and the silver/blue one is the one I will be mounting for routing. The spindle from the lathe is not planned for a few weeks, and will need another mount as it has a seperate motor aswell. The max speed of the machine is 170 Inches per minute or 4500ish mm/min, but like I said, that red router is possibly the worst machine in the world and I only used it as it was easy to mount. I was cutting at 0.5mm per pass. Once I get used to the machine thje speeds/feeds will become easier but for now, I have no idea how far I can push before it starts to buckle The slot was cut with a hacksaw. I measured the spindle so the mounts would be a tight fit, and fortunately they came out that way, alowing the width of the hacksaw blade to be plenty big enough to bolt them up tight. I'm in the middle of mounting it now, and I'll get some more shots of it in place tonight. I just came in for a coffee!
All I can say is Awesome! The next thing you need to do is cut some brackets for a Dremel mount. use that for detailed work... Just a suggestion...
