I dont think you have enough money to buy a CNC laser. Unless you have $250,000 availible funds.... They are pretty expensive. EDIT: I lied - This one was made in 1994 and only costs $92,000. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2532536736&category=25280
As requested eater, coupling photo. Yes it's crude! But very effective. The motor shaft is 1/4", and the leadscrew is 10mm, so I used a short piece of 1/4" thick wall tube over the motor shaft, and it fits tightly inside the 3/8" thick walled tubing I have used to connect to the leadscrew. Jubilee clips over the top of both pieces. The only problem I had was the large diameter hole needed to allow the clips to rotate!
Kong, I am watching this thread very often. I was wondering the make and model of those steppers. And what you are using to power them. (IE the power control board) I am thinking of making a CNC Mill and CNC Lathe to make the chess pieces out of. (Among other stuff) Also would your's be able to mount a Dremel? (I also want a 5 degree one, but that looks hard/expensive)
I got the stepper motors from "deepgroove" on ebay, from the US funnily enough! Not sure of the exact model, but they can be seen here. This is the same site that I purchased the 3-axis controller from, so just go to the home page. If you search the net, you'll some schematics coz I'm sure you'll end up building a controller! The steppers are 1.8 degree, so plenty accurate, but the board can handle upto 1/8th microstepping, so you can take the resolution to a stupid 1600 steps per rev! At present I'm using a 12v ATX psu to power the steppers, but they are rated at 65v max, unfortunately the driver board is rated at 35v max, so an upgrade to a 30v unregulated psu is on the cards. As for a dremel, yep mine will take it easy, but you may find the need for a small trim router, so don't forget to build it into the design. You are indeed in the best place, being in the US, my advice is to forget my design, and check ebay for surplus THK linear bearings for use as the slide rails. Far superior to the steel and bearings I used, just too expensive to get over here! If I can offer any mpre advice, or photos, don't hesitate to ask. Oh yeah, what do you mean by a 5 degree one? I thought you meant resolution of the steppers, but I'm not too sure! Maybe you mean a 5 axis machine?
Hmmm, mighty complicated, but here's a 5 axis machine I wouldn't fancy building it, let alone programming it!
if you were a welder a quick tack weld woudl ahve sufficed. would someone be so kind as to explain how a stepper motor works>
didnt think that they would be that BIG... i thought we were so advanced in technology that i thought they made hand helds.. lol guess im not really int current event...
i thought u can use one of these... http://www.amazing1.com/Graphics/lared100.jpg and it reaches 4-40 ' celcius is that hot enuff to melt lke metal and stuff?? Removed image tag - Haddy
If you carry on this bandwidth thieving activity you will be banned Kong what is the total cost and time invested at the moment? And I know you mentioned that it "probably" can't be used on waterblocks, have you tried it? Thanks.
40 C might melt some plastics, but the only metal it could melt would be mercury, of course mercury is only solid below -32 C anyways!
whats bandwith theiving??? idont know anyhthing like that so dont ban me PLEASE!!!!!!!! i love this forum/website.. NOOOOO!!!
Bandwidth stealing is linking images from hosting that you do not own, please just use a basic text link like I did with your img above....Large threads can shut down smaller sites because of bandwidth usage...You wont be banned unless its a constant offense...
wywywy, cost so far, hmmm, probably about £500 + pc. Actual time spent was about 6 weeks research and planning, then I've been about 3 weeks building it, working roughly 6 afternoons (prolly about 3-4 hours a day) a week on it! There were a lot of little problems I hadn't accounted for that had to be ironed out, and I have made sure all straight lines are straight, and all right angles are 90 degrees! 1 degree may not seem a lot, but with cnc, you expect perfection. It hasn't cut anything yet coz it's not finnished! i still need to attatch the router which is giving me a headache, and I need to wire it all together. One of those parts will be done today, the other tomorrow. Then I still gotta learn some software to cut something nice! DigitalBlueShift, a tack weld wouldn't cure an alignment problem though, would it?! I explained earlier that a stepper motor is computer controlled, and can be set to move in 1.8 degree turns (depending on the motor), allowing for very precise movements of the leadscrew and axis it is connected to. Say you wanted to move the router 1mm, and the leadscrew has a pitch of 1 turn per mm, then the computer would tell the motor to turn through 360 degrees and then stop. Hope that explains!
would it be possible to make a hand crank version of this replacing the stepper motors(ie a non-cnc one)
Of course, like you said, just replace the steppers with hand-wheels. Guess you could upgrade it in the future then?! Quick update, router mounts are doing my head in! They need to be small and unobtrusive, yet strong and rigid! I am going to use 1/2" tufnol (rock hard plastic - used to make router jigs and table-tops), I will make three squares with circles in the centre, then chop each in half and bolt together. If the router is placed in the circles, when bolting it should pull them tight. I have made a jig from MDF tonight, so in the morning I can cut them out quickly using the template guide on me router. Photo's tomorrow. I keep on saying it, but it may even be moving on its own tomorrow!
For this project, its worth the while to go ahead with the motors. hydrogen18: Instead of building one of these, you can get a compound milling table from ebay for less than $100USD. Hand cranks for both X and Y directions for manual routing. It easily mounts to your standard drill press. Something I plan on doing. PS: your Z direction is controlled by the drill press. kong: what kind of controller do you plan to use? A microPIC with serial input might work well.
