My CNC Router Build! - TriStateTuners.com :: Home of Tristate Auto Enthusiast

nismo300zxjdm · 01-15-2013, 01:35 AM

So for awhile now I've been tossing around the idea of building a custom CNC Router. I could make 90% of my parts on this, so I figure it will be a good investment. Even if I don't sell many parts, I can get into other areas like signs, engraving, and wood projects.

I purchased the plans off Ebay from a company called http://www.pdjinc.com I got the plans in the mail Saturday, and immediately started looking through the CD. It is quite helpful, but to be honest, it isn't very well organized. A lot of the information can be found by simple research. It is a good reference though.

Since my father is a custom wood worker, I wanted it to be large enough for cabinet doors. So I decided that my over all table dimension will be about 1400mm X 1000mm with a total work space of approximately 42"x31". Z travel will be about 6". Since I am making a larger machine, I'm beefing everything up. I'm using 25mm fully supported linear rail bearings, and 16mm ball screws. The plans had me using smaller rails.

I'm very excited to get this project rolling! I'm going to order most of the parts this week, and then this weekend I'll be able to stop at the scrap yard and get some aluminum for the table and main body of the router. I'll be using heavy duty T-slot extrusions. I'll probably pick a bunch of stock lengths up and make some storage shelves as well.

PARTS LIST
1 SFU1605-450mm with nut (Z-Screw)
1 SFU1605-1000mm with nut (X-Screw)
2 SFU1605-1300mm with nut (Y-Screws)
4 end machine (For the stepper motor)
4 BK/BF12 (Stepper motor couplers)
2 SBR25-1225mm (Y-Rail)
2 SBR25-925mm (X-Rail)
2 SBR25-375mm (Z-Rail)
12 SBR25UU (Bearing Trucks)
4 NEMA 23 Stepper Motor 425oz.in
4 Microstep Drivers
2 Power Supply Boxes
1 Breakout Board
1 Data Cable

Everything arrived and looks great! Time to start laying this out in CAD so I can properly build this.

Protege v2.5 · 01-16-2013, 03:20 PM

This on my list of things to aquire when get a place with some decent work space.

P.s. Don't forget a really good vacumm system ;)

nismo300zxjdm · 01-23-2013, 11:37 AM

Yeah, I've been wanting one for awhile. I did have an opportunity to purchase a Bridgeport cnc mill for a great price, but it was still out of my price range. I decided to go this route, hoping to keep the entire build under $4000. I'll be stopping in at the scrap yard saturday... if the weather warms up a little bit! If it doesn't, I'll stay in doors and work on some CAD layout.

Subaru_Steve · 03-11-2013, 11:38 PM

Friend just built a CNC table plasma cutter for his senior project. We're both in manufacturing engineering, following this!

nismo300zxjdm · 10-03-2013, 10:25 AM

Well well fella's! It's been awhile! Let me give you a little update on my progress! Let me tell ya, it has actually been progress for once lol!

So I was browsing on Craigslist... and I found a Chinese 6040 CNC router for sale in Jersey. Picked it up for a good price, but stupid me didn't have them run it for me... I could have gotten a better price on it, since it BARELY ran!
(3 computers...Nerd status while trying to fix this!)

I thought maybe it was the motors, so I replaced them with the 425 oz. steppers I purchased for my build. Still didn't run. So I decided to open up the control box and check things out.

The breakout board looked good

Stepper motor drivers... Hmmm lets get a closer look at these!

Ohhhh! Maybe this is the issue!

I was reading that there have been so many issues with these blue box controllers, so I decided to rip everything out and start fresh with the parts I bought for my build. Thank goodness I got all this stuff previously!

I replaced the power supply, breakout board, and stepper motor drivers. It took me awhile to get everything sorted out, but I did my research! Lots and lots and lots of hours spent "googling". Mind you I have absolutely NO training in robotics or electronics. I have the basic understanding of electricity from working on cars but that's it! The internet is such a wonderful fountain of information... SO USE IT!

So anyways... end rant! After replacing all the control box components, I started her for the first time and got each axis moving. It took forever trying to figure out the correct motor tuning. I thought I could just follow the basic setup instructions, but I ended up learning all about stepper motors & how they work. I'm glad I did, because it gave me a greater understanding on how the entire system works. Once I got the motors tuned it so they moved I ran a test file through Mach3

http://s1209.photobucket.com/user/ni...1d28d.mp4.html

Then I calibrated each axis to +/- .0005" and loaded a scrap piece of wood for testing. This is the final result after the first run with a scrap piece of wood I had laying around.

So pumped to start more projects!

grimm · 10-03-2013, 10:29 AM

thats ****ing cool as ****!

nismo300zxjdm · 10-04-2013, 09:47 AM

I'm having so much fun! First official creation!

yellow2000S/R · 10-04-2013, 10:05 AM

That's frikkin awesome.

nismo300zxjdm · 10-06-2013, 09:40 PM

http://s1209.photobucket.com/user/ni...6c879.mp4.html

More fun today! Made my first cuts in aluminum. I need to make some more upgrades before I go much farther with alum. I made new table clamps since the ones that came with the machine were trashed. They came out quite nice after 2 trial and error runs!

xarchiex · 10-10-2013, 02:29 PM

That is awesome! I could make so many of my own parts also easily. We had one in school and I always just made dumb models of stuff.

SovXietday · 10-12-2013, 02:32 PM

Can you post a little more info for this? Looks like something I'd really like to look into more for myself.

nismo300zxjdm · 10-29-2013, 10:44 AM

Well fella's.. I've been crazy busy making things! Working on some intake manifolds right now. Having this makes everything sooo much easier to make custom parts for my swap!

I've invested about $200 in a ton of different tooling. Which isn't a lot but now I've gotten a good range of tools. I ordered a bunch of engraving stuff from china, and actually the quality is great.

I started out with a 1/4" end mill for aluminum @ 20k RPM w/ a cutting depth of .040" and 10 IPM. I found that it was cutting wayy too much material, and my little machine wasn't sturdy enough. The surface finish sucked!!! I dropped down to 1/8" end mill and now I'm able to cut at 30 IPM (Inches per minute). I really need to get a mister/compressed air setup to keep the tool lubricated and free of chips.

Here are some pictures!

My first real project!
1/4" Aluminum Circles that get powdercoated and fastened to a window... don't ask lol architects are strange birds...

Cutting out an LS7 throttle body flange for use on the Nissan Titan Intake Manifold I'm working on. This is where I switched to the 1/8" end mill and I'm having fantastic results with the surface finish on the edge.

This is the upper plenum flange for the VK56DE intake manifold. The machine doesn't like when computer decides to start the screen saver. It made an oops on the bottom side, but live 'n learn. Also I have to make sure that all other programs are closed while running the machine. There can be interference and mess things up.

And this is the design of the intake manifold that I'm going off of. Hopefully it'll turn out somewhat similar! :P

assault187 · 10-29-2013, 04:17 PM

Nice work! Thanks for sharing!

Protege v2.5 · 11-01-2013, 09:14 PM

You shooting for a specific powerband?

nismo300zxjdm · 11-04-2013, 06:17 PM

Mid range powerband. We shortened the runners to 7" so his cams can actually breathe.

Here are some pics of weekend progress.

nismo300zxjdm · 11-19-2013, 05:40 PM

Just thought I might add a few more pictures...

Finished kitchen sign...

For my brother's birthday...
I took this picture of his BRZ

and did this...

I thought it turned out really well!

grimm · 11-20-2013, 10:16 AM

cool stuff man! what a great toy to have.

Korupt · 11-20-2013, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nismo300zxjdm

Finished kitchen sign...

Have you thought about selling signs like this? If so what do you charge for them? I would love to get something for my house.

01-15-2013, 01:35 AM	#1
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	My CNC Router Build! So for awhile now I've been tossing around the idea of building a custom CNC Router. I could make 90% of my parts on this, so I figure it will be a good investment. Even if I don't sell many parts, I can get into other areas like signs, engraving, and wood projects. I purchased the plans off Ebay from a company called http://www.pdjinc.com I got the plans in the mail Saturday, and immediately started looking through the CD. It is quite helpful, but to be honest, it isn't very well organized. A lot of the information can be found by simple research. It is a good reference though. Since my father is a custom wood worker, I wanted it to be large enough for cabinet doors. So I decided that my over all table dimension will be about 1400mm X 1000mm with a total work space of approximately 42"x31". Z travel will be about 6". Since I am making a larger machine, I'm beefing everything up. I'm using 25mm fully supported linear rail bearings, and 16mm ball screws. The plans had me using smaller rails. I'm very excited to get this project rolling! I'm going to order most of the parts this week, and then this weekend I'll be able to stop at the scrap yard and get some aluminum for the table and main body of the router. I'll be using heavy duty T-slot extrusions. I'll probably pick a bunch of stock lengths up and make some storage shelves as well. PARTS LIST 1 SFU1605-450mm with nut (Z-Screw) 1 SFU1605-1000mm with nut (X-Screw) 2 SFU1605-1300mm with nut (Y-Screws) 4 end machine (For the stepper motor) 4 BK/BF12 (Stepper motor couplers) 2 SBR25-1225mm (Y-Rail) 2 SBR25-925mm (X-Rail) 2 SBR25-375mm (Z-Rail) 12 SBR25UU (Bearing Trucks) 4 NEMA 23 Stepper Motor 425oz.in 4 Microstep Drivers 2 Power Supply Boxes 1 Breakout Board 1 Data Cable Everything arrived and looks great! Time to start laying this out in CAD so I can properly build this. __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

01-16-2013, 03:20 PM	#2
Protege v2.5 Tri-State Addict Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: SoLanCo Member #7303 My Ride: 2016 Mazda 6 iTrader: (1)	This on my list of things to aquire when get a place with some decent work space. P.s. Don't forget a really good vacumm system ;) __________________ ~Change the rules on what controls you and you will change the rules on what you can control

01-23-2013, 11:37 AM	#3
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	Yeah, I've been wanting one for awhile. I did have an opportunity to purchase a Bridgeport cnc mill for a great price, but it was still out of my price range. I decided to go this route, hoping to keep the entire build under $4000. I'll be stopping in at the scrap yard saturday... if the weather warms up a little bit! If it doesn't, I'll stay in doors and work on some CAD layout. __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-03-2013, 10:25 AM	#5
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	Well well fella's! It's been awhile! Let me give you a little update on my progress! Let me tell ya, it has actually been progress for once lol! So I was browsing on Craigslist... and I found a Chinese 6040 CNC router for sale in Jersey. Picked it up for a good price, but stupid me didn't have them run it for me... I could have gotten a better price on it, since it BARELY ran! (3 computers...Nerd status while trying to fix this!) I thought maybe it was the motors, so I replaced them with the 425 oz. steppers I purchased for my build. Still didn't run. So I decided to open up the control box and check things out. The breakout board looked good Stepper motor drivers... Hmmm lets get a closer look at these! Ohhhh! Maybe this is the issue! I was reading that there have been so many issues with these blue box controllers, so I decided to rip everything out and start fresh with the parts I bought for my build. Thank goodness I got all this stuff previously! I replaced the power supply, breakout board, and stepper motor drivers. It took me awhile to get everything sorted out, but I did my research! Lots and lots and lots of hours spent "googling". Mind you I have absolutely NO training in robotics or electronics. I have the basic understanding of electricity from working on cars but that's it! The internet is such a wonderful fountain of information... SO USE IT! So anyways... end rant! After replacing all the control box components, I started her for the first time and got each axis moving. It took forever trying to figure out the correct motor tuning. I thought I could just follow the basic setup instructions, but I ended up learning all about stepper motors & how they work. I'm glad I did, because it gave me a greater understanding on how the entire system works. Once I got the motors tuned it so they moved I ran a test file through Mach3 http://s1209.photobucket.com/user/ni...1d28d.mp4.html Then I calibrated each axis to +/- .0005" and loaded a scrap piece of wood for testing. This is the final result after the first run with a scrap piece of wood I had laying around. So pumped to start more projects! __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-03-2013, 10:29 AM	#6
grimm Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Dec 2006 Member #3058 iTrader: (2)	thats **ing cool as *! __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.*

03-11-2013, 11:38 PM	#4
Subaru_Steve Tri-State Training Wheels Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Williamsport, Pa Member #15656 My Ride: 2004 Subaru WRX iTrader: (0)	Friend just built a CNC table plasma cutter for his senior project. We're both in manufacturing engineering, following this!

10-04-2013, 09:47 AM	#7
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	I'm having so much fun! First official creation! __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-04-2013, 10:05 AM	#8
yellow2000S/R Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: York, Pa Member #2462 My Ride: 66 Fairlane, 73 F250, 79 F150, 82 GL500, 96 F250, 98 Wrangler, 04 Hoe, 06 Wrangler, 11 Silverado iTrader: (2)	That's frikkin awesome.

10-06-2013, 09:40 PM	#9
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	http://s1209.photobucket.com/user/ni...6c879.mp4.html More fun today! Made my first cuts in aluminum. I need to make some more upgrades before I go much farther with alum. I made new table clamps since the ones that came with the machine were trashed. They came out quite nice after 2 trial and error runs! __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-10-2013, 02:29 PM	#10
xarchiex Tri-State Addict Join Date: May 2009 Location: mapleshade Member #13852 My Ride: 04 subaru sti,06 zx-6r iTrader: (1)	That is awesome! I could make so many of my own parts also easily. We had one in school and I always just made dumb models of stuff. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-29-2013, 10:44 AM	#12
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	Well fella's.. I've been crazy busy making things! Working on some intake manifolds right now. Having this makes everything sooo much easier to make custom parts for my swap! I've invested about $200 in a ton of different tooling. Which isn't a lot but now I've gotten a good range of tools. I ordered a bunch of engraving stuff from china, and actually the quality is great. I started out with a 1/4" end mill for aluminum @ 20k RPM w/ a cutting depth of .040" and 10 IPM. I found that it was cutting wayy too much material, and my little machine wasn't sturdy enough. The surface finish sucked!!! I dropped down to 1/8" end mill and now I'm able to cut at 30 IPM (Inches per minute). I really need to get a mister/compressed air setup to keep the tool lubricated and free of chips. Here are some pictures! My first real project! 1/4" Aluminum Circles that get powdercoated and fastened to a window... don't ask lol architects are strange birds... Cutting out an LS7 throttle body flange for use on the Nissan Titan Intake Manifold I'm working on. This is where I switched to the 1/8" end mill and I'm having fantastic results with the surface finish on the edge. This is the upper plenum flange for the VK56DE intake manifold. The machine doesn't like when computer decides to start the screen saver. It made an oops on the bottom side, but live 'n learn. Also I have to make sure that all other programs are closed while running the machine. There can be interference and mess things up. And this is the design of the intake manifold that I'm going off of. Hopefully it'll turn out somewhat similar! :P __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

10-29-2013, 04:17 PM	#13
assault187 Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Montgomery county Member #2176 My Ride: 97 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST Spyder AWD iTrader: (3)	Nice work! Thanks for sharing! __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. World record holder for Quickest and Fastest 1/4 mile Spyder, 4 cylinder vert, 1st in 10's, 2.0L 4G63 Holset record, Modified Mag December 2010, Self built, self tuned.

11-01-2013, 09:14 PM	#14
Protege v2.5 Tri-State Addict Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: SoLanCo Member #7303 My Ride: 2016 Mazda 6 iTrader: (1)	You shooting for a specific powerband? __________________ ~Change the rules on what controls you and you will change the rules on what you can control

11-04-2013, 06:17 PM	#15
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	Mid range powerband. We shortened the runners to 7" so his cams can actually breathe. Here are some pics of weekend progress. __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

11-19-2013, 05:40 PM	#16
nismo300zxjdm Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Douglassville, PA Member #23006 My Ride: '90 Nissan 300zx NA, '90 300zx Twin Turbo, '08 Sentra Spec V iTrader: (0)	Just thought I might add a few more pictures... Finished kitchen sign... For my brother's birthday... I took this picture of his BRZ and did this... I thought it turned out really well! __________________ Your engine < VH45 To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures. My Build Thread! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

11-20-2013, 10:16 AM	#17
grimm Tri-State Post Whore Join Date: Dec 2006 Member #3058 iTrader: (2)	cool stuff man! what a great toy to have. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 signatures.

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