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CNC Router Design
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Brass_Machine:
So I have been thinking about building a CNC router. It would be used primarily for plastic, wood (gasp!) and aluminum. No steel, nothing harder than aluminum. I had been looking at a design out there by Momus CNC.



It is primarily built out of wood. But there are videos out there of this thing cutting aluminum. The cutting area might be a little small for what I am envisioning. So, now I am thinking of a hybrid build. I have seen some pretty nice machines built out of 8020 Extrusions. I have most of it done in my head.

One thing that I am getting stuck on is the gantry. Which is better? Moving gantry/fixed table or fixed gantry/moving table??

Eric
Country Bubba:
Eric,
Having "Been there dun that", It is my opinion the moving table design is more rigid and can handle the loads better for the envisioned foot print I think your talking about In my case, I ended up with a 13" x13" x ~3" machine that has a footprint of about 15" x 26" in the X and Y axis.  Used Nema 23 steppers (~239 oz in) and have milled aluminum, brass, plastics, pcb and it seems to be holding up quite well. My spindle (CNC of a Budget) is only 70 watts so it will not hog a 1/2" cutter obviously.
Because of the moving table, I have no problems with a "racked" gantry and used a single screw to move the table (less complication of the mechanics)
I used linear profile rails on all axis. 12mm for the table (off fleebay for cheap) and heavy duty 30mm for the Gantry and Z (because they were given to me :clap:
The frame is Aluminum Channel, Aluminum flat bar and is epoxied and screwed together. I also opted for single start 1/2" x 10tpi acme screws as I was looking more for precision than speed. As a result with the Dumpster AB nuts that I used, I have limited my rapids to 80IPM as the screws will get quite warm if that speed is kept up for a period of time.
So far, have been pleased with this setup.

Brass_Machine:
Hi Art

Do you have pictures of your setup? I would like to see it. I am making mine on a budget as well.

Eric
Country Bubba:
Eric,
Have to take some and will see if I can even approach the quality of what I find on this board:})

Country Bubba:
Eric,
Well as usual, go to take pictures and the batteries are dead :doh:
So we charge them up and here is what we have. Hope you find it suitable and will be glad to answer any questions you have.
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