Mon
Jan
14
2008
Steel Frame Solution
My third and final steel framed solution all started with an ebay kill… Ebay is the CNC hobbiest dream resource. There is absolutely no way anyone could create high quality industrial strength machinary at hobbiest pricing without ebay!
The unit that I picked up from the best of my research came off of a CNC machine similar to this one. The rigidity of this assembly is what impressed me the most. the y-axis crossmember was a solid piece of aluminum measuring 28 inches accross 7 inches high and two inches thick and weiging close to 100 pounds. The aluminum alone at scrap metal pricing was worth 150 bucks. Igus cabling, a stout z axis aseembly complete with stepper motor and various other misc items, made this the perfect starter kit for my final CNC project. The cost? A mere 190 dollars including shipping. I sold of the linear motor and controller that came with the unit making the total cost of ownership about 100 bucks. Can’t complain about that!
The unit I purchased came with a linear magnetic motor instead of the traditional ballscrew for the y axis. This is a picture of the controller that came with the linear motor that I pawned off on ebay. Although very cool concept in real life, I had now way of controlling it with my software.
Here is a close up of the Z axis assembly as I received it. The Z axis rides on some THK linear slides and then is driven by a Pacific Scientific stepper motor/ballscrew comination unit. The entire z axis rides on second set of larger y axis THK slides. Overall the assembly is quite rigid and about a 1000 more industrial than my previous wooden version.
