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I've built a 3(+1) Axis mini mill which is controlled by EMC2 + Mesa 7i43. It's basically built of parts I found in dumpsters and at the local scrap yard. The main parts of the machine, steppers, linear rails, lead screws came from a discarded MultiCam? CNC router and a X/Y laser etching unit (lead screws / ball nuts came from this). The only part of the machine that was purchased was a Mini-Mill head which came from 'little machine shop' in the USA and was bought back on a flight (It weighed 50lbs which was the maximum allowed weight!), and the Mesa I/O cards. The XYZA motors are driven by IMS micro-stepper units. The whole setup is driven by a 2.4GHz P4 Compaq/HP desktop, with a single parallel port driving the Mesa 7i43. Apart from home engineering, I also fiddle about with electronics design and build. |
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I've built a 3(+1) Axis mini mill which is controlled by Linux CNC + Mesa 7i43 cards. It's basically built of parts I found in dumpsters / skips and at the local scrap yard. The main parts of the machine, steppers, linear rails, lead screws came from a discarded MultiCam? CNC router and a X/Y laser etching unit (lead screws / ball nuts came from this). The only part of the machine that was purchased was a Mini-Mill head which came from 'little machine shop' in the USA and was bought back on a flight (It weighed 50lbs which was the maximum allowed weight!), and the Mesa I/O cards. The XYZA motors are driven by IMS micro-stepper units. The whole setup is driven by a 2.4GHz P4 Compaq/HP desktop, with a single parallel port driving the Mesa 7i43. Apart from home engineering, I also fiddle about with electronics design and build. |
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A bit of background info on the machine; The Z axis travel is about 600mm, X ~300mm and Y ~ 240mm. The bulk of the machine was recycled from an old MultiCam? engraving machine, in the pictures the Z column is in fact the old horizontal support column from the MultiCam?. Behind the Z column is the lead screw with 2 bearings on it, and another verticle support column made from 25.4mm ground bar, with recirculating bearings, this was done because I had the parts, but also for slop prevention along the spindle axis. The XY table was recovered from a local scrap yard, it was extremely rusty and was locked solid, it took several weekends of work to clean it up and free up the slide ways, which thankfully were covered in thick hardened grease. In December 2019 the machine was upgraded with new pre-loaded precision ballscrews+nuts for X and Y axis. The entire table assembly was removed, stripped down, cleaned and reassembled. Bed perpendicularity is now with in 0.001" which is acceptable. |
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A bit of background info on the machine; The Z axis travel is about 600mm, X ~300mm and Y ~ 240mm. The bulk of the machine was recycled from an old MultiCam? engraving machine, in the pictures the Z column is in fact the old horizontal support column from the MultiCam?. Behind the Z column is the lead screw with 2 bearings on it, and another vertical support column made from 25.4mm ground bar, with recirculating bearings, this was done because I had the parts, but also for slop prevention along the spindle axis. The XY table was recovered from a local scrap yard, it was extremely rusty and was locked solid, it took several weekends of work to clean it up and free up the slide ways, which thankfully were covered in thick hardened grease. In December 2019 the machine was upgraded with new pre-loaded precision ballscrews+nuts for X and Y axis. The entire table assembly was removed, stripped down, cleaned and reassembled. Bed perpendicularity is now with in 0.001" which is acceptable. |
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- build a tool length detector for automatic 'zero' |
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- replace X and Y leadscrews with decant pre-loaded ballnuts + precision leadscrews - done (December 2019) - add a spray mister coolant system - in progress (Jan 2020) - build a tool length detector for automatic 'zero' - in progress (Jan 2020) |
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