Another wee video:

 

couple of pics:

 

Whats a good finish look for beech

 

I lost count, the grbl panel crashed on me twice and wouldn't go back to the home position (I had to guess were it started) between that and the tool changing etc etc it probably took an hour. I was surprised how good it came out but i'll need to figure out this fatal error thing because it could have messed up a good bit of wood and its not good starting all over again just to see if it happens again second time round. It wasn't the code, maybe the slow laptop trying to catch up?

 

@shugster

Make sure you have all the power saving options turned off, it can kill a print/work job

 

I'll need to check that flash, I hope its that easy that would be fantastic. Thanks m8, i will check that out!

 

you can go 1 of 2 ways with the wood, a good quality external varnish or oil it (Danish, linseed, Teak or Tung) a good coat of perseverative before hand will work wonders

 

Its getting there, 4mm aluminium build plate (600 x 300) bolted to 2 V3 gantry plates with 4 M6 bolts in each, 12mm MDF 820 x 300 spoiler as that's what I had to hand at the time

The driver I'm using is not up to driving the double y steppers (its pushing the driver chip what is only going to trip the overload(s)) so I have a DM542 on the way

 

I had a can of clear car lacquer in the shed and I gave it 5 coats, It darkened the color a little but it looks fine.

 

@Flash22 NICE !!!
Just a thought; On my (standard build) I wanted to be sure I could get the X all the way out left and right to use ALL the clearance between the columns - not that I'll ever really use it, but...
If you turn those triangular plates around to use only the rear track of the C-beam you can get a few more mm and the x cart wheels wont hit them before getting the router to max width between columns.
It seems to be a bit more rigid, still two screws in each plate in each end of the the gantry, just side by side instead of in different channels. Just spin the forward plate 180 and slide its diagonal cut up to the other one - or cut yourself a SINGLE square plate when everything is up and running (-:

 

What I'm suggesting is the one motorized Y beam and two support beams (one on either side towards edge of table). So no balancing act. You actually get three support for the table compared with only two if using two motorized Y ... Cost should probably work out at least a tad better with a bonus support.

 

Lethal indeed !

 

Yes that would be great ... I have a couple of small quads (Hubsan X4), nothing to race or to write home about ... The cat was somehow not kind to the first. Probably thought it was a big fly and ... wack ... down it went. I still fly them, but not indoors ! The R/C monster truck (Traxxas eMaxx), now that is fun. I have to find some dirt roads or empty fields since houses around here are sprouting out of ground faster than mushrooms after a rainy day. I need to drive quite a bit to find a spot to play ... There is a field out back where I work, so I sometimes take it to work and drive around during lunch. I tried my hand at flying an R/C plane. Got myself an Apprentice ... by eFlite (?)

Get yourself a coffee ... first flight took a while. I had to find a good spot. Wait for the winds to be just right - ie, no wind ... I finally went to an old public golf course turned to a park hardly anyone used. Perfect day to fly too. Take off was way too easy and smooth. Flew around for quite some time, no FPV though. I flew around the few trees, got quite some height ... Well, the battery was bound to run low at some point and it came time to land. I didn't want to crash. I took a few passes over a nice wide open area, swooping down low and pulling up at the last minute. After about five tries, a stupid tree jumped in my plane's way ! I pulled up hard. But the plane was set on beginner, so it wouldn't react t00 quickly for guys like me... Who would of guessed a tree could be so tall and move so quickly ? There was my plane, way high, nearly sitting on top of the tallest tree there was on this golf course. Mind you, it was a perfect landing ... about 50+ feet up in the air. The plane just sat there on a high branch. I can't go up any ladder taller than me, something about heights. Some head scratching, and looking around before I tried a few things over the next few days. A bunch of PVC pipes to reach up, but not high enough before they bent down... Slingshot with fishing line and lead weight... I couldn't hit the side of a barn if I leaned against it! Picture me aiming for a plane 50+ feet up in the air... You just laughed, right ? I work not to far from the place, so I would drive by in the mornings, lunch and after work, just in case the plane came down gracefully and waited for me. Eventually, I had to do the walk of shame to the park supervisor and 'sure, you could drive a truck with bucket to the tree'. Now I had to find one of those trucks... The fire department is just a hop and a skip away. 'Sorry, we don't even get cats down trees anymore' ! A storm was brewing. Maybe the winds would blow my plane down ? The wind would wipe branches around. The rain fell hard. The plane just sat on the branch, calling it home. By now the battery was flat dead for certain. I left a few flyers (no pun intended) on nearby trees: 'call me if the plane ever gets down, there's a reward !' I thought about using one the tiny quads to rescue the plane ... and then I thought about losing a quad as well... An add in Kijiji for anyone with a bucket truck wanting to help me out for a reward. If only I could get the neighbour's kid to come and climb the tree, I'm sure that would work. The kid would love it and it would be cheaper than a case of beer ... I just didn't think the parents would care to see their kid 50+ feet up in a tree... Then, the plane vanished !! I had one guy with a bucket truck call me twice the day before, asking where the plane was, which tree, ... Turns out the guy lived just a block or two away (isn't Google search a reverse lookup of phone numbers just great ? Odd coincidence that was ... but difficult to prove ... Anyways, I sold the remote and that was that. I eventually bought a 2nd plane. Half price, how could I resist ? A less agressive smaller plane 'perfect for beginners' ... That's me ! It's sitting on a shelf in the garage ever since I took it out of its box ... a year + now ! My fear of trees keeps me grounded. I need to find an airport, a very big airport, with no planes, to get my confidence back up. The other problem with piloting an R/C plane, with no FPV, and me : I'm getting nearly as blind as a bat ! Ever tried spotting a white plane against a light blue sky when it's 100s of feet away ? At least with FPV I could of seen the tree coming !!

Sorry, back to regular programming ...

Maybe we could use a few sticks of V-rail and do a multicopter build ???

 

Way out of my league, not to mention way too many trees taller than me !

 

@Serge E.

another member has a setup on 1 Y axis with 2 supports, A 820mm build plate definitely needs the 2 Y axis drives and I'm still looking at linear supports to make sure there is no flex in the edges under a milling load

 

I'll be doing something myself about the flex on the table because even setting the tool to the height can flex the table lower if your not careful. it needs strengthening up. I don't have time just now but i'll look at the options when i do and post some pictures etc

 

Hello,

Where are you guys getting the 1/8th router bits? I ordered the 1/8th collet, however i cannot find the bits now...

Has anyone installed a coolant mister / chip blaster setup yet? I am experimenting with the idea, i purchased the parts off amazon and it is working pretty well so far!

Here is a quick cell phone pic sneak peak. Mounted used drop in t nuts.

 

End mills and engraving bits are in 1/8 (there metric sizes in the UK and most of Europe - 3.175mm) 1/8 wood bits are hard to find and very pricey but you can get v bits

I have had good results ball end, endmills

 

I have only 1/4" bits for my router, they suit my needs at this time but i'll probably add a smaller collet and bits at a later stage.

 

funny enough I have only just ordered a set of engraving bits - I want to try some image engraving, photo vcarve is big money tho

I also have a 3 jaw pin chuck (1/4 - 6.35m) that takes 0.5 to 3.8mm drills iirc its expo/unimat item that should be good for some cnc drilling

 

I first used a 1/8" router bit (from Canadian Tire). It broke ... a deep uncontrolled unexpected dive while moving when NEMA17 just gave up under the weight of the big router. All is fine since, having replaced the small Z stepper with a hefty NEMA23.

I now use these 3.175mm 17mm CEL 1 Flute Carbide End Mills Router bits - actually still on the first. They come in pack of 10 for about 10$us total, including shipping to your front door. I can afford to break a few of them as I learn my way through the ranks... They are plenty good, for me thus far ... cutting into plywood, plexiglass, MDF and even some aluminum (by accident when I hit the extrusion cutting a tad too deep, forgot to set my Z to zero !)



They also have some real fine engraving bits, down to a tiny fraction of a mm - I'm scared to break them just looking ! What can be done with a .1 mm bit anyways ... without breaking it or taking forever to mill ? I have the full set from .1mm to 3 mm or so - one of each. They were on special, I figured I would eventually need or at least use them. But now I'm thinking I need the bigger bits for roughing - the bigger the better, as fast as possible before using the 1/8" or maybe 1/16" for a clean finish ...

The only catch is you will have to wait 4+ weeks to receive stuff from this wholesaler of just about anything, especially with 'free shipping'.

I did buy a couple of extra long bits off Amazon. But, I have not used any of them thus far.

 

Hi everyone,
I plan to buy c beam bundle , can everyone suggest me the best controller to use ?

 

it was designed with the xpro v2 grbl board - this is a cnc controller not to be confused with 3d printer controllers (ramps 1.4 etc,)

people still run the rather old mach 3 interface what is made up of a parallel port break out board with individual drivers ie. M542 or TB6600


I had a gshield sitting in a draw, I also had a Arduino uno spare. but I will admit it's a bit boarder line with the Nema 23 Steppers (current draw)

 

.1mm bits for Circuit Board Routing.

Thurmond

 

Serge could you provide a link to the long bits you found on Amazon?

Thanks,
Bob

 

why i saw people use tiny G , im a bit confuse rght now

 

I'm using the TinyG for this machine. This is my first build, so I have nothing to compare it to other than my 3D printer (rambo board). The chilleppr software has some flaky moments, and it has frozen up on a few occasions. But overall I've been pretty happy with what I've achieved so far with the board.

 

Started work today on putting the electronics onto the C-Beam machine. Designed a PSU cover which makes the LED Switching PSU's look a lot tidier, with a IEC inlet. And a mount for the xPro, with fans, that still allows access to all the pots etc. A lot of this comes from an electronics kit i am working on for the OX, but might as well do two things at once, and prototype it on the c-beam machine. Getting there slowly.

I really like chilipeppr, and allows me to control the OX wireless through a Pi. But i have had to abandon it, because when i try and load any G-Code file which is mildly large, it freezes