So, I’ve been back and forth. Buy a used CNC or build one. My thing is, I want to do metal. Very least I need to be able to mill aluminum with comfort and ease. I’m going all out cause I might as well. I know the 5 axis board and table is an upgrade, I assumed the NEMA 34 are two times as good as the NEMA 17 (I kid). But I did read they have more torque and better rigidity. I’m very lacking in what’s the goodest, and anything I may have left out that someone else can suggest? I have no frame material due to it being all 1/4 steel flat stock in my vision. Any advice I’d appreciate!
Consider 1/8" wall steel tubing for the frame as opposed to steel plate. Linear rails and ball screws pretty much goes without saying. What you're attempting though is beyond the scope of this forum though so any help we can offer may be fairly limited.
At this point I just need help with the framing I think. Found a motor controller that lets the computer control speed and power, found a mount for the dewalt 618 I want to use. I get the gist behind motor control and the rest. I have a desktop so I know it mechanically. I watched a YouTube vid that a guy made his own with steel angle iron. But like you said tubing I thing would be where it’s at. Have it just big enough for the wheels to gain access from the front and have a cut for the axles to the carriers
Wheels? No. Look up linear guide systems. The axles in the wheels are a significant point of weakness.
If you're planning on cutting aluminum I'd look at spindles over routers mainly for noise, as you'll be running longer operations out of necessity and the noise reduction if nothing else would be nice. Tube > flat stock all day too. Not sure how deep in the planning you are but from the short list and ideas so far buying a complete setup might be the best/easiest way to get to actually doing the cutting you want. Even with kits these things are enough of a project and tinker thing that eliminating all the necessary learning to build one piece by piece is a good idea in my opinion.
