RunRyder - Fall Project- CNC Mill/Router/Vinyl Plotter

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > Fall Project- CNC Mill/Router/Vinyl Plotter

sbalder
Senior Heliman
Location: Westland, Michigan

This hobby just keeps sucking me in further!

I worked out the bugs on my scratch-built heli and had a great summer flying it. The only problem was I had come about as far as my design and machining skills could take me, and I had nothing lined up to work on for this winter. I began to look into learning CNC, but the cash outlay to get into it was too high (about $5-15,000 for what I felt was a "good" setup). Furthermore, I don't want to go into business, I just want to make a lot of new and precision parts. That includes routing cf and g10 panels, machining custom aluminum parts, and cutting vinyl paint masks and graphics. It seemed like a waste to have a shop full of single-purpose machines.

To make a long story short, I've managed to convert my Smithy lathe-mill-drill into a full cnc setup. The entire conversion cost me a little less than $1000 and other than a few tapped holes, I can go back to the original Smithy setup in a few minutes.

The sloppy Chinese carriage and lead screws have been replaced with 2 Kuroda precision slides and a custom downfeed mechanism using a THK ballscrew. The motors are 275-oz. Nema 23 steppers and the control box uses a Xylotex board and 7 amp powersupply. It interfaces to my old Windows 98 PC, running TurboNC in DOS through the printer port. I design in TurboCAD LE (free download) and convert to machine "g" code through Deskam.

My travel is 6" x 17" and I plan to add a downfeed extension that will let me cut decals and use a Dremel or Rotozip for a work area of about 13" x 17".

There are more photos in My Gallery. I'm just learning this stuff as I go, so I'll post as I create new projects and add to it.

-Steven Balder

10-26-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

okw14
Senior Heliman
Location: Morgantown, WV

Excellent work! How's the heli fly? Looks really impressive!

However, I see a severe problem in these pictures. Your shop is way too clean!!! I don't see how you could ever get anything done in there!

Actually, that's exactly what my shop looks like ... under all of the crap.

Keith

10-26-2004 Over year old.

OT45
Senior Heliman
Location: Kingston, NY

Nice Job!

scratch building is not just for planks

10-27-2004 Over year old.

Siado
Senior Heliman
Location: Port Orchard, WA

I have a similar project in planning right now. I was inspired by this guy:

http://www.5bears.com/cnc.htm

I have never spent so much time on a single web page in my life. This guy is my hero.

Jim

10-28-2004 Over year old.

sbalder
Senior Heliman
Location: Westland, Michigan

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I dug out one of my old CAD designed frame parts and cut it out last night on a scrap pc board. Really an amazing feeling to see the part I drew up be built by the machine I designed!

Siado,
I got a lot of ideas from that website, as well as from RunRyder member TAUSCNC's website. I feel like I "cheated" by using the linear slides rather than by doing full ball screw conversions on the XY axis', but thanks to Ebay I got the slides brand new for $225 each. They are far more precise than anything I could have done and they give me the capacity to cut vinyl and mill large pieces. If you are converting a small mill, these kind of slides have got to be the best way to go.

-Steven Balder

10-28-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

aarinsingh
Veteran
Location: Thompson, MB

http://www.sherline.com/8540pg.htm

How would a system like this compare, yours is bigger, but the price on this unit seems pretty good, considering its "plug and play" and includes the computer.

10-28-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

sbalder
Senior Heliman
Location: Westland, Michigan

Aaarinsingh:
I looked very seriously at purchasing a Sherline CNC. Sherline has been around a long time making great quality machines in America. The problem for me was that they were too small for what I want to do- something like a 5x7 capacity. If I was going to stick with milling small aluminum heli parts I would be okay with the Sherline. I've read good things about the Sherline CNC, but I prefer the larger machine.

Sherline has a good manual for free on their website and I have been working through the exercises in it in order to learn this stuff.

-Steven Balder

10-28-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

wsteve
Senior Heliman
Location: Pasadena, Texas

Steven the only suggestion I would have would to change your name from Steven to Tinker. Looks like you did a very good job on your retrofit. Good luck with the parts.

If God meant man to fly, He'd have given him more money

10-28-2004 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

sbalder
Senior Heliman
Location: Westland, Michigan

It's hard for me to stick with a project for a while; life and work are just too darn distracting and I haven't touched the mill in weeks! Tonight I was trying to modify my new Voyager E to include thrust bearings in the head in liue of the standard spacers. I had the bearings, but needed some thin 7 X 10mm shims. Too simple a task to even do a CAD file, I wrote an 8 line program to cut perfect shims out of .015" brass sheet. The whole project took an hour, mostly cause I still have to learn the programming language and I'm really slow.

Something like this is why I started the project in the first place. The ability to design and produce complex and accurate parts without manually machining.

-Steven Balder

01-03-2005 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Conrod
Veteran
Location: Melbourne, Florida

Too Cool!
I'm looking into mills now.

01-21-2005 Over year old.

TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

There is a tool that will cut those spacers in about 30 seconds and you don't even need a cnc mill.

Besides if the machine used G code two circles should have needed only two lines of code besides the approach and departure vectors.

Just a thought.

TM

01-21-2005 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

tauscnc
Veteran
Location: This topic...for now...

Hey sbalder,

Great job on the conversion and getting the part made. It is awesome to draw out your part and send it to the machine to watch (hopfully) it get cut out smoothly. Nice work.

As for cutting vinly (trim sheet) you can make a very simple blade holder that works well. It will cost you about $10 bucks and about $15 for a balde. I have the links and do-dads on it here: BLADE HOLDER TAKE 5

keep up the great work

taus

06-05-2005 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

sbalder
Senior Heliman
Location: Westland, Michigan

Thanks Taus,

I haven't updated my photos in a while, but the info on vinyl cutters on your site was a great help and saved me much trial and error (my usual way of doing things

)

Since the mill to lathe face on the Smithy is only about 6 inches, I needed to extend my reach if I wanted to route anything of size. I've built an extension and mounted a small precision linear slide that holds a Dremel Flex shaft. I've used this extensively to cut carbon fiber parts and when I disconnect the Dremel and cable, the spindle turns freely. With the right collet in place I can mount a 45 degree Stika blade in the flex shaft spindle and it works like the BB blade holder in your design.

-Steven Balder

06-05-2005 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

Ace Dude
Elite Veteran
Location: USA