Mostly Printed CNC
Oh well ...
Following my recent work on the X-axis improvements, I spent a little time assessing the resulting structure and it turns out that the Y-axis isn’t going to be rigid enough either, so I’ve decided not to proceed with any further work on this MPCNC-based router. I’ll be building a new frame from scratch instead, probably with aluminium extrusion in the OpenBuilds style, and will be focusing on the features that suit what I want from my router: primarily cutting fibreglass, perspex and aluminium sheet. It’s going to cost a bit more than I’d budgeted for this upgrade so I won’t be starting immediately but keep an eye on my main page and I’ll open up a new project section when I begin.
As a final word on the MPCNC project, I think it’s actually pretty good for what it is and, if I was working in different materials, I would probably have had fewer problems. As it is, I was able to get a decent-sized CNC router up and running for a little over a £100, get a feel for how I might use it and decide if it’s worth investing more in a better one - which it is - so I’d say that it was time and money well spent, especially as much of the electronics and hardware will be reusable elsewhere.
Posted on 21 July 2017
