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well, you can get the chinese controller on the cheap, and I've heard good things about them, I've heard awful things about them...

the steppers can be had from old dot-matrix printers, or randomly off ebay.

the steppers drivers can be DIY'd or baught for cheap (again, chinese on ebay)

it's the ball screws and the such that can get a little expensive, and of course, it all adds up. I've been wanting to build a small PCB plotter/drill/mill machine to speed up prototyping, but thought it would be nice to be able to to do face plates at the same time. Maybe just for etching/milling numbers and indicators, small holes for led's. Do the big drilling manually.

anyway, great thread, hope to see some cool faceplates spilling out of that thing soon enough. :D
 
Canidoit -- the machine was tied to the bottom of the pallet, no movement. plus it weighs 200kg!

Kazper - yes the frame is 80/20 construction. but i think from what read, the joints to the floor have some kind of shocks/rubber in.have to double check that...

Cemal -  ball screws are new to me so that is welcome advice. In the manual it says to clean and re-oil the screws and the guides every 5 days, sounds like a lot to me...

Desol - cheap panels! mwha ha ha... im kidding, I know im not cheap, but there is more than most people know that goes into making any thing custom...

Gemini86 - max rapid speed is 5000 mm/m, but does it ever do that? no. most work is done in the 100-600mm/m.

I also researched building a machine - it is certainly very doable, but i just did not have the time, or even the skills perhaps..not yet at any rate..

Pete
 
WOOOOO respect!!! ill be going on tour to the UK in the very near future !! would love to see this machine and meet the owner hehe maybe cut a couple of pannels too!
anyways man wow great leap fwd !!
congrats
 
Yes Mach3, NO wood, all metal, anodised Alu is the darker Blue gantry that you see,

some more techy info for you machine heads!  Cheesy  check out the twin drive ballscrews on the Y axis! pretty cool!

Hiwin linear guides, Ballscrews on all axis, Twin drive synchronised ballscrews/motors on the Y axis can take high loads without the gantry racking, Gecko G540 drive. 3Nm stepper motors, Igus cable chains...

That all sounds impressive but what kind of cap's does it have?

Ohh lots of stuff!

I am planing my kitchen build for one!
well played Sir!    I've got to try that on my wife.



 
He does have a rather good point with the kitchen thing...you can make some amazing cabinet doors on the right size CNC. Does it justify the cost...? Hard to say, haha. That is the tactic I used to acquire my cast base cabinet makers table saw and cast base shaper table though, and it actually did save us a lot of money. However, there's a big difference between 2.5k and 10k haha.
 
Hi Pete!
Looks like a great machine!

Grand Master Audio said:
I could of gone for another make, i forget the name, a German make, BZT? well they do make a smaller table, but the gantry is no way as rigid as the Exel...

so the Exel won..

Best
Pete

The gantry of the (better) BZT machines is made of steel, your gantry looks like it is made out of aluminum (I am not sure about the blue side parts of the gantry, are they steel?) So do you really think the alu gantry is more rigid than a steel gantry? Or perhaps you did compare your machine to the cheaper BZTs (the ones with the round guide leads and trapezoidal spindles), they indeed seem to be not rigid enough. If thought of buying a BZT, but was not satisfied with their customer support...

Don´t get me wrong, one can build very rigid gantrys out of aluminum... technically it would be best to design the side parts of the gantry as a "box", that way it can withstand torsion forces best. The main part of your exel´s gantry - the construction with those two aluminum profiles - is in its effekt such a "box", and will be very rigid. I wonder how well the side parts can withstand torsion (if they are made out of aluminum...), because they are not built as a anti-torsion box. But anyway, these thoughts would only be relevant if you tried to mill with big milling tools and in depths of more then 2mm in one pass; light milling of aluminum will be a piece of cake with the exel  ;)

Oh, and be careful to not get aluminum chips into your gantry ballscrew, could ruin the ballnut. Perhaps there is a way to cover the ballscrew spindle?

Speaking of MACH3: does it have the ability to sample your alu sheets (with the help of a switching probe) before milling, so that later it automatically corrects the Z hight when you mill? Or how do you adjust for slight differences in height, especially when you engrave?

Cheers, Christoph
 
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