New CNC Toy

[cfellows]

I ordered one of these from Banggood last weekend and it arrived in the mail today.  It cost $349.95 with free shipping and I decided to buy it after seeing that Myfordboy, who I follow on youtube, ordered one and did several videos on assembling and testing it.



It's footprint is a tad over 10" x 10" and I know it doesn't look like much more than a toy, but it's actually built pretty well and  has a working volume close to that of the Othermill which costs almost 10 times as much.  I love anything related to CNC and this little kit is complete.  Even includes all the electronics, the power supply and a 500 milliwatt laser engraver in addition to the DC router spindle.  Should be a lot of fun to play around with, I can run it in the house, and it will work fine with plastics, wood, and other non-metallic materials.  I figure I'll use it to make odds and ends and do some PCB milling with it.

Chuck

[steamer]

Wow!!!   at that price you almost can't afford NOT to have it!...


hmmmmmmmm!

Dave

[zeeprogrammer]

That is cool. I'll be very interested in your review.

At that price...it seems like a cheaper way to go about learning CNC without the expense of upgrading the bigger machines.

Keep us posted!

[cfellows]

Just a few remarks and pictures about the kit so far.  The parts were very nicely packed in a single, heavy cardboard box, with lots of custom cut styrofoam inserts to hold individual packets securely.  The small stuff, like screws, bearings, leadscrew nuts, springs, etc., were packed in this double sided plastic box.



I transferred all the parts from the opposite side of this box into another contrainer so I wouldn't have to keep closing the lid and flipping over the supplied box to find parts.



The fasteners appear to all be stainless, although they are slightly magnetic.  The nuts are all self-locking hex nuts which look nice and should hold securely.

Another nice feature is that the small parts are arranged in the different compartments based on which part of the assembly they go to.  For example, all the screws, springs, etc, that are used to attach the lead screw nuts are in the left side of the white box.  This seems to be pretty consistent, as much as possible, for different assemblies.

The plastic frame parts are all 8mm thick, laser-cut acrylic.  All have the protective film covering still in place and accuracy and finish look to be top notch.  The  frame sides  and Z-axis support bridge are extruded aluminum, 20mm x 40mm and cut lengths are spot on.  All the linear bearings and hardened rails are individually wrapped in protective plastic.





The assembly instructions are a large series of photos which can be downloaded from the Banggood site.  The laser software and the CNC control software are also downloadable from the Banggood site.

For those of you who have further interest,  Myfordboy has a pretty complete step by step instruction video on youtube.  Enjoyable to watch and shows lots of closeups of various parts of the machine.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEmlwhpVZI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEmlwhpVZI</a>

Chuck

[zeeprogrammer]

That looks an amazing value.

The site was interesting too.

[cfellows]

I started assembling the various axes today.  Everything pretty smooth so far.  I did find an error of omission on the Z-axis.  They didn't mention the need to install a backlash nut onto the main leadscrew nut.  I did figure it out in pretty short order.  The other issue I ran into was the screw sizes.  The instructions reference 3-14mm cap screws, but there aren't any, just tons of 3-16mm capscrews.  May have something to do with the original kit frame being built from thicker MDF instead of the 8mm acrylic.  As a matter of fact, the assembly photos show an MDF frame instead of acrylic.  However, that shouldn't be a big problem.

Chuck

[cfellows]

Clearly these folks need to do some work on their fastener sizes.  The M3 SHCS's supplied for holding the linear bearings and lead screw nuts to the acrylic plates are 3 or 4mm too long.  Doesn't hurt anything, but looks a bit unsightly.

Another issue with fasteners.  The acrylic parts fasten to the aluminum extrusions with M5 SHCS's.  The assembly instructions call for washers under the heads of the screws, but the supplied 12mm long screws just aren't long enough.  And, if I eliminate the washer, I still only have 2 or 3 threads engaging the T-Nuts.  Fortunately I have a bunch of M5-20mm SHCS's in my spare parts bin, but I'm going to have to cut the length down to about 15mm on 30 or more screws.

Minor annoyance so far.

Chuck

[b.lindsey]

I am also following along with interest Chuck. I am interested in how it performs as an engraver especially, like nameplates for engines and such. Also interested in what the laser module can do along the same lines.

Bill

[Hugh Currin]

Chuck:

Real interesting mill/router. I'll be watching to see what it can do.

Also interested in the electronics when you get there. Looks to be an Arduino based controller? A PC feeding G-codes through a USB to the Arduino. Is there an Arduino embedded into the electronics? I wonder if you can get at the step and direction signals to control through a parallel port.

Great new acquisition.

Thanks.

Hugh

[wagnmkr]

I, too, am following along. The laser function could be very interesting.

Tom

[cfellows]

I was going to tighten up all the screws and nuts today, but I didn't have a small enough wrench and there isn't enough space to get pliers where I need them.  So, 15 minutes in visio and 30 minutes on the CNC mill with a 1/8" carbide cutter...



I made it from 3/16" thick cold rolled steel and the jaws have a 7/32" opening.  I tried to smooth the edges a bit with a file, and managed to chew up the edges more than anything.  But the jaws are nice and parallel and fit the nuts on the CNC router just perfect.

Chuck

[Woodguy]

Chuck - sent you a PM, but there's nothing in my sent messages, so I guess the facility isn't functioning at the moment.  Check out the software writeup in Myfordboy's blog  - http://myfordboy.blogspot.com

[zeeprogrammer]

If you hadn't said what you did Chuck...I'd have thought I could order than wrench on line.

[cfellows]

Chuck - sent you a PM, but there's nothing in my sent messages, so I guess the facility isn't functioning at the moment.  Check out the software writeup in Myfordboy's blog  - http://myfordboy.blogspot.com

Thanks, I got your PM.  These forums don't show you the message you sent. 

Chuck

[cfellows]

If you hadn't said what you did Chuck...I'd have thought I could order than wrench on line.

Thanks, Carl.  I was quite pleased with the result. 

On a side note, several months ago the motor on my CNC mill/drill burned out.  The old motor was a 1700 RPM AC motor and I replaced it with a 3450 RPM.  Result is I can double the spindle speed up to over 5,000 now.  I cut this little wrench at that maximum speed.  I was a little alarmed because the spindle housing got really hot, not smoking hot, but too hot to touch, even for a second.  The mill is over 20 years  old and I imagine the spindle bearings could use a good cleaning.  On the plus side,  the bearings are still quite tight with no slop whatsoever.

Chuck