CNC Adventure

[Daggers]

Hi,
So the UK is heading for its second lockdown and with the winter approaching time in my unheated workshop will start reducing.
What to do?
I have always been fascinated by the members of this forum and their adventures with CNC. Like most I have a passing knowledge but no practical experience of CNC. Time to learn something new, even at my age and turn the lockdown negative into a positive.
So after being inspired by Myfordboy’s adventures with a fairly cheap CNC engraver I bit the bullet and ordered a kit, early xmas present.
The aim for me is to produce nameplates & labels for my models and car restorations.
This really is a learning exercise to get the grey matter moving.
So CAD design, post processing and CNC manufacture.
Lots to learn, seems I will be having plenty of spare time.
Will report as I go if there is any interest?
Keep safe and sane.
P.S
Been truly blown away with the flathead Model builds on this site. Just had first drive with my full size flathead as shown.

[stevehuckss396]

There are many cnc users here. Shouldn't be difficult to  find help if you get stuck.

[propforward]

Will report as I go if there is any interest?

Please do. I'm not planning to go CNC myself, but I find the process of setting up the tools, as well as the resulting machined geometries absolutely fascinating, so would love to follow along. Good luck!

[Jasonb]

I'd be interested too. Any thoughts on what CAD/CAM you will go for? F360 would still seem a good option.

[Daggers]

Thanks for your interest.
The CNC process is new to me so I am going slowly.
For a number of years I have been producing working drawings on my ipad using BiiCADO. I tried a number of drawing programs on the ipad and this was the closest I could find to a proper engineering cad package, sample drawing below.
I also use, on the PC, “Front Panel Designer” a free program that is great for control panel legend design, sample attached.
Both of these programs will produce a DXF output file suitable for use in the greneration of a CNC control file.
My first goal is to engrave outlines to a dxf drawing, this will prove a work flow.
My second goal is to produce simple milling outlines to a depth.
There is a lot to learn and I will be looking at cad packages in parallel to the above.
Fusion 360 looks very interesting but the recent move to restrict the hobby user is worrying as history shows that further restrictions are more than likely. Freecad has been suggested and I have been watching Myfordboy who uses Viacad.
First thing is to assemble the engraver when it arrives, should be next week.
Will keep you posted.

[kvom]

For flat engraving you need only a CAD program that outputs DXF.  The  CAM process will be equally similar needing only to follow a line at a fixed depth.

The  CAM program I use, CAMBAM, can do both as it allows drawing of text in any TrueType font on the PC.

[Woodguy]

If you ordered the same hardware that Myfordboy has, be sure to follow all his videos on his modifications. The machine as sold will not cut metal to any useful degree. It is not rigid enough, and the spindle supplied with it is underpowered as well as being electrically noisy. The noise causes USB connection issues and Myfordboy has detailed his mods up to the current iteration, which is a complete spindle replacement (Brushless).  Even now, cutting is very slow in metal.

[Daggers]

Will look at CAMBAM, new to me.

My machine is visually similar to Myfordboy’s but it is of full aluminium construction out of the box, no plastic panels. I will try the machine as shipped and then update as required. I have followed Myfordboy’s modifications closely, I do have a high spec motor in my junk pile, donated by a pal, which has the same outer dimensions, but I will start with the one supplied. As I talked about in my original post this is more about getting the grey matter working and learning something new.
Thanks for the interest.

[Daggers]

Its arrived.
Two weeks door to door.
All panels are in 10mm thick anodised alloy, motor comes with ER11 collet.
First thing i noticed is that the electronics has no box/protection. Therefore i will need to source a small project box, don’t like the idea of running the machine with the electronics open. The mods have stared already.
Will start to assemble next week. I have been told by the boss that gardening takes priority this weekend.
Will keep you posted.

[Daggers]

The basic machine is now assembled, next step will be the electronics, motor and the wiring connecting the stepper motors.
The assembly progressed well with the exception of the linear bearings. A couple of the guide rails did not run smoothly through the linear bearings and I could not adjust this out. Looking at the bearings I found that the bearing mounting face had a couple of small manufacturing burrs, small but enough to cause misalignment. A small slip stone sorted these out and now the run great. All other bearings were removed and treated the same.
For the record machine weight at the moment  is 14lb(6.4kg).

[Admiral_dk]

Congratulations on reaching the first 'milestone' 

It looks very sturdy for the rather small working envelope - that should help with the finish of the milled parts.

[Daggers]

All electronics connected. The only change i have made is to add the driver board enclosure and a small fan to keep things cool.
Next stage is to load software from pc to engraver driver board. This should be interesting, driver CD is in Chinese. Using ipad camera live Chinese to English translation, seems to be working ok.

[Vixen]

Hello Daggers

This little engraver looks rather interesting. Can you give the exact make and model number and where you bought it from?

Thanks

Mike

[Muzzer]

I've managed to do some pretty decent translations by converting PDF to Word (using Adobe's free online converter), then from within Word, right click from anywhere in the document and select Translate. It can autodetect the language or you can help it to decide. Then specify the whole document and let it rip.
https://www.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/online/pdf-to-word.html

Alternatively, highlight and copy the Chinese words, then paste them into Google Translate. Google seem to use a different machine translator to Microsoft, so you get a different translation which may or may not be better.
https://translate.google.co.uk/

[Daggers]

Mike,
The engraver is a Model 1310 which is available on Aliexpress and ebay. Cheaper on ALiexpress when shipped from France or Spain.
Will be reviewing when used in standard form and then review with updates.
The parts i have for the update include the new motor/psu, larger bed plate and and parts to lengthen the “Y” axis and also a manual pendent control.
This is really a step into the dark for me, but its interesting.

[Daggers]

I hope this information helps any one who like me knows little about the cnc process.
I have spent the last couple of days looking at software both for the cnc machine and also software for preparing  and sending the manufacturing data.
First the machine.
Two pieces of software are required, the firmware that controls the movement of the machine and is specific to the model of the machine, this was preloaded. The second is the software that interprets the code that represents item being machined (gerber). The machine comes with a disc containing an executable file for the download of gerber and also does contain the firmware should it be needed to be reloaded. Other software was contained on the disc for controlling the item requiring machining but i did not use these programs.
After looking at various control programs I settled on a freeware program GrblGru. This takes a 2D dxf input which can then be manipulated into a 2.5D model. It also has the advantage of having a full 3D model of my machine that can be used for simulation.
The machining can then be simulated on screen, including a full 3D rendered image of the final machining. Then the software can control the actual machining in real time.
My first attempts, produced today, are shown below.
The next post will contain some of the problems encountered on the way.
P.S the extra lines on the image are all my own work.

[Daggers]

Just a couple of notes following on from previous post, the material being used for the tests is a soft twin layer engraving plastic and a 3mm engraving “D” bit. Cheap ebay purchases which i will use until confident on the process, then move to alloy/milling cutters.
The main problem i encountered was a sudden drop of data to the machine. This resulted in either halting the machining or just missing lines to be engraved.
Looking on the net it seems that engraving motor noise corrupting the signals to the steppers can be a problem.
So i rotated the board 180deg on the back of the machine, this enabled me to route the motor wire away from all stepper wires. The length of the motor wire was three times the length required, therefore this will be shortened. The rerouted wire seems to have solved the problem, we will see.
The depth of cut, for me, has been the most difficult to gauge, as you can see from the image on the previous post. The control software(GrblGru) allows you to set a total depth and incremental depths/passes. I tended to go too deep at first causing the cutter to dig in. After some further tests I have started to get some decent results.
The grbl version supplied on the board has been updated to the latest version. This was downloaded from the web and loaded using a program supplied on the machine CD(xloader). This update is required by some third party software.
Now moving on to some slightly more complicated dxf files.
GrblGru screen image shown below.
Great fun, keep safe.