Applications and Implications

May 20, 2015

Assignment:
Plan and document a final project that integrates the range of units covered.

Final Project: An affordable desktop CNC

This week I started researching existing desktop CNCs as well as hatching new ideas for my prototype.

Existing Examples:

While researching similar projects, I found the following the most inspirational:

Desktop CNCs:

Will Langford's Foldafab
Ilan Moyer's Fab-In-A-Box
David Carr's Mantis
Jonathan Ward's A-Z
Natan Linder's Little John
Nadya Peek's Cardboard Stages
MIT's Machines that Make
A Gestalt Framework for Virtual Machine Control of Automated Tools by Ilan Moyer

Spindles:

Sam Calisch's BLDC motor spindle
Ilam Moyer's DC motor spindle
RTF Technologies' spindle

Materials and Components Required:

* Body: Wood prototype, final Cast Concrete
* Bed: 1/4in-0.64cm 6061 Aluminum Mounting plate
* Spindle Motor: Refurnished Dremel Drill
* End Mill Tool Holding: ER-11 collet to allow use of various size tooling, largest Shrank Size: 1/8in. or 3mm and smallest end mill size: 0.010in or 0.025cm
* XYZ Bearings Acetal Resin Sleeve Bearings
* XYZ Stepper Motors with 0.000125in-0.003175mm Microstepping
* External power brick and power cord - IEC Type B,
* Axis control: Gestalt Nodes
* Spindle PCB
* Relay PCB


Resourcing of Materials and Components:

I will resource from local Austrian or European stores:
Sorotec
CNC Shop

Cost Projection:

This is a list of all the materials and components used in my final project:

In this link you can find my Bill of Materials Excel File:
An affordable CNC Machine Bill of Materials

Processes Used:

* Prototyping of Body: CNC milling of Wood and Laser Cutting of Stages
* Final Body: Casting in Concrete
* Electronics: Circuits designed in Eagle then milled and/or etched with soldered components
* Coding: Programming in C or Python
* Assembly: by hand

Tasks required for completion:

* Understanding how to program and build the 3 axis mechanical movement and their relationship.
* Design and Build Mechanics.
* Electronic Design and Build
* Assembly

Outstanding questions:

I feel that the mechanical part of the project is a matter of development. The biggest hurdle for me will be to program and design its electronics.

Schedule:

I am lucky in that next week when we design our Mechanical-Machine project I can start working on the mechanics of my final project. I intend to develop the first prototype in wood. I will also integrate the electronics and mechanics of the machine week project into my final project. Once I have the first prototype I could realistically develop a schedule.

Evaluation of Success:

While I am in some ways reinventing the wheel, I hope I will succeed in integrating and customizing existing desktop CNC designs and technologies into my own design. If anything, the simple fact that this would be my very first designed / self built machine, mechanics and electronics included, that alone would be my biggest achievement if it remains in an affordable spectrum.