Menu
What's new

5' x 5' CNC Router Build

Found a big box on the porch tonight, but not as large as I expected. Turned out the rack cabinet was assembly required, which explains the price. ;)

It wasn't all that bad though, only about a half hour. All the parts were straight and in good shape. Surprisingly the front glass was tempered, not the assumed acrylic.
20200122_195222.jpg 20200122_195754.jpg 20200122_195758.jpg 20200122_204001.jpg 20200122_204021.jpg

I've got a hepa filter on order, will reverse the fan, and print up a frame to hold the filter. Also have a set of casters to install to the bottom.
 
I think so too, may still move the back mounts a little further back. The sheet of aluminum clad plywood I had wasn't big enough, but looks like I can pickup some thin aluminum at the borg to laminate a sheet, should make a nice ground plane for everything.

So other than I'm adding some main/sub DIN Breakers, and DIN Terminals to break out the power, this is pretty much my wiring diagram I'll be going by...

I'll also have 4 motor 70v power supplies rather than just one.

The power will come into a main 2 pole 30Amp breaker, then break out in the DIN Terminals to about 4 different legs with a neutral and ground bar terminals. One leg will have a 16 amp 2 pole breaker for the 220v VFD, a second 16amp 2 pole breaker for all of the power supplies (220v, they draw about 2.5 amps each), then a single pole breaker for a 110v plug to power the pc/monitor/etc.
 
I stopped off at the blue Borg today and grabbed some spray contact cement and a thin sheet of aluminum.
20200125_151824.jpg
The aluminum was rough cut to size and glued to a piece of 1/2 baltic birch plywood, rolled, and the edges then cleaned up with a pattern bit in the router.
20200125_151814.jpg
I'm starting some of the electronics assembly tonight.
20200125_163033.jpg
 
Due to weather, some deliveries of part were delayed, so holding off on starting wiring of the controller board until I have everything to layout with. I did get the board mounted in the cabinet and all of the power supply brackets installed, sorry, no pics.

I also picked up some 10/3 cable, conduit, box, and L14-30 locking plug/recepticle yesterday to wire up the area the cnc will live.
 
The rest of the parts came today, so started mounting them to the board.

I picked up a L14-30 receptacle to mount on the cabinet. I'll be using a 30 amp generator cable to connect power from the new wall circuit.
2020-01-27 19.51.07.jpg

The power will come to the main breaker at the bottom right of the board and then over to the contactor switch to the left of it, power from it will go to the red and black DIN terminals to the left of it.
2020-01-27 21.57.14.jpg

The contactor switch will be engergized from a on/off paddle switch, which will be the main switch for all things powered in the enclosure.
2020-01-27 21.57.55.jpg

The DIN Terminals are connected with bars that I've removed every other pin from to connect all the black terminals, and same for the red. The beige colored ones will be a buss for the neutral (for 110v), and green connects to the ground, which contact the DIN rail itself, which is touching the aluminum on the board (the main ground plane). There will be a ground terminal and ground wires also ran to the various components too.
2020-01-27 20.56.57.jpg 2020-01-27 20.58.41.jpg

Power from the red/black terminals will go up to breakers for the power supplies, VFD, and power for the pc/monitor.
2020-01-27 21.57.18.jpg

Anyway, here's the progress so far, the board is screwed to my office wall to work on it. I need to pickup some more screws to mount the rest of the drivers, power filter, and the controller boards.
2020-01-27 21.59.46.jpg
 
I got the hepa filter for the cabinets, so drew up and printed a simple enclosure for it.
2020-01-28 16.17.11.jpg

I love the way S3d does it's supports, they are so easy to get out. I kind of feel like I need to find a used for them after too.
2020-01-28 16.18.26.jpg

I haven't decided if I needs a back to it, with the pre-filter added, it's a nice tight fit.
2020-01-28 16.19.02.jpg 2020-01-28 16.21.22.jpg

Currently the fan is on top of the enclosure, I may move this to the back though so that I can use the top as a work surface. Also depending on the air pressure/loss, I may add a second fan if need be.
2020-01-28 16.22.06.jpg
 
Brent Dowell said:
Those supports sure came off nicely.
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth. My one "big" adventure with supports was PETG and that needed a fair bit of post removal cleanup with that (cura slicer). I think PETG is more annoying in that regard and probably increasing the support gap a smidge would solve it.

(still stubbornly refusing to pay for S3d.. and I can write my own code for cura if I really wanted so there's that).
 
I haven't tried supports in the latest versions of cura, but one of my first prints with cura 3 having supports I would have been better off just making the part solid and cutting a hole here and there, would have looked better, those things were stuck hard to it.

Besides supports, the biggest seller for me for S3d was watching the same files print when sliced by each program, cura was very erratic in its movements and what parts it was working on, s3d was smooth and very systematic. Again, haven't tried the latest, so YMMV.
 
Darren Wright said:
I haven't tried supports in the latest versions of cura, but one of my first prints with cura 3 having supports I would have been better off just making the part solid and cutting a hole here and there, would have looked better, those things were stuck hard to it.

Besides supports, the biggest seller for me for S3d was watching the same files print when sliced by each program, cura was very erratic in its movements and what parts it was working on, s3d was smooth and very systematic. Again, haven't tried the latest, so YMMV.
Click to expand...

One of the things I want to try with Cura is supposedly it does 'tree' supports, that start small at the base and grow as it gets higher to meet the part. Supposed to save on time and plastic.
 
Tonight I got almost all of the controller parts mounted, I need to print a mount for the 5v power supply.
20200129_211401.jpg

The smaller circuit board is an analog vfd control. The larger one above it is the smooth stepper and it's breakout board.
20200129_211422.jpg

The small silver box is an EFI filter, to keep the vfd from causing havoc with some of the other components.
20200129_211427.jpg

I also got my screws finally to mount the motor covers, just did a quick test fit.
20200129_211804.jpg 20200129_211758.jpg

I'll start the wiring process later this week.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top