DIY CNC router plans

[Steve Chavez]

I have just started to tip my toe in the computer assisted side of woodworking, I have been trying to figure out how to use an inexpensive laser engraver. I am weighing the difficulty vs dollars of a useable sized CNC router, I just joined the Woodsmith magazine and got 5 free plans, they have a CNC router plan, has anyone looked into it? Pros or Cons would be helpful.
Thank you

 

[Darren Wright]

Those look similar to others I've seen. There are some free plans over at the cnczone.com forum. The Joes 2006 would be somewhat similar to that one. I built one called JGRO version about 20 years ago, it worked ok, but prices for parts back then were pretty high. With all the imports now, you can build a decent quality one reasonably. Some of the kits on ebay and amazon are probably as good for what you'll spend in hardware and frustration, but YMMV.

What are you looking at for software? Several of us are using the Vectric software, but it's kind of pricey for starting out. The free version of Fusion 360 would let you model and generate cam files (gcode) for running jobs on the cnc.

I suspect there may also be someone wanting to part with one of their starter machines here too for a reasonable price to free up some shop space.

Edit: Here's the link for the Joe CNC Forum... https://www.cnczone.com/forums/joes-cnc-model-2006-a/

 

[Steve Chavez]

I haven't gotten into the software yet, I know with my laser I went with Lightburn because the free stuff was a major pain. I have been lurking in here I will check out cnczone.com too. I am always looking for cast offs, that's how I got most of my tools.

 

[Darren Wright]

Well, you probably have most of the basic concepts with using the laser. Over the DIY wood cnc, I'd personally look more at the aluminum frame ones, such as those on openbuilds.com and building one from metal parts.

I'm not trying to discourage you from doing your own. Just having done the mdf or wooden version, I found I was fiddling and refining things with the machine more than I was actually making things sometimes. I spent a lot of money on motor and other hardware upgrades time and again that in the end I could have bought a nice entry level/used machine.

Software wise, Vectric has several levels of software, from 2d to full modeling. The nice thing about their licensing is that when you want to go up a level (such as from 2d to 3d, or from desktop to pro), you just pay the difference in price to go to the same version number of the upgrade. So you can start with basic and upgrade to more features over time and not lose the money you already invested. I also know others here that have used Fusion 360 for the cad and cam processes.

For machine control, many of us use either Mach3, Mach4, or a GRBL Sender. CNCJS seems to be a popular one to run on a raspberry PI for GRBL controllers. There is also linuxCNC. I think all are going to have some learning curve, but that is also where community support can help, so don't hesitate to ask questions.