CNC Machine
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General
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READ ALL OF THIS PAGE PRIOR TO TRYING THE CNC MACHINE
THE CNC MACHINE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO HURT YOU
OR DESTROY ITSELF - IT DOES NOT CARE!!!
HARDWARE
The machine is located in the basement of LVL1. It is a homemade Solsylva CNC machine built by Brian Wagner during 2008/2009. The plans were purchased online. These plans are FANTASTIC. If you are thinking about building a CNC machine use these plans! Here is the link to the plans I built. http://solsylva.com/cnc/25x37dual_leadscrew.shtml David Steele - the maker of the plans - has new plans. I would recommend building his newer machines. Spend some time on his website: http://solsylva.com/cnc/cnc_plans_home.shtml The plan book that I used is in the plastic bin near the CNC machine. Feel free to look through it, but do not remove it from the space!
The electronics that are used for the CNC come from Probotics. http://www.probotix.com/ Specifically http://www.probotix.com/index.php?view=product&product_id=14 I purchased a kit something like this http://www.probotix.com/3_axis_stepper_motor_driver_kits/3_axis_sidestep_stepper_motor_driver_kit/ with a parallel port isolation board, 3 drivers and a power supply. I recommend this company highly for stepper drivers. The drivers use Allegra stepper chips.
The steppers are connected to an old Sony Vaio laptop that runs EMC2 / Axis on Ubuntu. You have to have a computer with a parallel port to run the CNC. Parallel ports are getting harder and harder to come by!
SOFTWARE
Design Software
Inkscape http://inkscape.org/ - create vector images to import into Cut2d
Eagle http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ - create PCB's that can be milled. You will also need pcb-gcode - see below
Autocad - if you have it, you can use it!
GCode Software
I use the software Cut2D http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/cut2D/c2d_index.htm to generate gcode from inkscape files or autocad files.
Machine control software
EMC2 / Axis http://linuxcnc.org/
USAGE
So far I have two videos to watch. More to come, but this might get you going.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X2jk1GCXHkw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
and
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QFtmfJljQqw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
SAFETY
YOU MUST WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!
DOUBLE CHECK ALL SETTINGS BEFORE RUNNING THE MACHINE
F1 is the abort key on for EMC
THIS MACHINE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO HURT YOU, OR HURT ITSELF!
USE SHARP ROUTER BITS
CHECK YOUR POWER
CNC LINKS
http://solsylva.com/cnc/links.shtml
http://replicat.org/generators - I wonder if it is possible to use these to generate G-Code?
