Tag Archives: CNC

CNC – fully functional

I finally brought all the pieces together today and cut my first “real” project on the CNC machine. To this point, I was hamstrung by a variety of startup costs, both financial and temporal. I wanted to really see how … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 22 – parts is parts

The X-transmission nut has really been giving me a hard time. It hangs in there for about 15 minutes, then pops loose, and I end up spending 20 minutes fixing the silly thing. This part of the design really needs … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 21 – on the case

OK, I knew I needed to work on getting the electronics mounted into a case. It’s a pain to have to unplug from the wall to turn things off. But last night’s catastrophe put me in a mood to get … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 20 – Robot self-upgrades!

I designed a new router mount for the CNC machine today, and the CNC machine cut it out! Long build notes below, but I just can’t help a “brag photo” first: oooh, pretty! OK, here’s how that object came to … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 19 – Excuses to shop

I sent off the broken motor and motor controller today. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get parts back. I really need a new way of mounting the router, because the current method eats up … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 18 – First Sawdust!

Mellow greetings from my new robot friend. The “spare” Z axis motor arrived today. A bit of solder and I was ready to test it out. It took a little bit of time to get the hang of the basis … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 17 – homefield advantage

I got the CNC machine unpacked and put back together today. I had in my mind that this is one of the last times I am going to be doing this, so I was careful to make sure that the … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 16 – on the road again

Keling has agreed to replace my faulty stepper motor; I just have to send it back with a copy of the invoice. Gecko has agreed to replace my faulty motor controller (I confirmed that it is just the single axis, … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 15 – first major roadblock

I am pretty sure that I have a blown motor. I did all the troubleshooting that I could, and the failure follows the motor. Also, while trying to diagnose the problem, I am pretty sure that I blew a motor … Continue reading

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CNC Build, Day 14 – Troubleshooting begins

I only got a small session on the CNC machine today. When I left it, both X and Y axes had locked up. I have several suspects, not the least of them being non-linearity of the various bearings and holes, … Continue reading

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