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You are here: Home / Archives for CNC Router

What’s Happening Now – April 2022

04.12.2022 by rich // Leave a Comment

  • Working on Voronoi Cubbies. I really like the Voronoi pattern, as used in nature by the patterns on a giraffe and the wings of a dragon fly. It’s an interesting mathematical solution for filling a space. I designed a square shelf unit, and then filled out the shelves using a Voronoi pattern. I cut the top and bottom plates on the CNC router, and then cut the dividers by hand, carefully fitting them into the slots provided by the CNC router. It’s been an interesting project. I’m considering making a bunch of them. The cubbies will be painted.
    Fitting dividers for the cubbies
    Fitting dividers for the cubbies

    With the top plate fitted.

 

  • While cutting the Voronoi panel, I had an error in my cutting tool path, which ended up with a loose piece of wood being in the path of the 1/2″ router bit. As the cutter passed by, the piece of wood was thrown from the CNC router, and exited the building via a window in the garage door. It was slightly exciting.
    Hole where the CNC Router flung a piece of wood

     

  • I am continuing to work on the bell project. I have shifted focus to the design of the IO electronics board for a while. I’m planning to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as the control computer, and the IO board will connect using the 2×20 pin bus. The IO board will have relays, inputs, power supply, servo connections, etc. It has to be adaptable to power all the different kinds of mechanisms that will be required to ring bells, from thimble size, to church size! It will ring bells via solenoids, stepper motors, and dc gear motors. The inputs will be used for limit switches and user buttons.
  • We’ve been installing a gallery picture hanging system with rails, and cables that hang down. 
  • We are upgrading our dust collection. Our current dust collector is a Laguna system, and it’s not meeting our expectations at all. It was pretty horrible to assemble, and just doesn’t work well. We are planning to relegate it to about 1/2 of the shop and are trying out a Harvey Woodworking G-700 for use with the table saw and jointer. Why don’t dust collector manufacturers provide more than one remote? Or even the option to buy multiple remotes??
  • Looking into making more Voronoi cubbies. 
  • The main shop air compressor is failing. It could be the motor or the relay that controls the motor. We are looking into it!

 

Categories // CNC Router, Now, Projects, Woodworking

Building a Chinese 3018 CNC Engraving machine

05.30.2019 by rich // Leave a Comment

This small CNC Engraving machine is available at the banggood.com site:
https://m.banggood.com/3018-3-Axis-Mini-DIY-CNC-Router-w-2500mW-Laser-Module-Wood-Engraving-Cutting-Milling-Engraver-Machine-p-1263082.html
It can be hard to find the plans for this machine online. Here’s some help!
Chinese8013CNCEngraver
You’ll assemble most of it by just looking at the photos.

The manual I got with the latest one I ordered was pretty good.


The details page has a link to this dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ybh0xihxeco9szp/AAAt8XkxL1V_5AkwQN2K-w17a?dl=0
Which has drivers, the manual, etc.

For the GRBL sender I have had good success with GRBL Panel which didn’t have as many features as others, but WORKED. https://github.com/gerritv/Grbl-Panel

One option I added for the little CNC was a proper collet:
https://m.banggood.com/Drillpro-7Pcs-ER11-1-7mm-Spring-Collets-with-ER11A-5mm-Motor-Shaft-Holder-Extension-Rod-p-1280353.html
This makes it easy to use better tools. I was using a standard 1/4” v-carving router bit, for instance. I found that the hole in the adapter that is supposed to slide over the 5mm motor shaft was just a bit small. I reamed it out with a 5mm ream, and that worked great. For the first one, I had to shove it onto the motor shaft with a vise – which worked, but I’ll never get it off!

Finally, one change I made was to use better nuts and bolts. The screws that come with the thing are soft – like aluminum, and have Phillips heads, which I hate. Proper metric cap screws are much better. Sorry for .ca links.
  • FullerKreg M5-0.8 x 10mm ISO 4762 Hex Drive Class 12.9 Black Oxide Finish Alloy Steel Socket Cap Screw (Pkg of 100) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07BSBCP3K
  • Boeray 2020 M5 T Spring Nut Half Round Roll-in Nut for t-Slot Aluminum Profile 20x20mm 50pcs https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B075SYDZWB
  • TOPINSTOCK 20×20 European Aluminum Extrusions Slim T-Nut M5 Thread Pack of 100 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01FOC6A8E
  • boeray 100 pcs M5 x 10 mm 304 Stainless Steel Internal Hex Drive Button Head Cap Screws, Packed in a Plastic Case https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07FF28LMD

Categories // CNC Mill, CNC Router, Hack613, Maker Faire, Makers Central, MakerspaceNorth, Making Pucks, Presentations

Last Minute! Giving a talk about CNC with the Hack613 crowd.

04.30.2019 by rich // Leave a Comment

I’m giving a talk about how to build your own CNC machine, along with Darcy White and Doug Commons on April 30, 2019.

This is a dry run for the talk I’ll be giving at MakersCentral in the UK next week.

Here’s a link to the details!

UPDATE: The talk was a great success! Here’s some photos from the event.

Categories // CNC Mill, CNC Router, Hack613, Making Pucks, Woodworking

I’m giving a talk at Maker Space North on February 26, 2019

02.18.2019 by rich // 2 Comments

Https cdn evbuc com images 55192831 133647236463 1 original

 

Rich Loen has built many CNC machines including routers, mills, and cutters. He’ll share the knowledge he’s gained both building machines from scratch, and converting metal-working mills to CNC.

Tickets are limited so don’t miss out and snag yours now before they’re all gone!

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

 

More details from the event description: Rich Loen (https://Loen.Design) has built many CNC machines including routers, mills, and cutters. He’ll share the knowledge he’s gained both building CNC machines from scratch, and converting metal-working mills to CNC. Rich will cover:

  • Hardware options – machine frame, linear bearings, ball-screws, belt drives
  • Electronics – stepper motors, servos, drivers, power supplies, control interfaces like smooth steppers, G540, Planet CNC hardware.
  • Spindle options – routers, air/Water cooled spindles, high-speed spindles
  • Control Software – Mach3, Linux CNC, PlanetCNC, etc.
  • Design Software – Fusion 360, Vectric V-Carve Pro, Other options
  • Suppliers of hardware and software

 

Rich will be joined by Chris Manning (@silver_hand), a local watch maker and silver smith with years of CNC lathe and mill experience. Rich will also bring a small CNC mill he made for carving names into hockey pucks – and if you’re lucky, you can get your name carved into a puck during the event!

Categories // CNC Mill, CNC Router, MakerspaceNorth, Making Pucks, Presentations, Woodworking

Success! We had a great time giving our talk “How to build a CNC machine” at Makerspace North

10.24.2018 by rich // 2 Comments

@Silver_hand and I gave a talk about building your own CNC machine. The talk seemed very well received, and we had a lot of great questions from the audience at the end. Thanks to everyone who attended – you made the talk great!

Here’s the presentation in PPT, and PDF format.

And thanks to Sheri at MakerspaceNorth for hosting us tonight.

Categories // CNC Mill, CNC Router, MakerspaceNorth, Making Pucks, Presentations

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