jamius.com

Here is the link to a semi portable machine I built for my brother a while back. I cringe at the poor job I did building it as I look at it today. But, in my defense I didn't have the knowledge or tooling that I currently posses. My brother already had the motors and drives ready to put on it. He still uses this same machine. He doesn't use it much.. . and has to call me up every time he pulls it out to make something with it, so I can tell him how to draw a part and make the Gcode, but I was able to make it with some items I had laying around and $100 in aluminum. He has switched out that spindle for a full size router and upgraded his motor drives and added limit switches.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cnc_router_table_machines/36318-off_afganistan.html

We have also been talking about setting up a portable shop on a 4' X 8' trailer. He lives in California and thinks that he could make a bit of extra cash on the weekends going to swap meets and craft shows making signs on the fly. So, we were thinking that I could build a machine that would use a pair of deep cycle marine batteries running 24v to power a cordless trim router as a spindle and the stepper/servo motor drives. He could mount a few solar panels and a charge controller to keep the batteries topped off when not in use. The trailer would be plenty big enough to hold the machine, materials and finishing supplies. Of course, we are still just talking about it.

I will try and get some photos of my machines shrunk down in size and uploaded sometime. In the mean time.. Here is a link to the stuff that I make:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32402081@N03/

And my site for the plasma cutting side of things:
http://www.austinbarnettdesigns.com/index.html

WOW the stuff that you make looks unreal! Top Stuff!

Thanks. It allows me to work from home, and with four kids... I don't have to worry about the house getting burnt to the ground while I am at work. Plus its cool to get the kids involved occasionally. The other day my daughter wanted to make a machine, a candy making machine. I had her draw up some plans, she's eight. After looking them over, I said lets start out with one of the parts. She had a dump mechanism on it that would dump out a bunch of candy at a time. So we broke that into a simple component and got to work. I must admit I did hog most of the actual work.. but at the end of the afternoon we had an air cylinder hooked up to a solenoid valve, which was hooked to an old PLC and a button for a trigger. If you pushed the button the air cylinder would expand. She was alright with that and just kept hitting the button over and over again. Next we need to swap out that button for a sensor and add a counter to the PLC program. That way it can count the items and dump them when there is a certain amount. Of course that will take the fun out of hitting the button.

Hi guys I am having a problem with working out how to get my cables (4) up to the x-axis (the part that moves from left to right). I want to use drag chain (google it if your not sure) but I have no where to 'mount' the drag chain. I don't really want to have the cables suspended from the roof, as it would look like crap, and I want the whole machine to be one unit, as in I can move it at a later date.

I have thought about making another gantry (bridge) purely for the drag chain (see pictures) but I think it would like look an after thought.

What do you guys suggest? Anything creative? Cheers.

On my plasma table I used a light gauge piece of steel bent to form a channel. Then mounted that onto some little arms which suspended it off to the side of the Axis. It should work just fine for your machine also.

How are you driving your axis' I am starting to plan a new machine and am thinking of doing something like the servo belt drive system. Of course that would be if I can't find a great deal on some ball screws. I really want to have a machine around for fun projects. I have a few nice chunks of aluminum laying around just begging for me to do something with them.

Nice looking machine

I've been doing some thinking and research about the z-axis. I have recently thought it would be nice to have a 4th rotary axis to do lathe like work. There are a few problems though, like not having a 4 axis compatible controller, but you can trick the computer into thinking its moving from left to right when it is actually just spinning the material in the rotary axis!

But with the addition of the rotary axis I think the gantry isn't high enough. Its difficult to design a cnc mill when your not sure what you are going to be using it for, so a tip for those that are considering a build, think long and hard about what your going to be making. I guess Jamie is going to be making his robot so he would already know what his cutting requirements are.
I want to build things like headphones, floor standing speakers, stencils, small pieces of furniture and anything else that I feel like.

So yes I think I'm going to have to raise the x-axis to allow more cutting space for the rotary axis. However be increasing the height means that my z-axis ballscrew and linear rails won't be long enough, which is a real bummer. If only I could start building a cnc mill now with the knowledge I have gained.

How big of stuff do you want to be able to do on your rotary axis? Looks to me like you have the room to do most things that you would normally need to do. Remember that you would need to have longer than usual router bits if you wanted to do anything larger than 4-5 inches in diameter. Otherwise everything would have to get tapered in. So if you wanted to do something that was 8" in diameter and it had a small diameter somewhere on the part that was only 1" then you would need to be able to cut into it 3.5 inches deep. That is a pretty deep cut for a regular router and something to keep in mind before you go changing your machine around.

i've thought about doing this many times myself. I will someday, but right now I'm working on other things.

I can tell you that the hardest part (atleast in my opinion) will be the computer interface and control software.

The rest isn't nearly as difficult as that part.

Actually, its not as difficult as it seems. I remember back in the days when I was starting out, a guy would have to do a lot of searching and reading on the internet to find the answers to all the questions one would have. Nowadays though, you just need to watch any of the video tutorials available. Mach3 has a video tutorial webpage that covers basic and even more advanced setups. If that isn't enough there is always youtube and google videos. Once you are up and running things start to make a bit more sense, and before you know it all your friends and family think that you are a genius.

I have tried to explain to all of them, I am not a genius, but they see the machine and all the little wires and motors and they just don't understand how anyone could figure it all out. The thing is, it's not any more difficult than almost anything in life, its just a little less common of a way for a guy to spend his free time. I myself am not a sports fan... I would much rather be spending my time thinking of a way to motorize something.

Hi just been working on the z-axis this weekend. I wanted to make it all at of aluminium, but didn't have the cash so I've gone for the easy option as the pictures below will show. It looks really bulky and it weighs a tonne. Its not quite done but its starting to take shape.

Your right its not as difficult as it sounds, but it sure is fun..........and expensive!