CHEAP ARDUINO CNC

thank you you helpen me a lot just by opening that instructable !! now enyoy my instructable.

this is my first instructable. i show you updates on my cnc machine which will cost about 200 euro's for still decent quality.
don't hate if you dont like this instructable, I'm just an 18 years old student from belguim sharing his ideas and creations whith other people. becous i think working together and sharing idea's will make better projects.

this is what the machine looks like right now. ill post new photos every time i advance building

i know my video's are not the best. i'm working hard to show you how everything works so it would be nice if you watched at least a peace of all of them to support my project.

ELECTRONICS



the most important part of the cnc machine is the controller. if you dont understand how stepper motors work its verry hard to get everything working. Basicly, stepper motors are motors who take steps (mine are 1,8° per step) instead of turning around when you apply voltage. thi gives verry precise controll. my stepper driver i made with 3 easydrivers. 1 arduino . and some sparkfun stepper motors. all this comes from sparkfun. ATTENTION!! in the first video i have a arduino leonardo. this one will not work. you have to get a uno. this will make a bigg difference in the next step.









after you have your easydrivers and arduino connected you need to install a program grbl. on your arduino. this will understand g code and make the motors move.

LINEAR MOVEMENT !

another verry important part of your machine will be the movement. this needs to be both smooth and accurate. you cant just use wheels becous that would be innacurate, but you can also not use a verry heavy mail becous that would not be smooth. so you have to find somthing in between. i used some regular drawer slides with ball bearings inside from the local hardware store. the positive side about this is:

-strong
-accurate
-smooth

negative:

-comes out of the machine while moving.

as you can see this is almost everything we need. the only negative side is that the iron bars will come out on the back of my machine to get the full movement. if this is your first machine i recommend you use this.

DREMEL MOUNT

another important part of your machine will be the spindle. most cheap diy cnc machines use a dremel or other multi tool for this. my dremel can get from 10000 to 33000 rpm which is verry good. of course a real mill would do a better job but also costs much more.
to mount the dremmel i just took 2 18mm woorden planks an bolted them together. theis size is about 8cm by 8cm. after that i made a bigg hole in it where the dremmel just fits trought but already i stuck. last i made a hole with a bolt to secure the dremmel in place. make sure to do this as straight as possible to make your machine as accurate as posible. on the botthom i made a hole for my M8 rod to go throug and secured the bolt in place with some hot glue.

Z-AXIS

since both the X and Y carriage are done ill show you how i made my Z-axis.

1: i took a 8cm by 20cm wooden plate and mounted a vertical 8cm by 10cm wooden plate on it. also my small drawer slides where mounted on top. as you can see i made some holes in the backplate so the slides can fit.


2:i mounted my dremel mount on a second plate which was mounted on the other side of the drawer slides.

3: Next ill have to attach the motor and the M8 rod to the Z-AXIS. right now it can move free but it's verry strong. it has about 20cm travel.

the machine is now finished. testing is now in progress. some alignment needs to be done as wel as configuring grbl propperly.
below are some pictures of the final machine. tnx for reading this instructable. if you have any quastions feel free to ask. Plz go to the link below and subscribe to my youtube channel. it only takes a few seconds and it helps me a lot. enjoy the pictures.

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