Almost there on the CNC router.

If I had the right cable I would have been able to make my steppers move today.  I need a 25 pin m/m cable.  All I had was a serial m/f cable.  So, I need the correct one or a m/m gender changer.


Electronics board mostly wired.  All that is missing is the steppers.  They got wired, but I still couldn't test.



Finally got my Dremel mounted.  I waited until now because I was still using it to cut stuff. 

I still need electronics for my Clondel.

This is just a list of different electronics and where to get them.
Gecko - http://www.geckodrive.com/ark-2/support.html?id=14
TechZone - http://www.reprapstores.com/catalog/electronics/complete-electronic-kits-0

MEGA Pololu Shield (RAMPS) PCB - http://ultimachine.com/ramps

From Reprap1x2 - http://mrkimrobotics.com/?page_id=1265 

Kits at the makerbot store. - http://store.makerbot.com/electronics.html

There are others, this is just the short list of tabs that I had open in my browser.

Other newbies building repraps.

Here are a couple others who are also building reprap machines.

JSR is building a Mendel.
Wai Jun Ho is building a Mendel

Prusa frame complete

I got the basic frame built on my Conedel Prusa last night. I picked up a 6 inch cutoff saw from harbor freight and it made the cutting of smooth and threaded rod much easier.  I found that some of the pieces that I clamped when drilling aren't quite as perfect as I had hoped.  This is yet another reason to re-do the drilling guide.  The z-axis motor mounts ended up getting their holes drilled a little too far apart which made mounting them difficult.  They seem to fit OK for now, but they may need to be the first pieces that I print and replace.
Today I am going to finish building the Prusa and then work on getting a computer setup for the BluumaxCNC.  I have a stack of computers and none of them are in any shape to drive the thing right now.

Update

I have been really busy at work.  While I have had some time to work in the shop, I haven't had time to blog.
I purchased the Bluumaxcnc.com gantry router setup.  It was pretty easy to build.  I had a couple little issues, but in retrospect, I think I was sleep deprived.  It is fully assembled now.  I working on setting up a PC for it.  I hope to have it built and be making some sawdust this weekend.

On the Prusa front, I still haven't gotten the couplers that weren't in my kit from Metrix hackerspace.  I need to follow up with another email.  I have cut all the smooth rod for it.  I will cut the threaded rod this weekend, as I think I will have access to a cut-off saw.  Cutting all this rod with either a Dremel or hacksaw makes for a great deal of work.  With the Dremel, you cannot get a straight cut due to the diameter of the handle.  I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if you had some sort of 90 degree attachment that made the attack angle of the blade more like that of a angle grinder.  I still owe you an updated "How to drill the Prusa parts" document.  The one that I wrote recommends using a clamp and Metrix and others do not recommend that as hand holding the parts will allow the drill bit to migrate into the divot. I just worry that my angles will be off.  I need to decide how I am going to re-write it.

Hopefully I will have more time to write this weekend.  I should get a video up of my first cut too.

Parts is parts is parts is here.

I got my McMaster Carr order today.  25 pounds of hardware goodness.  I will now start to assemble my clonedel.  YAY!!  I am very excited.

Finished drilling the Clonedel parts. Updated drill document to come.

I "finished" drilling my Clonedel parts today.  I put finished in quotes because all the holes that need to be drilled have not yet been.  However, I couldn't go any further with the process tonight.  I don't have a 5mm drill bit for the pulley shaft.  Also, the "x-end motor" assembly has marks for a motor, but mine won't fit any of them.  I need to review this.

I learned a lot about the process and have pictures to help clarify much of this.  I don't have time to update the doc tonight. So, here are some notes.  These are the things that I am going to add to the How-To.

Drilling these parts is not a race.  You will need to slow down and be really careful on some of them, as there is a likelihood that they will snap unless supported.

Dust management is ESSENTIAL!  Since I was using the drill press vice to support all of the pieces, I was able to hold my shop vacuum nozzle close to the workpiece and kept the drill bit clean.  If you don't keep your drill bit clean, you are more likely to experience binding of the piece, and binding can lead to breakage.

The bar clamps are very fragile.  The original drilling guide recommended using an extra piece of rod to support the "loop end." Trying this technique, I broke one of my bar clamps.  (nothing a little super glue couldn't fix) I found that it is more important to support the ends that you are drilling.  I put a thick piece of corrugated cardboard between them.  I matched the thickness to match the opening.  So, I now have a sandwich of cardboard between the two pieces of plastic that need to be drilled.  I locked the bottom piece in my drill press vice and that left the cardboard sitting directly on the vice face and the other piece resting securely above.   I then drilled very slowly to avoid letting that top piece bind.  Once I got through the top piece the rest was simple.  The bottom piece could support a lot more speed.

If your pieces are cast in a clear(ish) resin, it is sometimes to see the smaller drill locator markers.  If you lightly sand the piece, these markers will become more visable.

In the clonedels, the x-end-idler and the x-end-motor are two pieces each.  There are V-channels running the length of each of them.  These are instead of having to drill VERY long 5/16 holes for the rod.

Since the Z-motor mounts are not flat, I flipped the second one and clamped them face to face.  This helped assure the the holes would be parallel to the "back."

Remember, Drilly Pete says to be careful and protect the parts you don't want to lose.

How to drill Clonedel Prusa parts -- part 2.

I have created a document which will hopefully help those with the Clonedel Prusa parts to drill them out.  It is available in the right hand sidebar  as "Drilling Clonedel Prusa Parts" and also at available on my main site: http://www.new2cnc.com/how-to-drill.html.

It is basically the parts of the documents I linked to in the previous post combined into something that is hopefully helpful.   It took me much longer than I expected to write this.  Tomorrow I will drill my pieces.

How to drill Clonedel Prusa parts and more importantly where and with what sized bit?

If you have been reading this blog, you may have realized that I will occasionally miss something.  I guess that makes it a little more real.  Well, I have been searching for the single simple "How To" for drilling these Clonedel parts.  It does not seem to exist.
What I have come across are:
What to drill?   -- This states what size bit to use for each type of hole in each named part.  However, it doesn't say which part is which or which hole in a part is which.
Which part to drill?  -- This is the RepRap page for assembling the Prusa.  It includes images of each piece with descriptions of what parts attach to it.  Using this with the What to drill page should give us a good drill plan.
There is also an outstanding set of Visual Build Instructions that can help you visualize what goes where.

Since the community is in need of a document to help with this, I am going to create one.  Unless YOU know where one already exists.

Progress on both builds.

I ended up ordering the Gantry system from Bluumax CNC. It should get here on Thursday. The power supply for it should get here on Wednesday. I will have to go out on Wednesday and pick up the MDF for it.

I also ordered all of the "vitamins" for the Clonedel Prusa. They could get here as early as Monday, but probably later. In order to get ready to build this next weekend I will have to spend this weekend getting the parts cleaned and drilled. Figuring out the where and what size to drill seems difficult. I found a page today but it only says what size for each named part. however, I don't know what the part names are. I found another page with images and part names. I will put those two together to make a more usable diagram.

When I thought that I was building the McWire, I ordered 4 Nema 23 stepper motors. Those arrived today. I am sure I will find a use for them. Right now, they just look cool.

To Do:

• Research and create a more complete drill plan for the Clonedel Prusa parts.
• Do the actual cleaning and drilling of these parts.
• Purchase the few parts that are not included in the Bluumax Gantry CNC kit.
• Make space in the shop for these two new machines.
• Research dust management. MDF is REALLY dust and dirty.
• Build a dust management solution.
• Yard work (not CNC related but really needs to be done as my yard collected many leaves over the winter and they are probably killing my grass)

Please, if you have any questions or comment please include them below. This blog will be much stronger with input.

CORRECTION: McMaster did not eat my order.

-UPDATE-

While I still think that there website kind of sucks, it appears that the majority of the issues that I was having at McMaster-Carr were because I created an order as a guest and I was afraid that I might lose the order when I created an account so I emailed the order to myself. Well, when you email an order, it disappears from their system. In order to get it back you have to click the Order button in the email they send. The fact that the email from their website took over an hour to arrive did not help the situation.

The good news is that you can just paste a list of parts and quantities into their form and have it create an order for you. I will work on getting the parts lists into this format to make it easier for you.

McMaster.com ate my order.

I put an order for Mendel vitamins on McMaster.com. This was the order that I was going to cut and paste the invoice from, so that you could see what I ordered. Well, I couldn't get their website to take the payment information and then *POOF* it was gone. Now I get to put it all in again. I will post it afterwards. So, please be careful at McMaster. Their website kind of sucks.

Parts is parts, sometimes literally.

I got these resin cast clonedel parts a couple weeks ago from http://metrixcreatespace.com/. The parts look pretty nice. They will certainly need some cleanup and as you can see in the upper left hand corner, that part has a bubble in it. I can't imagine that it will cause a problem. I may print a replacement for that part first, just in case. The parts are cast and as such, most of the holes will need to be drilled. If you are considering this approach, I strongly hope that you have a drill press. I can't tell what size holes i need to put in each piece yet, as I am still looking for that. Now that more parts are getting here I need to figure it out. I am only missing the "vitamins," power supply, and controllers and the power supply is on it's way. As for the vitamins, these are all of the non-electronic components that you cannot print. This is the threaded rod, nuts, bolts, washers, etc. Watch for the forthcoming Clonedel Prusa page --> in the right hand sidebar. It will have links to lists of the parts needed, with McMaster-Carr part numbers.

When I read through the Clondel part information listed on the Metrix Createspace site, I came to the belief that there was NOT an extruder included. Therefore, I found an Ebay seller wither reasonable pricing on the Wade's extruder, which I purchased.

Well, let me tell you that I was a little surprised when I was comparing parts ton

ight only to realize that there in fact WAS a Wade's Extruder included with the Clonedel parts. Here are the printed version (left) and the Clonedel parts for comparison. For a larger version of this image, check my New2CNC photostream on Flickr. So, you don't need to buy a Wade's Extruder if you buy the clonedel set.

Soon I will be posting about cleaning and drilling the clonedel parts. Once I get my order from McMaster-Carr, I will start construction.

I got steppers!!

I picked up some Nema 17 steppers on Ebay. I got 10 of them. It was a good deal if I ever come up with a use for the rest. I don't expect that will be a problem.

Thinking about the Bluumax Gantry Router

I have been looking at videos and posts about the Bluumax gantry router (kit) from http://www.bluumaxcnc.com. For $415 you get an almost ready to run kit. You only have to supply a few pieces that are heavy or that you could source more inexpensively in your local market or online. Basically, you have to provide some MDF, lead screws and a 24V power supply.

The gantry towers are made of plexi and some users say that they can add a little flex to the design. There are some posts and images on the bluumax yahoo group that address this. The prime alternative is still the McWire instructable.

. . .and one step back.

I was just working on creating a page about RepStrap machines that I found interesting. In doing so, I came across an article about the McWire RepStrap. The McWire is essentially the base router machine that I was planning on building. The article has a headline stating "McWire is a Death March. Do not build one. You have been warned! :D" WHY!?!?!? I am going to work on contacting the author of the article to see if they can give me some insight. If I have to cancel or change which router to build, there will already be money in my wasted column.

Welcome to New2CNC

I am starting this blog as an attempt to document my trip into The World of CNC. I have been interested in CNC devices for years. I have wanted to build one for a long time. As with many people these days, money stands in my way. Therefore, I am going to look for the most inexpensive ways to build this machinery. Over the course of this blog I would like to build a CNC router and a 3D printer.

There are a large number of CNC router projects on instructables and other websites. For the 3D printer it seems to come down to a choice between one of the RepRap iterations or a Makerbot.

I will keep a running list of costs for each of these as I go along. I hope you follow along.