3D printer & CNC design

[curious aardvark]

Also make sure that you have something laser proof under whatever you are cutting.
Printing surfaces are not usually laser proof.

And don't forget the smoke :-) Some kind of extraction hood and exhaust to outside is a good idea, and easy to do. You could get away with something as simple as a computer case fan and an expanding tumble dryer tube.

The only things I've engraved are very small peices of leather and woodfill filament. Fortunately i like the smell of burning leather and i don't think the filament gave off any noticeable smoke.

That was with just a 1000mw laser though.

[awerby]

Commercial laser systems are totally enclosed and shielded. If yours isn't, you had better be extremely careful not to let the laser hit anything shiny. A stray reflection can easily blind you.

[Trakyan]

Commercial laser systems are totally enclosed and shielded. If yours isn't, you had better be extremely careful not to let the laser hit anything shiny. A stray reflection can easily blind you.

The most important piece of advice for the machine itself. CA's point about fume extraction is also very important for the actual use of the machine. I'll admit it's not so bad with wood and leather, but vinyl, acrylic and PVC which I've seen people cut on these self made machines will put out something real nasty when hit by the laser. All three of those (and more) contain chlorine, so when they burn (which is what engraving or cutting with a laser does, it burns through the material), they create chlorine gas. That stuff is nasty, I'll leave it at that.

[KrYpTOCiD]

Also make sure that you have something laser proof under whatever you are cutting.
Printing surfaces are not usually laser proof.

And don't forget the smoke :-) Some kind of extraction hood and exhaust to outside is a good idea, and easy to do. You could get away with something as simple as a computer case fan and an expanding tumble dryer tube.

The only things I've engraved are very small peices of leather and woodfill filament. Fortunately i like the smell of burning leather and i don't think the filament gave off any noticeable smoke.

That was with just a 1000mw laser though.

Can you tell me what depth and speed were you cutting?
And thank you for laser proof tip

[emwest]

Has anyone here made their own cnc? Our makerspace made a cheap (<$100 with stuff lying around) cartesian that is... ok.

[Trakyan]

Not yet, but I am planning to. Mine will be low cost, no more than a couple hundred dollars and 1-0.5m square cutting area. How big was the CNC at your makerspace? I don't imagine it could be too big for <$100.

[awerby]

Has anyone here made their own cnc? Our makerspace made a cheap (<$100 with stuff lying around) cartesian that is... ok.

If it worked at all, that's quite an accomplishment for that budget. You can expect to pay a lot more for the parts of a half-decent CNC router, if you don't have a lot of the required components lying around. Depending on size, figure $1000 - $4000 for a medium-duty machine, paying yourself nothing for your labor. For more help and inspiration on DIY CNC, check out CNCzone.com .

[Trakyan]

I think you can do cheaper than 1k on a self sourced machine. Chinese machines with aluminium profiles and leadscrews can be found for 200-600 in various sizes. You could build something like the xcarve for a few hundred dollars worth of import parts. Granted, quality wont be amazing and you wont be milling steel, but woods and aluminium (slowly) are doable.

[Don McLean]

I wrote a big long post with responses to a number of quotes but then realized that it was overkill.

We really don't know what it is you want to cut with the CNC router part of this.

You could do some very nice wood carvings at a very slow speed with a hybrid machine, but forget about aluminum.

If you could give some more details and perhaps some pics of the cad files of what you want to make and what you want to cut exactly, the advice would be more relevant.

Trakyan, you are overly optomistic. Also, when you bump up to a router, things cost alot more. The speed of a filament printer is slow compared to a proper CNC router and very very slow compared to a commercial laser. IMO, filament printers are not made as spartan as they are in order to increase speed, they are made this way to reduce cost, and because beefier components aren't necessary to achieve the goals.

Unless you are talking about an XY area that is very large, I don't see an advantage in combining the two machines, and I think you would be better off to keep them separate.

[Modelworks]

Check out the MPCNC (mostly printed CNC).
It has been through a few revisions and is very capable and totally DIY so you can customize. The tool holder uses a mount that you can put a print head of any size, a laser, or like on mine a dewalt cutter for spindle that can cut wood, plastic, metal. It uses RAMPS boards for control and a modified marlin firmware so that all the printing functions can remain intact.

I used stepper motors from a previous 3d printer and the ramps board, I only had to buy pipe, belts, dewalt dw660, bolts and nuts and then print the parts.
The site has a full parts list down to the bolts.
Check it out on www.vicious1.com