And I built a panel saw.
Do you have a specific questions?
Thanks for all the answers guys, it's appreciated big time.
My boss is now stalling me on building my own CNC... I guess he doesn't have the confidence I can build a decent one for under $6k.
My original plan was to use supported rails with twin ballscrew drives on the bed and single ballscrew on my gantry and buy a prebuilt Z axis unit with ballscrew off ebay. I want to use Mach3 software and a hand controller. I was going with the Gecko 540 controllers with USB, 2kw water cooled spindle motor.
Do you think that twin NEMA 23 motors around 640oz. driving twin Ballscrews is adequate to drive the Gantry up and down the bed?
The frame was going to be 8020 extruded aluminum sitting on a mdf bed. The rails would attach to the extruded frame. The gantry was going to have 1/2" aluminum side frames with supported rails spanning the gantry. Driving the gantry would be a single NEMA 23 motor w/640 oz.
A question about the motors, do I need to consider gear reduction drives or simply couple directly to the ballscrews?
I'm mainly wanting this to cut my print media, mostly sintra and styrene. Later on I would consider work in 3D signage, etc. Not really looking to cut anything tougher than media right now. Later on I may want to mill some mdf sheetings in relief that we currently do on one of our shop Komos.
thanks!
Ray