First step after creating my rough sketch was to draw a 2D sketch of the parts of the machine.
-Here are the settings I used:
For the motor holder I decided to use the same material as the bearings, fusion360 to design it and The Easy worker CNC machine to mill it .
Regarding the electronics of my machine I decided to be as efficient as possible, meaning if it's cheaper to make it on my own I make it, If otherwise I buy it. Following this approach I decided to make a microcontroller board and a distribution board but buy the stepper drivers.
The microcontroller board is a slightly compact version of SatshaKit and the Stepper drivers are Pololu A4988 .
I used Eagle to design the PCBs and Roland MDX-40 machine to mill them.
Microcontroller Board
-Here are the settings I used:
As the structure is made of wood it was really easy to assemble, I just needed a small plastic hammer to fit the joints together. There were some other tasks related to the assembling like fixing the motors to their holders and the bearings in their right place.
To control the machine I decided to use GRBL to send the Gcode which I generate using Fabmodules
$1 = 25 (Step idle delay, milliseconds)
$2 = 0 (Step pulse invert, mask)
$3 = 0 (Step direction invert, mask)
$4 = 0 (Invert step enable pin, boolean)
$5 = 0 (Invert limit pins, boolean)
$6 = 0 (Invert probe pin, boolean)
$10 = 1 (Status report options, mask)
$11 = 0.010 (Junction deviation, millimeters)
$12 = 0.002 (Arc tolerance, millimeters)
$13 = 0 (Report in inches, boolean)
$20 = 0 (Soft limits enable, boolean)
$21 = 1 (Hard limits enable, boolean)
$22 = 1 (Homing cycle enable, boolean)
$23 = 0 (Homing direction invert, mask)
$24 = 250.000 (Homing locate feed rate, mm/min)
$25 = 500.000 (Homing search seek rate, mm/min)
$26 = 250 (Homing switch debounce delay, milliseconds)
$27 = 3.000 (Homing switch pull-off distance, millimeters)
$30 = 1000 (Maximum spindle speed, RPM)
$31 = 0 (Minimum spindle speed, RPM)
$32 = 0 (Laser-mode enable, boolean)
$100 = 400.000 (X-axis travel resolution, step/mm)
$101 = 400.000 (Y-axis travel resolution, step/mm)
$102 = 400.000 (Z-axis travel resolution, step/mm)
$110 = 500.000 (X-axis maximum rate, mm/min)
$111 = 500.000 (Y-axis maximum rate, mm/min)
$112 = 500.000 (Z-axis maximum rate, mm/min)
$120 = 10.000 (X-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2)
$121 = 10.000 (Y-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2)
$122 = 10.000 (Z-axis acceleration, mm/sec^2)
$130 = 200.000 (X-axis maximum travel, millimeters)
$131 = 200.000 (Y-axis maximum travel, millimeters)
$132 = 200.000 (Z-axis maximum travel, millimeters)
To evaluate how good is my machine I set a challenge which is milling a working FabISP. In this section I am documenting the testing process of my machine.
After all the trials and errors I found the correct settings for the machine to work properly. Here are all the tips