DIY CNC project

[FE3X CLONE]

Been working on this off an on for the past few months. Managed to make more headway lately and basically have the machine ready for the electronics. Working on applying a few coats of stain and polyurethane to keep the MDF from staining and making it easy to clean.

 

[jdietschweiler]

Thats pretty cool

 

[hurst1979olds]

I'm curious as to what the capabilities of this are? What is the range of Z?

 

[FE3X CLONE]

You can do quite a bit with one of these. Obviously you can cut wood which is what most use them for but they can also cut aluminum with the right feed rates, etc.

The machine has a 20" Y-axis by 40" X-axis by 5" Z-axis travel.

I'd like to adapt it to fit my plasma cutter for cutting sheet metal but in the mean time I'm going to try cutting the sheet metal with the router to see how it does.

I'll post more pics in the next day or so. Finished the staining and polyurethane and I'm working on the final assembly now. Probably looks more like a fancy piece of furniture tan CNC machine but I think it looks cool.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Finished most of the staining and polyurethane on the machine and reassembled everything.

Made a couple of brackets to hold my router in place but will allow easy removal if needed.

Need to remake the base piece under the router so that's why it hasn't been finished with any stain or poly.

Also routed out a series of grooves in the table surface where I'll be installing the T-Track down the road.

BTW, MDF is like a sponge when it comes to polyurethane. It took a minimum of 4-5 coats just to get it to stop soaking the stuff up and retain a glossy finish. I think I just a little over a quart of the stuff on the whole project.

 

[hurst1979olds]

Looks like high quality furniture!

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Used an old computer monitor and mounted it to the CNC table using a $30 flat screen swing arm.
Also added the T-track to the table but need to order one more piece. Came up a little short.
Revised the vacuum dust shoe below the router. I didn't like the way the other one had the vacuum hose way out in front so I moved it off to the side.
I have a 2" strip brush coming tomorrow that I'm going to mount to the bottom of the shoe to provide the vacuum with a little better suction.

 

[Carlola]

Thats so cool. I might like to give making one a try someday, the computer side of things gives me headaches tho.

 

[dogsht]

Nice work Andrew. Be interesting to see what you do with it. Hey I thought only my garage looked like that in the background.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Hey I thought only my garage looked like that in the background.

It's funny but that seems to be what everyone is more impressed with. lol

I do need more space though. I've come up with a few barn designs but the one below is what I've been working on construction documents for in my spare time.

Just need more money. 🙁