I am almost finished building my mpcnc. I’m at the wiring stage and unsure where/how to mount the rambo board.
Question 1.
Should I build or print an enclosure for it to keep it clean from debris/dust or will it get too hot? Also not sure where to place it should it on the table, on a corner, or on the z axis? I’m kinda lost here.
Question 2.
I started this project before reading the forum posts. It seems as though everyone says the machine should be small for precision/accuracy. I built mine just under 36"x36" so I would have a 25"x25" work area. Did I go too big? Does this mean I won’t be able to cut aluminum with reasonable accuracy?
Dust in the heat sinks will reduce their performance, enclosing the drivers in a box will increase the temp. BUT, it’s really fine. If you are going to be running your machine alot, then the first thing you can mill is a box for it. If you enclose it, then just do yourself a favor and make a hole for a 12V fan, and some exit holes for the air to leave.
I think it’s 90% aesthetics, people wanting to make it look more professional. You’d mount it to the table somewhere. I mounted mine on a shelf under the table, just so the gravity fed dust wouldn’t settle on it. Pay attention to where the LCD will be, and where you are clamping your work down.
Ryan has a design for a ramps enclosure with a fan (@Ryan, does it work with the rambo?). It’s a 3D printed case.
Don’t worry too much. Making it smaller is just a few conduit cuts away. Start with some foam, or a pen, then cut some wood, then cut a bunch more wood, then start working with aluminum. At that point, you’ll be able to see what problems are caused by conduit flex, or whatever. You can then figure out what quality you can get with Al, and decide if you’d rather more quality, or more work area. AFAIK, There’s never been a good answer to this, because everyone’s ideal is different. My MPCNC was 24x36in cutting area and I’m pretty confident it could cut aluminum, but maybe not consistently. I had the previous version though, which is not as rigid or square as the 525 version. I was using 3/4" EMT, so if you have SS tubes, and the 525 version, you are way ahead of me. (((I only have the Low Rider now, I disassembled my MPCNC))).
I put my electronics in a small drawer made from scrap mdf and mounted it under the table top. It was only the cost of cheap 12in drawer slides. I drilled holes in the bottom of the drawer to match the fan vent on the PS. I drilled and glued in dowels in the bottom of the drawer to keep the PS and ramps from moving around.
I added a small hole directly above the drawer to feed cables out to the table top.
A lot of folks have theirs looking great with 3d printed enclosures. I don’t have a 3d printer, so that was not an option for me.
@Dalton, That seems like a really good solution. You should post some pics about it (Maybe make a post so folks can ask you questions, too). Did you make the drawer with the CNC, or other woodworking tools? With the small weight needed for the electronics, I would think just butt joints and 1/2" or even 3/8" material would be fine. Just don’t throw your big wrench in there.
((( I love it when the machine can improve itself ))).
Yeah I am building the 525, but with emt to save on costs. I found an enclosure for the rambo on thingiverse and put a hundred more holes in it for air flow. I’ll order a fan online to add to the mix. I am almost done printing the parts, only the motor mounts left! I picked up some wire wrap today and downloaded some cable chain models. I can’t wait to get this thing cutting. Thanks for the advice guys, I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions later. Here’s a pic of my current progress.
I think what you better build is a dust collection system.
Enclosures are nice, but without a dust collection system you’ll end up having dust everywhere, no matter what. And dust will be sucked into your enclosures too, especially if you use fans to cool the drivers (which is something I recommend you to do to avoid problems).
About the size, it really depends on what you plan to do and how you did build your table. The toughest materials and the more precision you want, the smaller and stiffer your machine should be, but if it is just for cutting wood then size isn’t much of an issue. Your machine size seems to be roughly the same size as mine and I don’t have any precision issue. My table arrangement is probably a bit stiffer though.
From what I see on your picture, you’ve cut your spoil board a bit too short on the right side. It is very likely that your router bit will go further, so you are sacrificing a bit of cutting surface. On the left side, the spoil board could have been shorter. Basically, what I mean is that both sides are not supposed to be symetric, because of the router position. I see many people doing this mistake when building their tables (it’s not a big mistake though)
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about designing some kind of dust collection system, but too far in the future for me right now. I got my spindle in the mail today (dewalt dw660) printed 3 of the 4 motor mounts and set 3 of the belts. My goal is to have it up and running this weekend, if wife, kids, work and life don’t get in the way. I totally understand the non-symmetrical spoil board issue, just wish i noticed it before I built the table. Thanks though.
As far as the large holes go I have some nice low profile, but wide woodworking clamps I wanted to be able to use for holding material so I oversized them.
Thanks for all the help fellas, I’ll keep you posted.
Well, here’s the update to my project. Finished the build. Haven’t built a vaccuum setup yet but made an enclosure and rigged up an old cpu fan and tower. Lots of experimenting to go, but here are my first cuts. 1st was 1/8" bit on poplar, 2nd was 1/16" on pine.
Lets see a picture of your complete build I think there might be a few issues. 692 looks pretty good but you have over and under cuts. 693 looks like too fast or something.
on the second one the vector I created was a little too detailed. I think I would need to scale it larger to get the fine details, and it also was in really soft pine, I actually dented the back with my finger when removing the plastic wrap. If any of that helps.
Detail should be no problem, I mean as much as the wood will hold but the machine can hold very detailed cuts with the proper speeds and the softer the material the better. What speeds were you using, in what software, what kind of bits?
This is from the gallery, in what looks to be pine.
Wow! Impressive! I’m still using the basic settings from the estlcam beginner tutorial. As far as the bit goes it’s a 1/16" fluted endmill I bought from you.
For the 693 picture a vbit would be a slightly better choice, but you would have to cut deeper or make sure your work was really level to get a consistent cut.
