I am a mentor on a First Robotics Competition (FRC) team from Rochester, MN. (Team 2530 ‘iNCONCEIVABLE’ http://www.frcteam2530.org ).
We have a small shop and share space with a middle school classroom, so have been previously limited to hand tools, a drill press, a brake and a few saws that can be stored away between meetings. We have not had a CNC for the team as they were generally too big and too expensive to consider. We discover V1Engineering and decided to try building one this year. Building a CNC from a kit of parts and learning how to control it has been an amazing learning experience for our entire team.
We are now able to manufacture things with more precision and speed than ever before and it has been a game-changer this season where getting the ‘gripper’ and the ‘fingers’ for game pieces (a heavey/slippery traffic cone and an odd square beachball) right has been difficult. Rapid prototyping and iteration/improvement of a design has been key to our success. We’ve done lots of wood, HDPE and some foam with a hot wire cutter. Look forward to trying aluminum when we are more confident.
Wanted to share this great experience! Would be happy to discuss in more detail on our building ‘adventure’, learning how to use the Mostly Printed CNC and the software (Kiri:Moto) to control it.
Plans for the cart we built to use and store this are also attached in the link below. We have an extremely functional 3x3’ CNC with cart that can fit through a door and store upright for about $1500.
I handed out some pamphlets with a QR code that references V1 MPCNC, Kiri:Moto and our plans for the cart at a recent regional FRC competition in LaCrosse, WI. Lots of teams were excited by the possibilities. I’ve linked the document I shared below.
Thanks to V1 for an amazing design and inexpensive way to machine precision parts!
This is awesome. My oldest son has been learning a bit from my MPCNC as well. He’s the project manager for FRC Team 4111 (“Some Assembly Required” FRC Event Web : Team 4111). His teammates opted for 3D printing more this year for their “claw”, but he’s seen the advantages of milling from thick acrylic or wood. We’re not ready for Aluminum yet.
FRC has been a great experience for him and his teammates. I did wonder if there were others on this forum involved at either the participant or mentor/coach levels. I agree that Ryan’s creation is an awesome way for high school students to get started with motion systems and CNC.
Thanks to you for being a mentor/coach, and thanks to Ryan for his work!
Mentor from 4627 here! We have a metal CNC at the school but I’ve been building my MPCNC so I can keep up with what’s going on at the school. Hope y’all are having a fruitful competition season!
Brian, and Team 2530,
Welcome to the MPCNC Primo party. For me, I’ve had 2 MPCNC’s for 4 years now and cut parts/turning blanks for my business with them. I have done quite a few 3d carves as well.
There was a recent post on the forums about expanding the reach of the V1 products. This was one venue no one even thought about.
I read the Google doc you posted, and your build looks good, and has that tilt functionality that many need to conserve space.
What a cool thing to use the machine for.
Please if you can post pics and keep us informed. And welcome to the forum. And good luck on the competitions
The whole team was involved in the build and we have 2-3 students who are now very facile and can run the whole thing from model creation in CAD to setup in Kiri:Moto and manufacturing on the MPCNC. Getting our ‘electronics board’ with dozens of holes in just the right place would have taken days before. We made 7 different iterations of the ‘gripper’ named with greek letters. I think we are up to ‘Zeta’ with 3 fingers on each side and a silicone pad that really holds the cones well. We made little logos. We made giant numbers. It is amazing. Every FRC team should have one of these!
I have been able to follow this a little behind the scenes and it has brought me nothing but pure joy. At that point in life if I could have had an opportunity to work with something like this I am sure I would have progressed much faster to my destination. I remember epoxy, a hot wire acrylic bender, and a bandsaw. at school. No robots in sight!!
I will be sure to share this post with any prospects, and…did I see an article pop up a few days back. I swear I did but could not find it again?
I am a teacher as well, but we don’t have such fancy clubs in Germany. A hint: Autodesk gives away their whole software catalogue for free for up to 100 students for schools. You only have to send them proof of you being at school once a year.
