This all started with wanting to build a LowRider2. I printed All the parts, sourced all the hardware, but didn’t end up having someone local to cut the flat parts for me. So like any sensible person, I bought flat parts from the V1 store decided to build an MPCNC to cut my own.
I got the parts printed for the MPCNC, sourced all the hardware and like a sensible person decided to build it on a plywood base vacuum laminate a foam composite panel for a base.
So I researched the process, sourced materials, and found out the vacuum pump I had wasn’t up to the task so I did what any sensible person would do and bought a bigger pump re-purposed an old interior door.
I had already cut the rails to fit the 24x24 composite panel, and I had already cut the door into thirds so it could be stored more easily hence the sizing mismatch.
The solid board on the bottom of the door was large enough to hold all the foot screws, but the upper two legs needed extra support. I glued in two blocks of wood under where the legs would go so they would have something to bite into.
I haven’t abandoned the vacuum laminating system, just slowed my roll a little bit. I ultimately want to laminate a 4x8 foam core bed for the LR2 and making a new base for the MPCNC would be nice too (as well as shelves for the workshop, etc.
I’m holding off a bit on buying the pump because I want to put together a proper vacuum bagging system (vacuum pump + reservoir + pump controller) so the pump doesn’t have to run continuously for several hours while the glue sets up.
The color choices were pretty much a “happy accident” rather than anything planned. I started printing in orange and when that was almost gone I switched to white. White ended up having bed adhesion issues so I printed several"two-tone" parts where I started with orange and filament swapped to white.
I either ran out of or got sick of the white and then switched to red for the final parts.
I believe I sliced things with thicker shells and less infill, printed with wide extrusion (.65mm), thick layers (.3mm), and printed as fast as possible. All that combined to save a little weight and a lot of print time. The parts look a little rough, but these are functional prints, not decorative ones so who cares as long as they are structurally sound…
I tried powering it from a 12V/6A brick as well as from my bench supply. The 5V supply to the Mega is via the USB cable only because the 5V regulator on the board is toast. The pi there has octoprint on it, but control from there doesn’t improve things. I’m downloading the CNC.js image as we speak to give that a go.
It would be the 5V supply that would be suspect. It is worth a test to just power it from a good 5V USB supply without the pi involved. You can print the crown from the screen.
I remember some setting, for older pi versions at least, for increasing the current capacity of the USB outputs. But the pi might be taking enough off the top to make the pi power supply not strong enough to power the mega properly.
Thanks for the photos. I don’t see anything goofy, although I can’t see the power port coming in.
So the bed has a definite diagonal ‘slope’ to it, but less than 1mm corner to corner. I’ll play around a bit more with the leg lengths, but even if I don’t get much improvement I’m still pretty happy with what I have.
