Thank you for your comments. Spooky, I also looked at the screwfix conduit you used but eventually whet for Stainless Steel
[attachment file=“63877”]
i also had the company cut them to my stated sizes for just a few £’s
Today, I have almost finished printing the parts that I have filament for. I am really pleased with the results.
I use a highly modified XYZ Da Vinci 1.0 which as had the hotend changed to an E3D v6, the firmware software changed to repetier and hotend cooling upgraded. Stock it struggled to print PLA and occassionally ABS, but now I can throw any kind of filament at it and with slight tinkering it prints. I started out on Repetier Host but now predominantly use Simplify3d for almost every part I print.
My original intention was to have all the printed parts finished before I moved onto construction, but last night while wasting time in the office re-reading over the assembly instructions, I got excited and ended up installed most of the bearings. I really do like the way Ryan as drawn the parts and clearly as taken time and a great deal of effort to produce for the members a great looking and hopefully easy using CNC.
“Andy” if you want to talk or need any help with parts, let me know and if I have time I maybe able to help.
yeah I might well take you up on that. I have a v3d clone on my anet a8 but I must do better cooling on the hot end. I bought some borosilicate glass and some spare parts to refurbish my hotend as its seen some abuse of late. I also need to devise some feedback loop based thermostatic control to get the air ambient temp right in my lack enclosure. It looks nothing like the ones on thingverse. Its very ghetto and has cardboard sides.
Any glad to have made your acquaintance. I am jealous of your shiny rails.
Thank you for your reply, I certainly understand what you have been going through. I got into 3D printing totally by accident. I had a weeks holiday while the wife was still working. Doing my usual browsing of eBay I cam across a velleman K8200 for sale, it looked interesting and so I contacted the seller and collected it later the same day. Once home, it was constructed within a couple of days. Then the build part of my brain got stimulated and I started researching 3D printing. That’s when I replaced the heated bed glass with borosilicate and the hot end with a E3D V6, that made the printer run much cleaner, then I built an enclosure for it
[attachment file=63915]
The Velleman K8200 on the Left, XYZ Da Vinci on the right
I then purchased a used Da Vinci again off eBay for just over £100, from my previous research I changed the stock firmware for Repetier and again an E3D v6 was installed. So now it prints literally any Filament.
Its funny how I imagine lots of these machine will languish in people homes after an impulse purchase but people who have the time nor the temperament to get them working well. before I put mine in the external office (think concrete modular garage with a nice floor and corrugated metal roof) it was printing pla with a near 0% fail rate. now ive got it outside and am trying to master printing with petg (of a particularly tricky 18650 nese 8p module) im struggling to get the desired quality. I shall revisit this when I have received my "bang"goods. And can get this thing working all day and all night as I planned. I think also I will use my router to mill hdpe and get into recycling milk bottles as much as is possible. hopefully it will be less messy than woodchips. (and I can melt down the waste again into more raw material)
Totally agree, I think the majority of people who go for the 3d printing technology believe it is just a case of install software, connect and print. I feel they are so misguided as 3d printing is a black art. What would work for me will usually never work for others.
I have read on so many forums questions asking for settings, I usually add to them that any settings should be used as a guide and not a cure. I also find that during the summer, I need to leave the top of my printer open, while during the winter, I must have the top closed but the door left at slightly ajar.
In the beginning I went through so much filament. Fortunately I kept notes and eventually could see trends building up.
This afternoon, I have drawn an X, Y axis tube support
[attachment file=“Leg Support Base together.jpg”] The middles tube will be a piece of 8mm threaded rod with on locking nut.
These will be placed mid way between corner mounts. After reading many threads, it seems a support like these should aid in some improvements in accuracy.
Also finally the penny dropped with the series wiring for the stepper motors, I took an old stepper motor and multimeter. Identified the connectors and can see the light. YAY!
Firstly welcome to the forum and my thread, I am fairly new to all this but the printing is almost complete, I should receive more black filament tomorrow which will help. Then it’s a matter if waiting for my personal shopper (royalmail) to deliver the other items. I have decided I’m going to construct a building board which will go ontop of a table to mount the CNC.
Ryan is the person who designed and released this to the masses. If you have any problems, post inside the forum as you get a response almost immediately.
so, pour yourself an ice cold drink, kick of your shoes and relax into this woulderful world of MPCNC
very nice mid supports. regarding the table. I owned a black ikea table which is square but has two leaves which slide out to double the length. initially I built the mpcnc on this table and realised how good a fit it was, then I realised It would also mean if I ever wanted to expand the length I could do that for the cost of more conduit and gt belt and maybe building some supports for the leaves of the table to avoid sagging. However this was our dinning table so I got on gumtree and found another identical one locally for £80. So now I have that in my office outside.
A fringe benefit which I am yet to take advantage of is that I can seat about 14 people to dinner using the two tables together if I should so please. anyway its just food for thought if you need a table. They are about £300 new so I wouldn’t buy a new one, mine are both second hand. nearly everything I own is second hand (except toilet roll oh and I bought my anet a8 new) Anyway great centre suports
Can I correct you on this, most toilet roll is made using recycled paper, therefore your toilet roll is not new, hopefully it just haven't been used for that purpose before you do? ?
Today I reached a major build point. I have finished printing all the parts including the midway X & Y axis supports.
I have also drawn a cutting schedule to be able to make a custom build board for mounting the MPCNC. Tomorrow I will go and arrange to have the wood cut, I have decided to use 18mm MDF as it is a very stable substance. 3" X 2" to make the underneath frame. And also some 3mm sheet as a sacrificial top board. I will then most probably have a short delay while I wait for the rest of the compiments to be delivered.
I did a test fit of the Router mount today, it goes together so smoothly and looks very impressive. Once again THANKYOU Ryan.
Hi all, another one from the UK here. Found this thread looking for stepper motor advice and glad it’s an active one!
S Sauntson - Where did you source your stainless tubes from? You also mentioned getting a bunch of the hardware as a package, do you remember where from?
And finally, what am I looking for in a stepper motor? I’ve been looking at the links in the parts list and they reference motors with different currents - V1 shop being 4A and Amazon showing 2A, is that a factor or am I just looking for torque? There are so many options on Aliexpress!
Firstly Welcome, we’re getting a small group of Brits together now. I am still relatively new to this forum and the main man is Ryan. He is the generous guy who gave this project to the masses.
I paid extra and had them cut to custom lengths and my CNC with have a workable area around 900mm X 600mm. They did an awesome job at cutting them and were so precise. When the tubes arrived all I had to do was remove a few burrs from around the ID.
The Hardware I was referring to were mainly the nuts n bolts. Apart from the SS tubes, I sourced many items from eBay. I did a few days of research before I placed my orders. I guess they will be the slowest to arrive but it gives me time to prepare the printed parts and read the assembly instructions.
As as for stepper motors, I went for 84 oz.in steppers. From the pages I read torque was important with motors connected in series at each end of the X & Y axis. These were the ones I settled on
As I have experience of modifying 3D printers I went for an all in one control board along with some nice upgrades along the way.
Have you started printing yet? I really have to say, Ryan as done a sterling job on the files. It goes together so nicely and so far as caused me zero hassles.
Very helpful, thanks! Shame the stainless is 25.4mm as I was planning on using 25mm screwfix conduit and then maybe replacing it at some point with stainless. Although (thinking out loud here) once you factor in spending £25ish on a pipe cutter for the conduit then it does make the stainless pre-cut stuff a lot more attractive.
I haven’t started on the prints just yet as I’ve been banging my head over why my printer is misbehaving and only just noticed that the plywood base it was on is super warped. I had already started replacing the extruder with a bowden style E3D hot end (thinking that might help solve my problems) so I’ll wrap that up first.
to have the stainless cut, packed and shipped it can to just over £90. I consider that a bargain although they turned out to be the most cost percentage of the project, to have them do all the cutting and I just needed to unpack and install saved a lot of time / hassle
if you have any other questions leave them here and I’ll do my best
Looks like my total comes to £70ish though I’m not going as big as yours and some I’ll consider cutting myself with a grinder as it doesn’t make sense for some of the smaller pieces like the feet parts being £5ish each cut to length or you can get a 50CM length for £5.84. Haven’t put the order in but thinking about it. Conduit is looking like £32 plus whatever for the pipe cutter (call it £20). Or maybe I have a go with the angle grinder. Decisions decisions.
I prefer using a hacksaw. I put three boards together to wrap the pipe (like a U) and I cut a slot with my table saw. Then I put in a pipe, line up the mark with the table saw slot, and the hacksaw cuts very straight down the slot from the table saw. If you’re going to spend 20, then get a hacksaw, because it’s so useful otherwise. If you don’t already have one.
You don’t have to build the jog, but I think it was worth it.
I hear what you are saying and totally agree it would have been so easy to have used my hacksaw. By having the tubes cut for me, I was assured that all lengths would be matching. Yes, I know with alittle time and patience I could have got the same result. I was just being a Lazy Brit ??
Today my Steppers arrived. Yay! Have checked the wiring and alls good. They took one week from Hong Kong, Now that’s quick for Free P&P via eBay!
I also just had all the wood cut by my local Jewsons just now for my mount board, yes I know they cut them all for me again but this time for £0 and they used their machine, saved me having to get my table saw out and the put it away… They also did them while I waited.
