Hello! I am thinking through building a MPCNC, and I have a Dewalt 618 2 1/4 horsepower router.
It has 1/4" and 1/2" collets, and weighs 5.5 pounds. I plan to build a 4’x4’ MPCNC and to mill a fair amount of aluminium, and also wood. Has anyone used this router as a spindle? Because of its weight, is there a specific tubing material I should use?
Hey, @Peacester the giant had the same question before, maybe he figured something out.
It looks like @Peacester has a Lowrider, not a MPCNC. If the MPCNC is as strong as a Lowrider weight handling wise, then according to that post the weight of the router should be fine. As far as needing to use 1/8" bits, I know that you can buy 1/4" to 1/8" collet adapters.
a 4’ x 4’ MPCNC/Primo is really too big for even the small trim routers. You are going to have a real hard time with that extremely heavy router. At the 4’ size you are wanting I really suggest you look at a LowRider instead. People have built them that big, but usually the results are not optimal
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People have built MPCNCs 4’x4’, which is too big. Lowrider is in a happy place at 4’x4’.
MPCNC does not scale to large table sizes.
It’s stout as hell at recommended sizes.
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I mill aluminum occasionally on my LR, and on another CNC with a RoutER11 spindle. Anything over 1HP is powerful enough for 6060 and other close tempers with 1/4in bits. Now feeds, speeds, and DOC are an issue. Too slow and too high RPM and you melt rather than clearing chips. To fast and there is deflection and lost steps. Same with too deep. I’d rather have a spindle that can do 10K or lower RPM, than more HP (if that is your conundrum). Lower RPM are also handy when drilling or using larger bits.
Depth of cut needs to be shallow enough that the tool clears chips very well, and I recommend at least Air Assist to help clear chips and assist in keeping the tool cool… Especially when slotting.
Figuring out what your build can do is easier with some of the CNC calculators. CNC Cookbook works but is not free. YMMV not an endorsement.
Thank you guys for your input! Would a 24"x24" MPCNC be small enough?
I had a 75x55cm Primo and had major chatter in the middle. I’d say the ideal size would be 40x40, maybe a little more, but that’s it.
Maybe I’ll consider buying a different router, because the smallest I can go is 24"x24".
My Primo is 25×37"
It works, but starting anything near the middle of the long span chatters.
24" by 24" is about as big as I’d go with a Primo, 18" square is probably better, and I’ll be re-sizing mine to 18" square as soon as I get around to it. Busy with LowRider projects at the moment.
Anyway, if you go with 25mm or 1" steel tube, 24" spans are probably OK, and most likely better than with the 3/4" conduit. 0.065" wall at a minimum, and 0.120" wall tube would be best. (I use 0.065" wall.) The steel tube should yield slightly better results than the conduit, but will cost more.
Thanks for the advice!
Why not a small LowRider then?
Well, if I was to build a Lowrider, I would want to build a 4’x8’ one, because I would use something like that for things like slab flattening and large cutouts. Does anyone have a rough ballpark price for a Lowrider that size? The only way that a 4’x8’ Lowrider would be more expensive than a 2’x2’ is that I would just have to buy more tubing and longer belts, right? And a Lowrider should be able to swing my 618, so it might be worth the extra price versus building either a really small MPCNC and using my 618 or buying a smaller spindle and having still a MPCNC smaller than I hoped.
I do plenty of slab flattening with my 4x8 lr3. But i do it with a 1.5kw spindle. That big router is never going to be as good as the smaller one in these machines. You don’t have enough Z travel for the collet adapters and all to stick out farther and while they are plenty stiff for the small trim routers, that big router is going to be farther away from the core and not work well at all. I know it has been done, and i have no doubts you can do it as well. But I just don’t want you thinking it will be as good as what you see a lot of us doing with the smaller routers is all. If you are worried about price you could go with something like this. I know a few people run them and they work great for them AFAIK
Yeah, maybe I’ll look into some alternative routers.
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