I have a RAMPS 1.4 combo from Chinazon, and I’ve already melted the 3v regulator on the Arduino clone (the sci-fi movies have it right, there’s always a flaw with clones…). I should have sucked it up and gotten a RaMBO, either a legit via Amazon (I tend to buy from GC, as my disposable income is, well, indisposed), or from Ryan (after appropriate buttering up of the Mistress of the Coin). We’ll see what comes from my birthday, and if I can swing a better option then.
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Thanks to everyone who offered advice.
In the end I decided to go down the Mini Rambo route and managed to find a screen and mini rambo combo on Amazon France for £85 delivered, which I thought pretty good. I realise it may not be flashed with the appropriate firmware but surely that can’t be too hard. I’m sure I can get some good advice from someone here. So, just wait for that and the stepper motors to arrive and carry on with the 3d printing in the meantime. I’m using a Replicator 2 and so far am really impressed with the quality of the prints. All very solid and crisply detailed. Great design, Ryan.
I make wooden clocks from plywood and they can take a long time with my scrollsaw. I’m hoping to speed things up the the MPCNC V1.Time will tell.
Thanks again, all.
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I hope you share some photos of your work. That sounds like a great application of a cnc machine.
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Okay one little thing to watch out for, if you just bought a clone, one of the axis does not work correctly. You will need to rewire one of the stepper connectors to work, it is usually AABB, one seems to be ABAB for some reason.
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Thank you very much, Ryan. I think it’s very generous of you to offer advice when I didn’t buy from your shop. You’re a great guy! Much appreciated.
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I’m planning to do the same. I started a clock in 1987 and then life happened. The MPCNC will make things much easier to finish it. Everything was cut by hand back then. Uphill both ways. 
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That is really neat. I can see how you can really get lost in the details of building a clock.
At the time, my idea was that the larger i made it, the larger my tolerances could be. That thought worked out ok for the 7.5”, 8”, and 12” wooden gears, but the escape wheel wasn’t as forgiving. I was trying to do everything on a low budget and working with the tools and materials i had on hand.
I welded up a jig at work to use to drill the shaft holes perpendicular because i had no drill press in my apartment. The jig then evolved into an indexing jig with a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder to cut the escape wheel teeth, and and to form the pallet faces.
Sorry for the thread jack, but I too would enjoy seeing mpcnc’d clocks posted. I’m envisioning a huge gear train spanning the wall of my garage with a 2 second pendulum (around 13ft in length) 