New spindle integration…
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Now that looks promising. 
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The whole spindle mount is 3D printed now to get rid of that 1/4" panel that used to be there. It was a pretty unnecessary metal part. Printed and assembled with me trusty dremel:
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Looks very cool!
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Thanks!!
Hey, look the Drapes match the Carpet, BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
all your stuff in the background is the same color!
I want to see it makin stuff 
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Hahahahah that’s just how it has to be. Pink on pink, keeps me grounded… 
Working on it! Trying to make a new handle for my knife, but gotta add some features to get there:
I’ll post some more pics as I go, and a little video once it’s all done.
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More design updates. I’ve wrapped up 3D printifying all the parts I can, minimizing the amount of custom aluminum sheet metal parts. The only surviving aluminum part is the basePlate. This one will take a bit more brainstorming to replace. For the time being, I’ve replaced the tapped holes with countersunk holes so that it’s a little easier to manufacturer if you wanted to CNC it yourself.
If you didn’t feeling CNCing one, I recently made a semi-bulk order for a few basePlate units to bring this price down a lot. I’ll put out a beta testing form in another thread soon for those interested. I’ve also ordered enough cables and PCBs for a few units to hopefully make it a lot easier to get up and running. Hopefully we can get these in a couple other people’s hands in the near future!
Also, not a huge deal, but the main PCB now rests on the back of the UI panel instead of sitting on the basePlate. This makes it so that the encoder can be mounted directly to the PCB and generally cleans up the wiring a good bit.
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The only thing that may be viable is acrylic, but wow, just like Ryan does, i would sell it.
or peeps could cut it, but that is an important piece!
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Nice, I definitely agree with that approach. Wherever possible, less wiring means easier assembly and more robustness.
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Could it be something that gets bootstrapped, similar to the strut plates? Perhaps starting with MDF or something and use that to cut the aluminium base?
I very much like the approach of having a method to DIY it but then also offering it as just a ‘for sale’ part. That seems to me to be the easiest way to cover the majority of what people are interested in. Some will always want to DIY it for cost reasons or to avoid horrendous shipping costs. Some will just want the straightest line to having it up and running. Having both options is good.
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Acrylic could actually be a pretty solid option. Just looking at SendCutSends quotes, though, it comes out to about the same price as aluminum. And I would probably still want some additional metal parts to add stiffness in that case. Having a clear base has added benefits in being able to see your cut progress as you move along.
I really love that approach with the strut plates. It would be awesome to be able to do something similar…but first I have to cut aluminum 
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How critical is the accuracy of the base? Could it be done with a printed template and hand-drilled holes? Presumably the slot isn’t critical, dimensionally?
I guess if you wanted to go ham you could potentially make one of out something like MDF, use that to cut a more accurate MDF template and then use that template to drill out an aluminium one etc? I’ve had some pretty good luck using laser-cut plywood templates to shape aluminium by hand with a trim router, providing I jig-saw off the excess first!
Oh dang that’s awesome! That’s a great idea for another way to DIY it. I’ve never done aluminum with a handheld router but I’d love to give it a try.
The way I am currently doing sensor calibration, accuracy of the base is pretty important. The sensors are assumed to be correctly positioned mechanically and there is no compensation for misalignment. The calibration just calculates a gain for x and y. One of the next tasks on my docket is making a more robust calibration which would determine sensor misalignment as well. So theoretically, once that is done, a 3D printed jig for holes would be plenty adequate.
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A 3D printed jig didn’t even occur to me, that makes way more sense.
I was looking around the other day and saw that hardened drill bushings are available pretty cheaply, both threaded and press fit. That could be a neat way to turn a 3D printed part into a really nice reliable drilling jig.
The flat faced carbide tools for wood work remarkably well with aluminium. There’s quite a lot of tool pressure so it tends to push you away from the edge of the work, which is nice. With a firm hand you can get quite a nice finish. The spiral bits work awesomely, as you’d expect.
I’ve got some 6mm Aluminium plate that I want to use to make a pizza ‘stone’. It’s a bit too big to do on my MPCNC so I’m considering laser cutting a template, marking around that template, circular sawing the excess off, jigsawing the curves and cutouts and then cleaning it all up with a palm router. I’ve only done small stuff before and things like D-shaped cutouts in thin stock. 6mm is much heftier than I’ve tried before so who knows!
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Ahhah yeah my brain is wired now so that whenever I see “printed” I think 3D printed. I don’t even own a 2D printer at the moment
Oh that’s a great idea. Do you have a good source for those?
Wow I’m interested to see how that goes! Keep us updated.
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That’s a bit of an assortment of the things I saw. Threaded guides for existing jigs, bearing races as a cheap bushing option, something that looks like a somewhat more official hardened bushing with a shoulder.
I also saw a bunch of options from the usual equipment suppliers like McMaster Carr and so on but didn’t check prices.
One suggestion I saw was to use stainless steel tube and just cut sections off that. It’ll be plenty wear resistant enough for a bunch of holes and given that it’s stainless any rubbing of the drill will just work harden it to oblivion anyway…
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Yeah, I’d love to get rid of my printer but it has a few uses that I really can’t quite handle in any other way. The main one being shipping labels, really.
I still quite like printing off the 2D drawings for a PCB before I submit them to check for fitment. That’s also a good way to check correctness on complex parts that may not be well dimensioned like a lot of through-hole connectors etc. I guess with the prevalence of 3D models being available for parts, I’m doing that a lot less these days at least.
That said, I’ve also 3D printed PCB models before for use in the same way, so there’s that… Not quite as quick but potentially more useful if you’ve got a board with a lot of 3D fitment considerations.
Hahahah it’s not something I’m proud of, just my current state of affairs.
Ok that’s shnazzy. I like that.
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