This is the setup that I have been using for several years and it works really well. I adapted the improved needle cutter to mount to the MPCNC. I used an old 12V DC power supply connected to the ESC to run the motor. I used a servo tester to control the speed of the motor.
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I appreciate input, itsall helpful, but ultimately, it comes down to thisâŚ
The brushless motor and speed controller with servo tester arenât terribly expensive, but theyâre not cheap either. A quick look at Amazon says about $45 for a bare minimum for all 3, waiting for some of it to ship from out of country.
Comparatively, I have the brushed motors and PWM controllers already, and even if I need to replace them, itâs $18, and here in 36 hours or less.
Some things I still need to buy. The music wire needle, MIG tip/guide, some misc hardwareâŚ
Then I need to adapt it to the LR3, so I am.still gping to have to re-do a bunch of CAD work anyhow. I might be able to use it with the Primo, I suppose, but I consider that to be a sub-par solution.
Anyway, Iâm setting a cheapskate budget for this, and that extra $45 blows it. So I donât mind doing the design work and CAD, when the goal is to use stuff that either I aready have, and is likely to be cheaply available. I realize that many people into the hobby probably have spare brushless motors and ESCs around, but I donât have spares.
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Does hobbyking.com have a canadian warehouse? You should be able to buy a whole quadcopter for $45.
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The needle cutterâs philosophy from the beginning has been âuse what you have on handâ and KISSâŚ
Hereâs an early needle cutter using a salvaged DC motor from HP printer, a âflywheel with eccentricâ of some sort, an athletic ball inflation needle for a bottom guide, and a short length of 0.025" music wire. The flexing of the needle is not really a problem⌠itâs spring steel and designed to⌠hmm, âspringâ.
The âbetter mousetrapâ needle-cutter in the video above uses almost every bit of a couple of cheap mousetraps â the wooden plate, springs, and bail â and actually got âstraight lineâ motion. Itâs not really practical but itâs cheap and may get your âcreative juicesâ going.
Even if you have to get everything new⌠it shouldnât be terribly expensive. Get Brittâs $18 motor/ESC and $7 servo tester, the music wire, and a card of MIG-tips or inflation needle from Walmart/HD/Lowes/etc⌠and a package of mousetraps from the â$1 storeâ.
My very earliest needle-cutter used an Intel CPU fan from a trashed PC and an inflation needle. Those fans were notoriously strong and would âbiteâ if you got too close while poking around inside. I used it to cut numerous planes and âmilesâ of bluecore fan-fold insulation foam before it died.
Useful stuff is all around you if you look hard enough. Iâll bet youâve got most of what you need in your parts âstash/junkboxâ already⌠and could build a dandy needle cutter. Thatâs half the fun of it IMO⌠making something useful out of junk/trash.
â David
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