How would I enable variable M3 in Marlin? Specifically the Marlin provided by V1. I can’t seem to figure it out.
There is a “Spindle & Laser control” section in Configuration_adv.h
I haven’t done this (yet), but I think you need to uncomment #define SPINDLE_LASER_ENABLE then flash the firmware. Maybe someone with more experience can add details.
I’d like to add that to the MarlinBuilder firmware, but there are so many options. I need a good “middle road” for the settings that make sense.
What is Marlin Builder? Like a UGS setup wizard for marlin?
It’s some deep Eldritch magicks that Jeffe and Anttix conjured up that will auto-build Marlin based on certain config files. If a certain configuration is deemed popular or common enough, it could be blessed, and get an auto-build config. Then, anytime they pull the newest build from Marlin, or apply a custom patch while waiting for a PR to go through, it will automagically rebuild Marlin for all the configurations.
We still need a good top level description for it, but K nailed the basics.
It’s here, and there are some “releases” linked there. v504 is what we’ve been trying to test, and hope that it is stable enough to get rid of the “prerelease” flag on it.
Once that is stable, I’d like to play with laser and/or spindle through a relay control. Ideally, it would use the fan port, and enable M3/M5. Then I need to crack back open the TFT code and give the user the ability to choose M106/M107 or M3/M5. But, I have a real job too, darnit. 
Looks cool.
Yeah. I saw that, I’m not sure why but I thought there was more I had to change. I never really found a thorough answer online. I never really did any testing myself either though, I don’t have a multimeter yet but will probably order one towards the end of the week, along with the new spindle and rest of electronic dodads to make speed control work.
I could totally use M106. To do that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have to change the firmware at all, but I would have to change the post processor, and that I don’t care to do when I could have a supported spindle gcode anyways.
A bunch of parts for a work project came today, this project will be utilizing the mill which I’m pretty excited about.
Also, a day and an hour in on the Primo core.
I just finished printing my Primo 23.5 core last night. 37 hours total. What I figured is that the profile I was using was optimized for quality/detail, but these are structural/functional parts. I have switched to a 0.6mm nozzle and trying different settings to optimize for speed. Will report once I get a better handle on the settings, but switching to a 0.6 nozzle and increasing layer height (I’m using 0.4 = 75% of nozzle) is the biggest win.
Are the holes on the very bottom of the core just general purpose mounting holes, I don’t see them being used in the instructions?
Pretty much. Ryan said he had the space, and everyone is always wanting to mount things to the core and/or Z-Axis.
Sweet, I think I’m gonna buy a compressor for airblast and that might be a good place to make that work.
I was imagining that being a good place for a plate, unfortunately the holes are not universal on all the cores. I intended to come up with a blank plate people can use for things like vac mounts. Your air blast might be best mounted to the core clamps, or on the actual router. You don’t want to make the build any taller than absolutely necessary.
Probably the actual spindle so it moves height with it. My Z is the minimum 3.5".
Well, they have a cnc now, so even if the holes are a little different, they can cut something to fit.
A lot of people don’t have 3D printers and order the parts from you. So hopefully someone will think about them and give them a thing or two to cut to add some stuff to their mpcnc. That would be fun.
Given the hole patterns on all the cores, I probably could make something. I have an led strip, not one of the flexible ones, maybe my mill needs a light.
I finished the project for work I mentioned earlier.
It’s supposed to hold and spin a ring, and it has a solenoid valve to run a glue gun. It’s just supposed to speed up an assembly process, it didn’t go perfectly but it should work pretty well.
When looking at stuff for a project, I saw this on a face mill i used to level my spoilboard.
To me it seems to be burnt up, and also seems to have a bur rolled over on one or two of the cutting surfaces. Is this cutter fine? When I did surface my spoilboard I only did half of it because the DOC was getting to large and the spindle was bogging down. I also accidentally set the ramp speed to the same as the cutting speed.
I recently bought a pair of airpods and I kept seeing the silicone cases for them and I thought it would be really cool it you could make one out of aluminium. I could not find one that was just a plain aluminium case and something sleek and simple. I decided I would try and make one. There are a couple problems looking at how you make this, such as how you hold it being a round shape, and how you mill the inside pocket. To hold it milling the outside profile I’m going to drill and tap two holes into the stock and mount it to a plate that can be drilled down. To hold it milling the inside pocket after the outer profile I plan to make a kinda box that just fits it that I can screw down to the table. The next problem of milling the inside pocket is you have to reach to the bottom of it, which on the bigger piece of the case is probably 1.75". That means you have to have 3.5" of travel because you have to use an endmill that long. I already checking my machine and the z height is fine, the only problem is going to be problems with long endmills and rigidity. This project is obviously more advanced and I’m going to wait a month or two so I can get more experience. I think it would be really cool if it works out and could maybe make some money too. It would also be a great showcase of the MPCNCs capabilities.
On mill upgrades I recently ordered everything for the new spindle and speed upgrade. I also am pretty close to the new core and the leadscrews. I’m going to do both at the same time, and add a drawer for the control laptop, and move all electronics under the table.
I am super closed to finishing the leadscrew upgrade, I just have to reprint one part that printed weird. This is something I have been wondering about and will soon be able to test; is the problem with rigidity on the MPCNC the conduit or the belts? I understand this is already somewhat documented here with testing on the conduit and people buying DOM tubing, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. When an endmill chatters, doesn’t it chatter side to side? So does that mean the tubing is flexing side to side? To me it seems more plausible that the belts are flexing. As soon as any cutting load is applied to the cutter, wouldn’t the pulley apply a load to the belt and stretch it, creating somewhat of a rubber band, ready to bounce around? This is in no way a real criticism of the belts or Ryan’s design, they clearly work well, but could the MPCNC perform better without the belts. I should be able to see soon for myself, probably within a week from now.