I got a good deal on a few of those rods, they are usually much more true and straight.
For the frame I tried oak ply, no good, Then I got some MDF, just good enough at this thickness. I went to the plastic shop and I think the next one will be starboard, seems pretty good.
I really like the idea of the iTropie, Please put up some pics when you finish it.
Have you considered the cutting board material? A lot of people were making CNC mills out of it about 10 years ago. You donât see it as much now. I recall it cuts pretty clean and works much like wood.
Thats kinda what starboard is, I think this is HDPE and cutting board is VHDPE. Should be a bit cheaper and a little easier to machine. It doesnât work with glue and it has a texture. Both of which are fine for this printer but most people stay away from it because of that.
Right, you have to weld that stuff.
Yeah i actually bought a test piece of HDPE from inventables to test out some cutting⌠Perhaps ill order some more and use that.
I LOVE that its two color if you want⌠So I can make an Iowa Hawkeyes board because the outside is black, but yellow underneath 1mm. so i can engrave and have that yellow come through 
I think HDPE would be perfect for this.
My local Samâs club has large hdpe cutting boards in the professional kitchen section. They donât have the usual lip or goo groove around the edge either. 15 by 20 inches around 9 bucks each.
Link:
The guy at the plastic shop said the cutting board material didnât machine as nicely as HDPE. Those boards are super cheap but they are 1/2" thick, might want to make the iTopie out of it!!!
So yeah, i think for a few bucks, maybe 50, i should be able to buy the HDPE at inventables⌠Dont skimp on the frame haha
Dang they have an awesome selection!..but it wonât work. The big piece is about 14.5"x14.5" all there stuff is 12". I didnât know there was that big of a selection, I need to find it. My plastic shop only has black or white.
Ryan, if you find some HDPE at the sizes we need let me know, i may order it.
Im still debating on doing this. i have so much going on.
- Full on landscaping in back yard starting tonight.
- Buying a Rad Power Bike
- GCreate XT 1.5+ is being delivered tomorrow.
- Onago Fly Drone should arrive in the next few weeks
- Avegant Glyph should arrive in the next couple of weeks.
so many kickstarters etc coming through at once. may not have time haha
Those cutting boards are hdpe. I havenât tried milling one yet though.
Found a problemâŚ
The extruder mount slips on the X carriage if it hits something like a warped hole overhang. Which really it is okay to prevent extruder damage but it just slips a little too easy.
I made it hoping the extrusion lines would line up like Velcro and keep it in place really well, not so much. So I can try just making the mount thicker, with a but more overlap on the back and maybe a little taller (wider). If that doesnât work, add a screw (last resort).
Iâm actually looking into building one of these beside my mpcnc. Is it possible to build this with just hand tools and a printer? Iâve got a jigsaw and various other tools and have just pulled apart a Rostock because it was pants so have plenty of parts.
Not really, sorry. Some of the edges and holes are pretty dead on. If you printed a full size template and were very careful you might get decent results but if you make the CNC first this would be much easier.
No worries. Iâll probably not bother then because my mpcnc when built wonât be big enough to cut the parts. Itâll either have a 600x600 footprint or 600x900 footprint which the working area is rather small, 300x300 for the smaller size. Shame really as it looks tidy.
Any thoughts on polycarbonate or abs for the frame? Stopped into my local plastic shop today and can get both fairly cheap. Abs seems like a good option could actually glue the XZ frame and Y frames together for strength. Shop was really cool hooked me up with a bunch of samples to play with on the MPCNC. Lets see how fast I break something.
Either should work great for the frame. Use those sample to do test cuts. I chose the HDPE just because it milled very easily.
Name proposal: How about âThe vicious cubeâ? 
It resembles the geometry of my OrdBot Hadron. Apart from all other pro-properties: It is optimally suited for own additions, hacks, experimentsâŚ
On autoleveling: I like that a lot. I made my very own version, using the nozzle itself as a z-sensor. I put the whole hotend cluster on a separate holding plate that can flip up when it gets too much pressure from below. On one side, the plate rests on a hinge made up by two spherical magnets, the other side is pressed down by a) gravity, b) a guided spring. the downward-way is limited by a simple M3 bolt resting on a force sensitive resistor. A simple Schmitt-trigger converts the output signal to a Rumba- or Ramps- compatible level.
Pictures and a description (in german) can be seen here.
Here is an englisch description. Not sure if you have to register there to read it.
Oh well, that odd hotend visible there has since been replaced by an E3D V6. Highly recommended.
With the switchless version I can change building plates with various thicknesses or covers without any need to re-adjust the z-level any more. Even after the change of the hotend (or the odd repair), there was no need for any re-calibration.
Something like that for the MPCNC in combination with LinuxCNC would be wonderful⌠I know, there is one preprocessor, but it is pretty, well, basic and rustical to handle.
added some updated Firmware