I want to make it clear that the LR and MPCNC don’t have to be for the same person. This groups has (a lot of) bias. We are the enthusiasts. For every one of us there are 100 people lurking who range from high school science classes to aerospace engineers. Making the LR4 cheaper or the MPCNC as capable as LR4 is a waste (IMHO). How can we separate them in a ven diagram to make it worth the trouble of creating both?
This is a very important distinction and now that we have done a lot of brainstorming, we need to pick a lane.
I lean heavily towards the first option. I built the MPCNC because I though I could risk the price. If it didn’t work well, I was only out a little money and I would have learned a ton. If the LR is like that for you, that’s fine. But a significant portion of the population can’t afford to lose that kind of cash on a whim.
I also think we can restructure the design requirements if we are heading that way. Things like an enclosure or dust collection are features that would be more useful for a high school teacher than a bigger build volume or the ability to mill alluminum. Even an enclosure lock out or first rate EStop would be nice to haves. Some of these features could be add ons. Or maybe detailed first projects.
Primarily, I’d like to see it be accessible (low cost and high availability) first. Easy to use (safety, noise and dust mitigation) second. Performant (especially for metals) third.
We really have never had those as goals for the MPCNC. The first one hit a lot of those boxes. But it was always trying to maximize performance in that area too. And users have always super sized it. I’m very curious to see what the machine might look like with these goals.
I believe they did have brushless DC motors, but the real secret is they were exquisitely designed tool heads. Industrial bearings, I think a custom machined collet, good instrumentation from a custom ESC back to the controller, etc.
All of which the H3 had.
They also had a really good embedded developer to seamlessly integrate these.
Some more examples. This isn’t necessarily what I think an MPCNC NG would look like, but things to think about for packaging and functionality concerns.
You wouldn’t necessarily want an A axis rotary with Kapton on a cylindrical print form, but you could… if you had a footprint with provisions for customizing.
There are a few things out there like the Sherline mill that use a belt driven toolhead. That could always be an option… mostly printed spindle? BLDC motor off to the side and driving the spindle via a belt.
Think about how an enclosure like that helps you manage chip removal (and containment!) or fume extraction.
Note details.
Way covers don’t have to be fancy. An early version of that machine I saw had way covers that looked to me like someone folded paper, scored it, and taped it down with double sided tape. You can get fancy functionality in a scrappy way if you’re willing to put some sweat in.
The electronics are all hidden away, and there’s a simple touch screen to run the super complexity of it all.
Check out that spool holder.
None of that is an MPCNC next gen, but all of that relates 1:1 with the core functions of a next gen machine.
Modular, small tool head on a core that doesn’t take a kilogram of filament to produce.
Modular, simply added harnesses or controllers or control elements (like E-stops, or door guard switches or whatever). You could have a simple machine with none of that but which has all the provisions to add it in if your use case needs it.
It’s more work for you as a systems engineer and designer, but it’s pure beauty when a user realizes how elegant and well thought out the machine is when they’ve built it.
Really? I’ve had maybe 2 things out of ~100 not show up. One was refunded within a few hours, the other was reshipped and arrived as expected, with the original one showing up months later.
I have really been lucky. Sellers there provide good service (you need to understand they may answer you with delay, they are sleeping while we are at work) i usually use more AliExpress more than Amazon, they have even Pay after receive)
If you use AliExpress choice, you get confirmation when they deliver, they send photos via mail
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