My MPCNC made in China

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Hello everyone,

First, I would like to thank Vicious1 for sharing his awesome build with us, the design is very nice and so far it seems to work pretty well.

I’ve started the construction of my MPCNC about one month ago and it is now almost finished and functional. Currently, it is able to do 3D printing and CNC cutting, I plan to add the laser and maybe other stuffs later.
The size is about one square meter, and I should be able to print or mill objects about 70-80 cm height with a few modifications if I ever need it one day.

I intend to use this MPCNC as a 3D printer for big projects, who necessitate to print oversized parts. So, I’ve chosen to use quite a big nozzle for it, with 1.2mm diameter, to be able to print at reasonable speeds.

For now, when I use this machine as a CNC router, I mill objects with a simple dremel tool, but I plan to go for a big 1.5KW brushless motor soon, to be able to mill faster and, hopefully to be able to attack aluminum.

I’ve printed all the parts on my Delta printer, they came out pretty good, thanks to all these drawings being optimized for 3D printing. The only issue I had was that they somehow came out a little too big, so the bearing were too loose on the tubes, I could not get contact of all the bearings at the same time. I’ve slightly bend the parts using a hot air gun to compensate for this play and now everything seems fine.

The printer features endstops on all axis, as well as a custom made automated bed leveling probe, which works using an infrared sensor: basically, the print head crashes into the bed. The head being mounted on a pivot, it will move across the beam of the infrared light, telling the arduino that the head has touched the bed. So no need for any offset, the Arduino knows exactly where the printer is. I’m pretty happy with this system so far, it works really well.

All the steppers motors are wired using RJ45 cables, which I find quite convenient tu use for this application.

The tubes are totally overkill, these are some incredibly tough carbon steel precision tubes: impossible to bend, to drill or even to scratch. I had to use standard tubing for the Z axis since I fas totally unable to drill holes in the tough tubes, even with my drill press and my best drill bits.

I’ve design the table myself, and I think it has some pretty interesting features:
-The bed is adjustable in height for about 40 cm. This allow me either to print tall objects, or to mill big objects. Let’s say you have a little coffee table and you would like to engrave the table top, just low the bed, put your table on it and you can engrave it!
-The MPCNC istelf is adjustable in height for a bit more than 25 cm, which can help in case or any special object too big to fit. I will use this feature only if I have no other choice, since the Higher the CNC is relatively to the table structure, the less rigid it will be.
-The structure will be super strong. I did not glue it or install the reinforcements parts yet, but it will be sturdy as hell once finished due to the 90x90mm wood posts I’ve used for its construction
-I plan to add a downdraft system to secure the workpieces in place. It should be easy with this type of design

The only downside so far is that it is had to build this very precisely So you get everything square. Unless maybe if you have some good tools for woorworking, which I don’t really have. I have quite a bit of work yet to do to make everything square.

Anyway, I could speak about it for hours, but maybe it’s time for some pictures now!

All the 3D printed parts… took a while to get there:

The central carriage

I had too much play in the central section, So I chose to put heat shrink on the tubes. I’ll see how long it will last

The bed autoleveling support

If the little screw gets in the path of the IR beam, it opens the circuit

First print test: not great but not too bad given the test conditions

Another calibration test. It’s incredibly fast with a 1.2mm nozzle, less than one hour to print this… It would take at least 3 with the delta, which is not exactly a slow printer!

Time to design the table
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The bed can be moved up or down
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The MPCNC can be moved too

Time for woodworking now

I’ve used the mortise and tenon technique, for maximum rigidity

Frame completed
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Installing the MPCNC on it
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Some enclosures to protect the electronics

Testing it as a CNC
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I’ve got very decent results, aside from one mistake I made (I didn’t tighten the dremel bit enough, so it got loose at some point)
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A new 3D printer head that I will try soon. With that much cooling it should work great!

Now the next steps are:
-Square everything,
-Glue the structure together
-Apply a nice finishing
-Put it on wheels
-Install a “real” router motor (if compatible with my bank account, a big brushless)
-Calibrate the printer and CNC correctly
-Try the laser capabilities
-lots of other long term improvements…

Hope you enjoyed this presentation, see you !

[martindb]

Wow! Great built. It looks fantastic.

[geirhart (Gary)]

Prout
I really like your table design with the adjustable height at the corners. I think it will work very well.
Very cool detail.

G

[barry99705 (Barry)]

I’m digging that table!

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

Very nice, super quality build.

[wolfman48442 (William)]

This is one of the more interesting builds I’ve seen, and I mean no disrespect to all the other really cool builds on this forum.
Thanks for sharing!

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

Is that screen stand on thingiverse? I could really use it on the LowRider cnc.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

I’ve used several designs from thingiverse for the screen holder, modified them and found a way to assemble them all together. I’ll try to retrieve those on my other computer for you.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Here are the 2 parts I’ve modified/created for the screen support:
-The part which fits around the casing (you will need supports to get a good result)
-The modified bracket, that you simply screw to the first one.

I need to retrieve the other parts which constitutes the arm, they should be somewhere on thingiverse but the seach function of their website is horrible, it’s a pain in the ass to find what you want every time…

Anyway, let me know if those work for you. I used Tinkercad to make them.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Well… it seems like I cannot add stl files “for security reasons”
Could this policy be changed? I think exchanging stl files or even gcodes, svg or whatever CNC/3D printing related content should be pretty common on this forum

For now I’ve modified the extensions to .jpg to try if this works. If you can see the .jpg files, just download them, change the .jpg extension to .stl and it should work.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Well, it doesn’t work either. No choice but to wait for this issue to be fixed then
Sorry…

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

Thank you for trying. I have designed a different mount since I asked. Im sure peiple would love for you to put this option on thingiverse though.

As for the forums any file other than a picture should get zipped. Zip files save bandwidth and prevent malware issues.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

A few updates on my CNC:

I painted the frame to protect the wood:

I’ve designed some reinforcement brackets to make the frame even stiffer. I’ve used some 6mm sheet plywood which has been cut with the MPCNC. Turns out they help quite a lot, it is super rigid now.

I will redesign my table top. I made the first version in a hurry, so it is not square at all, neither flat. I realized that it was quite an issue while making my first cuts, with almost 2mm of difference between the highest and lowest spots, so I will change it for something different:
-I needed to find a way to cut all of this using the CNC (which is the only way I have to get perfect 90 degree angles and accurate dimensions)
-I wish it to be light enough to make height adjustments easier and provide more adjustments capabilities
-It must allow me to replace the sacrificial board easily
-It must let me the possibility of reinforcing easily the middle of the board if it turns out that it is absolutely necessary.

The next steps will be:
-Purchase some nice caster wheels, to move the CNC around the shop easily
-Create a convenient 220V power system, with variable speed for the router
-Better arrange my cables and find appropriate spots for my electronics
-Find a way to get a longer cable for the screen, I would like to be able to move around all the table while bringing the screen with me. Does anyone have a good suggestion about screen cables? The longest ones I’ve found so far are only 70cm long, I would like to avoid doing this cable by myself since it will be a great pain to do it and I’m not sure it will even work properly if too long…
-Find a nice way to collect the dust. I think I will design my own vacuum system, building parts out of wood using the CNC.
-Maybe build an enclosure, but I have to weight the pros and cons about it.

Still quite a lot of work to do, but most of the big work is already done.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Well, since the pictures didn’t shw up, for some reason, and since I cannot edit my previous messages, for some other reason, here they are:

Hope it will finally work this time…

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[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

New updates:
The new table is almost ready, just need to do the corners reinforcements and I’m waiting for my new MDF spoil boards to arrive.

I’ve installed the caster wheels, so much more convenient, I should have done that earlier…

Once the table will be finished, I’ll really have to tackle the dust collection system. For now, I’m thinking of building my own system from scratch, using the CNC to mill an impeller, casing, cyclone separator and filter box. I would like to come with a design compact enough, mobile and, more importantly, silent.

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For now, the biggest inconvenience I have with the CNC, aside from the dust, is certainly the noise. I would like to reduce it because I think otherwise my neighbors will start to hate me. I’m still in the thinking process for this part, so any thought or suggestion is welcome.

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

Noise is a big complaint but the bit hitting the material is very loud by itself. The 660 is louder for sure but a silent spindle is still going to have the sound of cutting which is really loud unless you use light passes.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Yes, the bit grinding the material is the main noise source (but my spindle motor is also very very noisy by itself).

So I’m thinking about ways to block this noise at the source. I would like to avoid building a big enclosure bulky and inconvenient.
My idea so far would be to create a dust shoe that would act as a noise shield. The main issue is that this dust shoe would have to stay at a constant height, as close as possible to the wood surface. So it should be attached directly to the gantry, not to the Z axis.
I would also need to create a system of quick lift for it, in order to make visual checks or to change tools.

I have some very thick rubber (same kind they put on the floor of gym centers) which I think could do the trick to build this system (I would 3d print the dust shoe, then use the milling machine to create a rubber cover that would match exactly the external surface of it.

I’m just not sure how I can do it yet, nor if it would work. I’ll try that if I don’t get any better suggestion.

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Great, apparently the pictures came back, for some weird reason. XD

My table is finally completed, I received the MDF tops and installed everything. Just need to paint it.

I made these little sliding blocks which act as supports for the whole table. Because they can slide, I can use them as leveling devices so that my table stays perfectly flat relatively to the router. So far it seems to work flawlessly, but I will need to reinforce the center of the table since it isn’t perfectly flat. Either that, or I could just add another layer of MDF to make the whole thing thicker, which is probably better since the heavier the table is, the better. Or a combination of both.

Now it is time for a dust collection system…

[forcerouge (Dui, ni shuo de dui)]

Just finished the first “prototype” of dust shoe.

As usual, a few pics:

The dust shoe had been 3D printed, the “white stuff” (don’t know how this is supposed to be called in english…) is made out of some relatively soft plastic I had around. I’ll test this material and if it works fine I’ll try to replace it by a transparent one.

Dust will be sucked up by these 2 PVC tubes. I prefered this solution over one big tube because I thought it would lower the constraints on the Z avis (the weight is closer to the gantry) and because I thought it will suck better no matter which direction the CNC is running.

This is the manifold which connects both PVC tubes to the vacuum cleaner tube. I’ve designed this part and 3D printed it. It seems pretty sturdy so I’m confident it won’t break. I tried to avoid sharp angles to keep a good air flow.

Covered the tubes with carbon vinyl to make them lighter. Very useful if you plan to use your CNC on a race track. This is a view of the system just before I mounted it on my machine:

The system installed on my MPCNC, I used a standard 90 degree 40mm PVC fitting I had liying around. It allows me to snug fit the vacuum hose. I’ll probably change this later to a more reliable thing but so far it did work nicely.

So, I made some tests to see if it worked and so far I’m pretty satisfied! I couldn’t run the CNC for too long since it was a bit too late and I didn’t really want my neighbors to gut me, but it did seem to catch up most of the chips and dust. So far I call it a win!

I’ll try this system for my next jobs and see if it works fine enough or if I need to upgrade to something better/different.

Next step will be to do a proper 220V wiring, and probably an enclosure on the side to better protect the electronics.