Looks great. I’ve enjoyed following
Don’t forget you’re going to need a way to hang the vac hose, or it’s going to pull on your z assembly. Mine is hanging off the ceiling by some bungie cords.
@Brian: Thanks for the kind comment! It is just the beginning though, once the CNC will be completed I will experiment with big 3D prints, then laser later. So there are still a lot of improvements/modifications to come. The MPCNC is really a great tool to experiment with.
@Barry: Yes, this is a problem. I cannot drill holes in my ceiling, since I just rent the place. So I’ll have to think about another way. I don’t want the hose to put too much force on the Z axis, so I’ll have to come with a good idea for that. So far, the idea I have is to put a rigid hose vertically in one of the corners, high enough, and then connect it to the Z axis assembly via a flexible one. The rigid hose could serve as a pillar with perpendicular supports who could help to support the flexible hose.
So far the idea is not entirely clear in my head, I’ll have to test it and see how this could be done.
Meanwhile, I’ll just try it like this, with the vacuum cleaner on the side and see if this is actually really necessary.
The cnc tables I used to work around have vac pipes run the way you’re talking about. They were tilted over the table though, and could pivot.
https://www.esko.com/en/products/kongsberg-cutting-tables/kongsberg-x
Thanks for the link, interesting 
That’s similar to what I was thinking. The only issue I have so far is that I don’t really know how I could ensure the things pivoting while keeping them sufficiently air tight and rigid, while avoiding sharp angles that will limit the air flow.
The easiest way will be to make them fixed, but I prefer the rigid part to move around so that the force exerced by the flexible part remains somewhat the same, no matter where the Z axis is located on the table.
Build a bearing into the part that mounts on the table to allow the tube that’s inside the mount to swivel
Hi guys,
I’ll recapitulate here the last modifications and developments of the previous weeks, since they are spread in different threads around the forum:
First, a completely new bearing system to replace the original skateboard bearings:
[attachment file=93026]
The new motor carriages:
[attachment file=93027]
The new design for the center carriage:
[attachment file=93029]
The new central carriage installed on the MPCNC:
[attachment file=93028]
So far it works really great. Super smooth with no other resistance that the belt tension, no play at all, seems perfect. I just have to print a few parts to protect them from the dust, but nothing very complicated to do.
I’ve now made some progress on fitting a plasma cutter on the MPCNC, originally planned to test last weekend but it was unfortunately raining too much to put the CNC outside (plasma cutting is not something that should be done indoors without good ventilation).
Made a new Z axis for that, I’ll protect the plastic parts using some aluminum tape and/or Kapton if heat turns out to be an issue:
[attachment file=93030]
[attachment file=93031]
I’ve also added a relay to command the plasma cutter using gcode command M106.
Next step will be to try quickly if this works, and if the results are positive I’ll just have to make another table top for plasma cutting.
3 Likes
It’s nice to see a plasma cutter on your machine, I hope to do that as well sometime. With your linear bearing mods I bet its very smooth. Your machine upgrades are fun to keep up with.
Hi Guys,
I was saying yesterday that it would be nice if someone could come up with an adjustable dust shoe that could be fixed on the gantry instead of the Z axis. Then I thought “why should I wait for someone to design it while I can try myself?”
So, I made a first design and printed the parts. Here is how it looks like:
[attachment file=93036]
Simply two 8mm rods that can slide on those round brackets, which are fixed on the gantry just before the nuts:
[attachment file=93037]
Those rods will be attached to the dust shoe, allowing to adjust the height.
I still have to make a few adjustments but I think it should work.
I left a lot of holes on top of the dust shoe for cooling the motor in case I’ll have to put the dust shoe at maximum height, but most of the time it won’t so I’ll just cover them with tape.
If this works, I’ll probably do another version with a polycarbonate window on top.
This design will probably be easy to adapt for any MPCNC, no matter what router you’re using. Anyway, I’ll see how this turns out.
I’m also working on a giant 60 cm Z axis for 3D printing big parts using a big nozzle, not sure that it will work fine in terms of accuracy but it costs me nothing to try it, so why not? And If it doesn’t, then I’ll just have to cut it smaller.
I’ve made a new Print head support integrating my Z probe, much stiffer than the previous one.
[attachment file=93038]
I still hadn’t the opportunity to try my plasma cutter, I hope I’ll be able to this weekend
2 Likes
Good idea! Thank you for sharing.
Amazing build, subscribed
Thanks guys!
A few progress on the CNC this weekend. Unfortunately I didn’t test the plasma, I have to find a metal sheet to make some test cuts but I was a bit lazy to go outside to buy one, so I stayed home and built some other stuff instead.
I finished my dust shoe system:
It seems to work absolutely perfectly so far, captures about 100% of the dust and the adjustable height system is pretty convenient to use. So for now I’ll call that a win, the only think I’ll change will be to put some clear polycarbonate on the middle to be able to see what is going on.
The whole system: I used some flexible tubing so that the height can be adjusted easily
The height if secured by those little screws. I’ll print some little knobs later and epoxy them to the screws so it won’t need a screwdriver anymore.
Same thing for the bottom:
It works really great, I’ll make a few more cuts to make sure I haven’t missed anything during design, then I’ll print a final version
I’ve decided to give a try to the 3D milling lathe possibilities of the MPCNC. so, in order to do that, I have to build a rotative axis.
A few months ago, I purchased a few basic parts to build a small crappy lathe, with a chuck and a “pointy stuff” that I have no idea how this should be called.
I used a big aluminum extruded profile to make a super rigid base.
So, I printed a lot of parts to make the mounts for this axis. Took a while since the infill was pretty high to make them as rigid as possible.
It’s not finished yet but here is how it looks like so far:
[attachment file=93040]
[attachment file=93041]
[attachment file=93042]
[attachment file=93043]
[attachment file=93044]
The design is pretty compact, I integrated the stepper motor inside the chuck axis support. I actually intend to use this as a multifunction device, either put it on the CNC for CNC milling using the small stepper, either doing some manual lathe work using a big 750Watts motor that I have around. This will be quite a big project by itself, since I’ll have to design 2 very sturdy axis for the manual version. I could even automatize it later and build an entirely dedicated CNC lathe once this work will be done.
I’m not sure It’ll work, but it should be fun to try.
By the way, I’m a total noob when it comes to CNC lathe, so any advice about software to generate the paths would be greatly appreciated!
2 Likes
Wow mp lathe looks good! I think you can use fusion 360 for cnc lathe.
I’ll check that, thanks. I find fusion 360 to be a bit complex to use, but never tried to actually use it to generate gcode.
Any other recommendation?
Enjoying your build, thanks for sharing.
Question: Is there a good spot to put a plastic filament spool on the MPCNC?
I’m not really sure what would be the best solution here, so any advice is welcome.
-On the gantry?
-On one of the axis?
-On one corner?
-Hanging from the roof?
-Somewhere else?
What do you guys recommend? What setup seems to work best from those of you who did try?
I have mine hanging above the machine usually, sometimes I hand it off a corner on a separate piece of conduit.
Just a word of warning, Lathe work is VERY tricky. You are entering into a whole new area of bodily harm. It’s not as easy as the videos look. I’ve been turning for 10+ years and would never turn on a home grown machine.
I have no doubt that what you say is true, but can you tell me why specifically, so I can think ahead and make the thing safer from the very beginning, in case I didn’t think something ahead?
In my opinion, I see the following main risks:
-The workpiece flying around due to a bad or wobbly chuck: Need to make sure that the chuck is well tightened and that there is no runout. Also need to have a somewhat balanced workpiece
-The tool support being broken if it has been moved too fast: I think this is mainly a matter of practice. Of course, I’ll never stay in the same plan as the workpiece or the tool to prevent any debris from fying into my exquisite face. 
These parts were already used before to make a much more primitive lathe that I used to make a few things. I didn’t have much problems with it. Also, check the lathe of Matthias Wandel on Youtube, it is a much more basic lathe made of wood but it seems to work pretty well.
I see no problem with this as long as basic safety measures are taken
Is this for manual lathe work in wood, or are you connecting it to the MPCNC and using it as a rotary axis ?
Being a CNC operator myself since 2004 (5axis lathe mostly), this as a roraty axis would be very fun&cool together with a ballmill on the MPCNC.