I didn’t find any Hungarian builds in this forum - I’m not surprised, this is a small country -, so let me be the first one.
I’ve a 3D printer (Ender 5) for a year and I’m proud of myself because at this time I only printed functional parts which were self designed (using Fusion 360). However one thing always bothered me in terms of 3D printing: it just wasn’t enough strong. So I diceded to make a CNC router which - I hope so - will be capable to mill at least aluminium. The planned working area size is 330 x 330 x 70 mm (13 x 13 x 3"). The other thing is that as a computer programmer I was always interested in controlling machines and this will be a good opportunity to do so.
Currently I’m printing the parts which had been sliced by Cura 4.6. I’m following the recommended infill percentage (almost every part has 55%) using 0.2 mm layer height and Cubic infill pattern. My filament is Gembird PLA (black). I’ve already printed more than 40 hours.
In terms of material sourcing the only hard part was to buy a 25 mm diameter tube as it’s not so common here (not to mention the other two sizes which are basically not existent). Fortunately here is a big steel wholesaler in the next city who sold me 6m (20’) precision hydraulic tube with 2 mm (0.078") wall thickness. I expect a lot from this tube as it has maximum 0.03 mm (0.001") error in it’s diameter along it’s entire length. The only drawback is that it isn’t stainless, but I will figure out something to solve this problem.
Welcome! We look forward to seeing your build, and your projects! Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you run into any problems, and please take some time to poke around the forums and see what others are doing, and what problems people have run into.
Oh, and recipes for smoked meat (or grilled, or braised) are welcome, too.
I don’t think you need stainless…The original US version uses mild steel electrical conduit, and apparently works just fine. I didn’t use stainless for my Lowrider, and don’t see that it matters.
I agree about the stainless. At the size you’re building, you’ll get back a lot of the rigidity other people give up going to mild. I used DOM with a thicker wall (1/8", 3.2mm) and I actually STOOD on the rails during assembly just because I could. I’m 200lb, give or take 5 depending on the day of the week and whether it’s eating season.
My build is only a bit smaller, so I have no doubts you’ll be able to straight murder alunimum on that.
I didn’t use galvinized either 8^) I used 4130 chrome-moly that had been sitting in a garage type environment for years. No rust issues yet.
I do live in a very dry borderline desert environment, though. Does Hungary have relatively high humidity?
I think I’d try wax rather than oil. I think oil might be prone to collecting dust, but then that might not be an issue if you plan to mill metal rather than wood.
First test in parquet with 4 flute 6 mm bit… In the first pass it didn’t want to plunge into the material. After that I changed the plunge angle from 90° to 10° and it worked fine. I’m happy.