So since my garage resembles the seventh circle of hell in Oklahoma during the late spring, summer and early fall months, my ability to use my LowRider is extremely limited during roughly 60% of the year. I refuse to run it unattended (I’ve watched it crash out and saved some cnc bits for my trouble and also watched it catch a pile of sawdust on fire one day too), sitting around in 100°+ temperatures for hours on end is terrible. I guess I could add in a stone heater with a water bucket and make a sauna experience out of it, but let’s call that plan B.
Therefore, plan A is to build a 30x30 MPCNC to use in my office next to my SnapMaker and work on an enclosure to reduce the noise and dust on the room. It’ll also give me the ability to run the machine while I’m working, so that’s a bonus… however, it’ll need to be as quiet as possible, so looking into a 500W Daedalus brushless spindle, as recommended as an option in the build documentation. I’m calling it the Summer MPCNC as it’s the only unit I’ll probably use during the summer, but I’ll probably use it during the winters for smaller stuff too. We’ll just have to see how quiet I can make it, as the wife works in the room right next door.
The other reason for the second unit is that my LowRider is running on a temporary table that I have to set up in the morning and break down by end of day so the car can go back in the garage. This basically makes fine tuning calibration impossible. The MPCNC should be built on a permanent table from the outset, so I feel like I’ll be able to get it zeroed in pretty well.
While my 3D printer is plugging away on the remaining parts for the next week or two, I’m also taking the time to perform a full maintenance, repair and overhaul cycle on my LowRider3 so it’s ready again for late fall this year.
Honestly no - maybe some minor dimensioning so i could grow the mpcnc footprint, but that’s about it. I might add some better storage underneath for my growing wood pile.
It’s quiet enough that you can barely notice it running. I’m sure some cuts could do with better seals on the door but I haven’t needed to.
Have been buried in a new workbench project at the moment but I have a queue of stuff to carve so will be giving it a better run again shortly.
It’s a place I’d love to visit one day, but Oklahoma is a long way from there. I think Lowe’s sells that brand here though and it shouldn’t be overly expensive.
I put together a preliminary design in Fusion 360 for the enclosure with US based material sizes though. MPCNC Enclosure.zip (365.8 KB)
The main difference is that I chose a swinging door as opposed to the lift gate style. I don’t want to duck under that door, so I figure wood fence gate hinges on one side and some toggle clamp latches will do it for me. It may also make it easier to get that door seal locked down.
I think my overall measurements in inches came out to:
Enclosure
52 width x 47 depth x 27 height
This design assumes 2x4 stud framing with 1/2" MDF sheathing.
MPCNC Platform
44 length x 44 width x 1.5 thick
I’m thinking this would be 2 layers of 3/4" MDF with the top layer having a removable 36x36 spoil board with bench dog holes and t-track.
This leaves about 17.5 inches of height clearance for the MPCNC. If I want to do maintenance requiring more height like removing the z-axis, I plan on allowing the platform to be removed from the enclosure.
I don’t actually have the base cut as I’m still waffling over the base and spoil board design for this. I still haven’t settled on one for my LR3, so no surprise there. I think I’m going to end up with a double stacked MDF base with a combination of T-track and 3/4-in bench dogged MDF panels in a replaceable 32-in square center.
Of course, this will cause additional delays waiting to order the T-track and fabricate the MDF insert panels.
I was tired of watching the pile building and got started on a little premature assembly. I haven’t locked anything down and I know I’m going to have to disassemble some of this and reassemble it later when the base is ready, but couldn’t wait!
I still have to work on integrating the spindle and placement of the driver and power supply, along with the Jackpot and its power supply. I think I may cut a grommet port in the top of the enclosure and mount all that stuff on top so all of the cabling comes in from above and I shouldn’t have to worry about wire routing or cable chains as much. It’ll also keep all of the control electronics outside of the sawdust zone.
I also still have the 55 mm spindle mounts and some core Z clamp upgrades to build after the core finishes up in the morning. Hopefully by that point, I’ll have some semblance of a plan for assembly of the electronics and a base to install it on.
@vicious1 is that core a clamp upgrade still useful for the Primo? The Thingiverse title says -old-, but it looks like it would still fit and I like the idea of adding stiffness.
So… never trust the Home Depot guy to cut a perfect square at a specific size… I had to adjust the overall size down an inch or two to make things work, but this makes me want to buy a track saw more every day. I guess I could have used the LR3 to cut the MPCNC base, but it’s still way too hot out there. I’d
Got the unit disassembled to square up and mount the feet, got the diagonal within 1/16 of an inch. Sadly, I don’t have anything that long that measures in millimeters…
The trucks are tensioned and tops installed, so I’m stopping for the day and I’ll start up in the morning with squaring the gantry trucks.
I got a simple Jackpot mount printed and I’m still working on the cable routing and electronics placement plans. Hopefully, integration of the Daedelus spindle with the jackpot controller won’t be too crazy. I’m hoping it can manage on/off and speed control through G-code, but haven’t seen anything in the documentation yet to say yes or no either way. If all else fails, it has a power button and a potentiometer knob with an rpm display, so I could always do it manually, but nobody wants that.
The t-tracks are on the way and I’ll get them cut so I can work on the spoil board inserts and bench dog holes next weekend.
Weird time to ask I guess, but is there a V1E dust shoe design for the MPCNC? @vicious1 or @DougJoseph? If not, I saw an interesting design for a spindle mounted fan blower to keep the work area clear. Then I’d just vacuum out the enclosure after it’s done I guess.
I’m working on a dust shoe design I can screw into my spindle body, but coming up with the removable part with the brushes is proving problematic. I also found some drag chain support mounts out there in the æther and attached those so I can pick up a piece of angle iron over the weekend. Then I stole the drag chain that I never used on my LowRider and the rest of the cable loom in preparation for cleaner cable routing (hopefully). Keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have some inspiration on some feng shui electronics control mounting goodness. I see a lot of enclosures out there for the LowRider system, but not a whole lot for the MPCNC. Maybe I’m looking in all the wrong places.
I’m already printing version 2 that has some looser tolerances on the attachment points. I also redesigned the plate from the spindle to the hose attachment to be thicker, as I think that’s going to be a high stress point.
My thought is to glue some 10x3mm magnets into the plate and make the other part a slide on that’ll stay in place due to the three embedded magnets and a matching set on the other piece.
So crazy coincidence, all of my Snapmaker A350T CNC collets, wrenches, bits and clamps look to be compatible with the MPCNC with this ER11 spindle.
I also found a case for the MPCNC and spindle electronics using the leftover conduit (EMT Conduit Case (MPCNC Compatible) by Steep - Thingiverse) that intrigues me. I like the idea of aviation cables and other chassis mounts to make it easier to disconnect the control hardware and move it around if necessary, so I’m going to add a few more plug mounts for a micro-usb to the Jackpot, an RCA style plug for the z-axis touch plate, a spindle RPM readout and the spindle power and control wires.
I found some 11mm metal tube shelving parts I’d saved from when some of the parts broke a few years ago… so I’m going to build the conduit case out of that instead since I already have appropriate lengths and fittings that will work for what I want. I just need to print the front, back, attachment rings and crossbars.
Speaking of the front… I’m planning on printing it in black and flipping to yellow for the final few layers to give the design elements some pop. I did a quick and dirty SVG conversion of the V1 Engineering logo and a pic of the MPCNC for good fun.
Looks like I got the front plate right this time around! I got one of those usb ports with the screw on cap to keep dust out of it. I may print a plug for the RCA to protect that port as well.
