Hi Guys,
I’ve printed out almost all the parts for my cnc and I am now trying to decide on what size to build it. I was wondering if there was a size that worked best for cutting aluminum. Essentially I just want to know if there is a max size where the frame is no longer rigid enough to cut aluminum. I was also wondering if anyone has had any success cutting any other metals and what spindle works best for cutting metal.
Thanks in advance
As small as possible. Really want you want to avoid though is a tall build. Make it as stout as possible. If you are planning on doing mostly metal and some wood routing, then I would go as far to make the legs as short as you can get them-The point where the corner blocks touch the corner clamp.
As for spindle there are a lot of choices but I recommend the dw660. Cheap and effective. It is rather loud and doesn’t have as many collet choices, but it gets the job done for a real good price. It is more about the tooling than the spindle though. An improper bit will cut terribly no matter what you try.
My build size is 30 x 60 cm, this feels too large for alu, but also too small for (bigger) wood sheets.
IMHO there is no versatile size, either do something like 30 x 40 (cm again) for alu, or alot bigger then 30 x 60 (for everything except aluminium). I’d say just build two MPCNCs, but then can just do a small MPCNC and a LowRider.
As for spindle check out my other posts or youtube videos. Either the Katsu, or a ~1kW china spindle.
Build it to the size parts you might want. Most people would not do a 2’x2’ aluminum cut, it would just take too long. There is not a hard number the smaller your machine the faster you can cut. All CNC machines work in this manner all other things being equal.
Build your machine small, 8x8x3 and if that isn’t enough it would really cost a few dollars in conduit to make it bigger. Everyone builds it big thinking “if I don’t like it I will make it smaller”. Smaller machines are also much much easier to program.