ERC TimSav - Cheap DIY CNC Foamboard Cutter

[Dudley1001]

What a GREAT idea! It could compensate for the waviness of the foam board. Maybe I could hook up an autoloader/unloader to it, too!

Oh don't go chasing that idea, next it will be 2 y rails, then stronger rails, z step motor, then linear rails and of course a bigger badass controller board and FluidNC! Ok I have to admit that the controller board and Fluidnc are on my timsav as is a 10w laser so who am I to tell you what to do but if you do, I have some optical distance sensors sitting here, the software to run it, that is all on you

BTW there is a new software out there for grbl based lasers called Beam Bench which is a free software much like Lightburn. Looks like it may work for the timsave but probably would require GRBL1.1h-servo to work with our setup. Just got it last night so I will report back after some tests. Beam Bench

 

[Mr NCT]

Already have the two Y rails & steppers, grbl 1.1h and a nano to control the needle motor. May have to get a laser

 

[Mr Man]

BTW there is a new software out there for grbl based lasers called Beam Bench which is a free software much like Lightburn. Looks like it may work for the timsave but probably would require GRBL1.1h-servo to work with our setup. Just got it last night so I will report back after some tests. Beam Bench

Sweet, I’m gonna have to check that out. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Dudley1001]

I went out to the garage to test the beam bench software on my machine. First the damn machine wouldn't fire up at all, so fixed the power port plug, then the laptop refused to talk to its harddrive, so spent the rest of the night troubleshooting that and ended up just swapping the laptop out and reloading software and files. The joys of retired life. BTW it had nothing to do with the Beam Bench software as it hadn't been loaded yet, just gremlins! I really have to mount up a control panel and permanent power supply and add the fluiddial pendent and get this thing buttoned up rather than hacked together.

 

[Mr NCT]

Don't you love it! You start out to do one thing and end up doing four other things.

 

[Dudley1001]

BTW if you are using one of these power adapter plugs, the center pin can come out leaving a plastic piece! Just a "heads up" have spares on hand.

 

[Dudley1001]

BTW there is a new software out there for grbl based lasers called Beam Bench which is a free software much like Lightburn. Looks like it may work for the timsave but probably would require GRBL1.1h-servo to work with our setup. Just got it last night so I will report back after some tests. Beam Bench

quick update. If you downloaded the other day, please go to the "help" tab and run Check for updates. Current version is 1.3 but this is brand new software so updates may come fast and furious as bug reports flow in. I have not tested with the needle cutter yet. I may put the uno/cnc shield back on my machine to test with the needle rather than the laser. The problem I ran into was there was no way to scroll to see the jog commands and also the set origin position and I almost pulled out my hair! There is a "report a bug" button under the help tab and I sent it in last night and 1.3 was there this morning which fixed it, so he is open to fixing stuff!