I'm feeling a bit like a nervous parent... you, RAGII, Basscor, and jhitesma all have MPCNC builds going right now -- and I can't wait to see you guys get your machines going and start building and showing off your planes. Maybe this is the start of a "revolution" and everyone will be wanting CNC's and needle cutters after seeing what you guys can do with them!
Well, mine is up and going and I'm loving it. Just not cutting foam yet
I have had great success cutting plywood, engraving DTFB and pink foam, engraving and cutting cork...and have a print head almost ready to strap to it and a needle cutter almost ready
It's killing me that the needle cutter is so close. I just need to finish the guide...I'm going to try the wooden mount method but haven't had a chance to cut any wood. Last weekend I had to do a full replacement on the A/C system in our car (if I ever meet the engineer who decided to move the orifice tube to under the brake booster on the 99 pontiac GTP instead of in front of the booster as it was before 99....I may wind up with a criminal record) and...still don't have working A/C
Whole system is basically new at this point, it holds vacuum, it holds pressure, the new compressor seems to work...but...it only took half the 134a it was supposed to and then stopped and I can't get it to take any more. So I've been trying to setup time with my friend who's an AC tech to figure out what's wrong. Plus this is the week all our local school boards hold their meetings so my wife is working evenings and I'm in single parent mode for the week
So, progress this week just isn't happening
But...my wife and daughter are going on a girl scouts trip this weekend and I'm in bachelor mode from noon on Friday until Sunday evening. So I'm hoping to make some great progress
Really hoping to get my old office cleared out so I'll have room for the 4x4 table in there. Don't know if I'll get the machine upgraded to it's final size...but should at least get it out there, get the needle and print heads done and have time that I can make some noise and run this thing
Oh - and I have a bunch of new bits for my ailing dremel arriving tomorrow from drillman1. Some that Twitchity suggested for cutting CF and G10, plus a few O-flute's for cutting acrylic and polycarbonate so I can finish new plates for my UBMQ design
I suspect if I can have the office cleared out by the end of Saturday and have the needle cutter working that will give me the boost I need to tear the machine apart and rebuild it at it's final size. Unless I have too much fun just using it or spend too much time fighting with the AC on the car (though the friend who's an AC tech is probably going to love the CNC so I may have him geeking out with me all weekend.)
Oh, I've also been debating about how to power the needle cutter. For now I'm probably just going to strap a lipo on and go for it because the old PC supply I'm using just doesn't have the oomph (it's only rated for 4.5a 12v and the fan in it cranks up big time when the steppers power up.) I have a few more old computers I can strip for supplies so one of them may do better...but I'm still debating how I'm going to do this. I also still want to try using the servo output on the RAMPS to turn the cutter on/off and control the RPM...but that will come later as I fine tune things
Tomorrow night no more school board meetings so I'm not single parent anymore...maybe I'll finally be able to cut some wood for the bottom of this cutter....