Construction Blog
placing electronics
It's time to create some space for electronics: arduino, CNC shield and a small raspberry for job management. In this CNC machine there will be several boards each one responsible for different tasks, two different DC voltages will be delivered: 24V DC to the Protoneer board responsible for dealing with NEMA motors and a 5V for the rest, there's a lot of free space where there was the ink tank and inkjet parking space before, in this area I'll store all these electronic boards and the power supp...
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Raspberry console
To better deal with GRBL powered arduino devices I need a computer or an embedded appliance, it's quite common to control Arduino boards from a USB connected PC or laptop. In my case I'd like to have a self contained device able to manage everything without a physically connected computer, an harsh environment but even a personal workshop is not always a place where you can leave a laptop unattended side by side with a mill. That's why I picked up an unused RaspberryPi (v1) I already had arou...
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GRBL firmware setup
Now it's time to deal with some software to create a working toolchain and produce a stable image later on. I assume you already have one of the latest Arduino IDE installed in your computer, I'm currently using v1.8.10 but your favorite version should work fine too. This guide won't cover Arduino or GRBL installation, please refer to relative sites for further details: - Arduino website for installing the Arduino IDE on your desktop - [GRBL firmware](https://github....
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Y-Axis and belts (Part 2)
After intensive tests I've noted two things: - Y-Axis motor has to be fixed on four joints to keep it smooth and stable and that's not a big problem, I already have a surrounding square bracket and with a small fix (ringed green) I can easily keep the fourth point (ringed blue) tied to the body frame, it's really ugly to see but it's fine and works nicely. - Belts cannot be perfectly aligned and tend to move off ball bearings (see ringed red belts), no problems reported with the timing p...
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Y-Axis and belts (Part 1)
After creating a solid steel cart it's time to connect it to the motor shaft with some pulleys and belts. I'll use some GT2 belt to connect both sides of the pulley to the motor shaft, in this way it won't shake too much when it moves along Y-Axis. Before that I need to manually create 4 brackets with some spare aluminium. ...
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Steel caddy
To create a small caddy with cheap materials I have decided to use two ball bearings drawer slides. They're not so accurate but I can hopefully drive them with GT2 pulleys to increase precision. I've bought them from a local hardware store at a cost of ~4.50€ each as described in the BOM. For the caddy I'm also using #4 metal square brackets and some aluminium angle bar for the base, I already had these materials but you can purchase something like that and adapt to your proj...
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Making space on the back
Few minor hardware adaptations are still required to provide space for future Y-Axis movement so I have decided to remove surplus aluminium from the back of the printer. Before that I need to remove rear steel bar and plastic guides previously used for paper movements (see picture above). Plastic parts are disposable but this steel bar is very important for me because it'll provide transmission on future Y-Axis pulleys. I'll work on that later on. There's a small steel part from the chassis ...
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Y-Axis Bracket [ok]
After an unsuccessful attempt with my previous Y-Axis bracket I have decided for a simpler solution based on a square shaped steel bar. Steel bars are strong, cheap and durable enough to keep the weight of a small NEMA23 stepper motor. To start with it I've taken small 80x80(mm) bars I had around, I guess you can get them for a couple of bucks (each). I generally prefer inox steel to avoid corrosion and keep them in good contitions. There're no ...
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Y-Axis Bracket [fail]
I'm not a great planner and as you can see this project is not carefully built from scratch with my favorite 3D program. I'd like to plan materials and fixing solutions even if the design is mostly handmade with what comes around for free, it might be an hands on project with spare materials but there's always a level below which you shouldn't go. This post documents that level and a predictable failure, this is what happens when your brain is not connected to the body and you want to waste some...
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X-Axis Stepper
Small spoiler, the image above shows the final result of it. BTW: In this section I'll document X-Axis creation by replacing original motor. As already seen for the original Y-Axis CC motor used originally to load the paper even this one seems to be too small for moving an utility tool or something loaded in the movable carriage. I've decided to replace it with a solid NEMA23 stepper, it's not one of my favorites but seems to be really solid and heavy, it's probably the best (recycled, so fr...
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Y-Axis Stepper
Now it's time to modify the case in order to use my Nema 23 motors, as you can see from the BOM I'm using two different motors I have recycled some time ago. You may use two identical motors or whatever you find around, it's up to you. Original motor designated to move the paper was a Continuous Current one so I have removed it and substituted with a cheap NEMA23 stepper. The only problem is where I can add it without dismantling the efficient gears movement and still use th...
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Removing excess plastic
In this phase I'll complete printer dissassembling, this is fun and really easy, whatever part of the printer built with any kind of plastic that is not needed for the chassis robustness will go away. Plastic shields originally built for driving the paper during print, small pulleys, static electricity brushes and more generally each part that could lead to some friction will go away. I'll temporarily remove steel rods too but I'll keep them apart, after some cleaning and few mods on the stee...
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Dismantling hardware
Let's get started with some real work on the printer, I have disassembled each single part in order to understand what could be saved and what is disposable. External plastic case is not necessary so I already put it my recycle bin. Another disposable part is the printer motherboard, just a simple motor controller circuit with a cheap MCU and a USB connection. There's no ethernet (cabled or wireless) or fancy features on this printer so it's not a pity to throw these away. Sensors and mark detec...
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Recovering hardware
What ? This blog aims to document this project and each single step involved in the creation of a milling machine expecially targeted to PCB creation. It's a tight budget project without fancy tools or special parts but the idea is to create a viable machine for personal usage. Why ? I have started this project because I have always wanted to create a milling machine and I'm rather tired of traditional toner transfer method and messy chemicals. My PCB creation skills are rather low an...
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