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CNC

LinuxCNC and Tuya Smart Plugs

It has been a long wait to have automatic dust extraction on my PrintNC. It comprises of two elements: An extractor – to replace the 20-30 year old Vax/Bunnings bucket combo, and a smart plug to have it automatically turning it on and off. The Extractor The extractor was purchased second hand at a great price ($50AUD). The 5 inch nozzle was reduced to 4 inches, mainly because of the price of 5 inch PVC pipe. The flexible tube is 100mm Ag pipe. I had initially planned to use all Ag pipe, but there was performance issues during testing when using long lengths of it. Automation – Tuya Smart Plug To turn the extractor on and off I purchased a Powertech Smart Plug from Jaycar on sale ($19AUD). My researched shows it was based on… Read More »LinuxCNC and Tuya Smart Plugs

V-Carve Inlay with Estlcam – Solved

I’ve wanted to do some wooden inlays for a while. I’m reluctant to learn any new software since Estlcam has been awesome to use for everything else. I’m sure there will be a need to move on at some point, but that time is not today 🙂 I did buy a month subscription for Carveco to complete an inlay, but it turns out I didn’t need it. I found a way to perform the same functions in Estlcam. By following most of this tutorial for Carveco, I was able to use the same basic idea in Estlcam. The basics behind why it works: WARNING – Manually start your spindle before starting the male carving as its “Start layer” is 5mm below the timber surface. If needed, add a have a small shape to mill at… Read More »V-Carve Inlay with Estlcam – Solved

PrintNC – CNC

For those not familiar with the PrintNC project: Home page, Wiki. This has been a project that’s been in design and construction for over a year. Main delays have were due to shipping, manufacturing and poor quality replacements, over all poor communication from vendors, but mostly the reluctance to spend the money – What can I say, I’m cheap 🙂 This CNC was (as it is for many) to replace my MP-CNC that has been mostly unreliable and needed another rebuild. It got to the point the mancave was getting so hot, that plastic parts under tension were warping over time. For the record, it was 52 degrees C this summer. Design and Purchase I went with the default size as it gives me about the same size of work area as the MP-CNC for… Read More »PrintNC – CNC

Desktop PCB Mill

After many delays and set backs I’ve finally gotten a working, reliable PCB mill. In the first post I did of this, I used V bit’s to get better resolution of the tracks. The height issues remained and I was unable to get the auto bed leveling working on the Marlin firmware. What I did to fix the multiple issues: I found the X and Y couplers were a poor choice, as they were acting like large springs. I added lock nuts to the far ends of the X and Y axis, on the outer edges to pull the couplers tight and prevent X and Y axis from springing back when they moved. I removed some PLA from the Z stepper mount to make way for the extra spindle length. That was not enough so… Read More »Desktop PCB Mill

Desktop CNC – Work In Progress

To make my projects smaller and more durable, it would be better to make custom PCB’s rather than jamming a wad of wires into already small cases. To make this possible, I’ve made a desktop CNC. To keep the costs down, it will be made using mostly surplus parts. To cut back on costs further the sides and 3D printed parts where redesigned to fit 8mm smooth rods, rather than 12mm, which are considerably more expensive and harder to find. There are many revisions of the CNC design I chose and I had to piece together parts from 2 or more of them, notably the X-carriage – most of them where designed as a single piece, which would need supports. I increased thickness of most of the CNC parts to 9mm (from 6mm). During the… Read More »Desktop CNC – Work In Progress

MP3DP v2

After rebuilding the center of my MPCNC, buying another router and converting it to dual axis independent motors, I wanted to test it’s alignment by making the MP3DP v2 – another V1 Engineering project. Some of the core components came from my aging Prusa i2, which had significantly less build volume (20x20x7) There was a small issue with the parts being CNC’d using the new firmware. rounded corners seemed to be randomly hit and miss – I found out that the firmware didn’t cut arc’s very well, so they had to be removed from the g-code Core components removed: stepper motors, hot build plate, and some electronics. The build time on this was longer than expected due to long wait times for cheaper parts and properly cabling the wires. The power supply mounts are custom… Read More »MP3DP v2

Virtual Pinball Machine

Virtual pinball tables consist of the same basic elements as regular pinball machines with a few replacements; The playfield and backglass are replaced with monitors and controlled by a PC. The buttons (and sometimes the plunger) are replaced by buttons and a game controller or keyboard emulator. In more advanced tables the LED dot matrix display replaced with a compatible replacement or a 3rd monitor. This previous project was the perfect test bed to see if the PC I was planning on using was good enough to run the games smoothly. The first test run was running Future Pinball with a Kinect for facial recognition.  At 25-30 FPS is was OK but there was noticeable lag at times. As this was my first and I wanted to use atleast 90% recycled parts I’ve moved away from… Read More »Virtual Pinball Machine

Bartop Arcade

I’ve wanted to build a bartop MAME cabinet for a while, my first attempts last year led to 4 failed CNC jobs, infact the first side panel I did for this project ended up the same way (top left): The Z axis fails; instead of going up, it skips the instructions to raise, and then drills down into the wood, going further and further until either the bit snaps or I turn it off (to prevent fire). This second attempt was successful – I worked out that if I don’t put the front and top panels on the CNC machine it doesn’t happen. I still don’t know why, but it does mean that it’s a lot louder and there is more dust. In this cabinet I wanted to press fit the center panels into the… Read More »Bartop Arcade

Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)

Having a CNC machine to cut panels for projects has been a wish for a while. Then I found this awesome project: Mostly Printed CNC (www.vicious1.com). As the name says, most parts are 3D printed and the non-printed parts are easily accessible. The controller is a RAMPs 1.4 board with Arduino Mega, easy to find cheap online. I used the Marlin firmware because it’s the same as both my 3D printers. After destroying my Mendel i2 trying a new printing surface I had spent many hours printing the parts on my Solidoodle2 with a printing volume 6″ x 6″ x 6″. It took longer than usual due to my choice of ABS over PLA. I have had to reprint most of the parts in PLA. The project page gives accurate build times for each part,… Read More »Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)