Monday, June 30, 2014

Homemade CNC2 (Y axis)

After finishing the X axis, I started to get on the Y axis. After all, what can I do when I have a one axis CNC?

The pieces for the Y axis is very similar to the X axis. Here is a picture of the original parts. The Y axis of the HF70 milling machine tables has notoriously short travel. People are coming up with various ideas to extend the travel of the Y axis (such as Retromaster and this one). I plan to do one of these at a later time, but for now, I need to push forward to finish the conversion so I can have a working machine.

So the conversion is very similar to what is done on the X axis. Same cylinder shaped piece is replacing the handle. The plastic piece is removed leaving the steel piece in place. When it is done, it looks like this in the picture below.

Next comes the stepper motor. This is much easier than the X axis, as the Y axis is sitting on the base. All I need to do here is to mount the motor somewhere with the right height.

So out come my saw and a measured cut on a wood piece. Here it is, the stepper motor is sitting on its place, connected to the end of the rod with a rotation coupler.

Here is now the completed Y axis look like. Next comes a lot of fun time calibrating the system and making test cuts. I have some left over electronics from my last 3D printer build. So it is easy and quick to get the stepper motors hooked up. And here I have a completed homemade CNC from cheap parts I can get.

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