I built a new base for my ShapeOko mill. It’s not quite done, and I’m not quite happy with it, but I took some photos.
Here is what I did.
More ShapeOko Mods
I just can’t stop messing with my ShapeOko mill.
Last night I moved the belts on the Y axis to the outside.
I also did the double-X axis mod. This stiffens the whole machine and removes a ton of flex from the Z axis.
Then I mounted up my router with the parts I machined the other day.
I fired it up and made some test holes with my G code generating perl script. I thought I had an issue because the holes were undersized, but then I double checked the end mill I was using. Turns out it is 7/32″ diameter instead of 1/4″. So that makes sense then.
Next up is making the final base plate for it. I’m going to mill and counter bore a bunch of holes to put tee-nuts in so I can bolt things down. Then I think I’ll plane a 2×4 to put on the bottom as a stiffener beam.
After that I need to figure out what I’m going to do for an electronics enclosure. I ran across an article about making a sheet metal brake, so I might try that.
Milled my first parts today!
I actually machined a couple of parts today instead of just messing about and watching the machine move (which is mesmerizing in itself.)
My friend Lee Bruns sent me a couple of end mills the other day and I used the 1/8″ one to mill out a pair of mounting brackets for my Rigid trim router. These will let me bolt the router to the ShapeOko in place of the Dremel tool.
I drew up the parts (they are not exactly the same) in LibreCAD (the replacement for QCad) which is open source and works pretty well for 2D drawings.
Then I used the trial version of CamBam to create the cutter paths. It was super simple and worked quite well.
I machined them out of some 1/2″ thick HDPE (an old cutting board) and once I got the feeds and speeds correct it worked great.
If you’ll notice, there is a bump in the left hand interior, that’s because the router has a bulge where you put your hand and I had to make the part fit there. I wanted to get the two brackets as far apart on the router as I could for better stability.
Here they are on the router.
Unfortunately I need some more bolts to mount it and the hardware store closed at 6:00 tonight. Ah well. This router is surprisingly heavy and I should probably wait to mount it until I have the double X axis mod installed. (Parts should be here this week!)
12 and 5 volts for the ShapeOko
The ShapeOko stepper motors run on 24 volts DC.
It’s advisable (pretty much required) to run a fan to cool the driver chips.
Most fans require 12 volts.
The Arduino runs on 5 volts. It’s powered by the USB port usually.
However I have some optical limit switches that I want to use, and they require 5 volts. I could pull the voltage off the Arduino board, but I might be reaching the limits of the USB power and there might be some other noise related issues.
So I dug around in my parts box and found a 7805 5 volt regulator and a 7812 12 volt regulator. A couple of hours later I had this:
24 volts goes in, 12 and 5 volts come out. The regulators are rated to 1.5 amps, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never pull that out of them.
I’m not going to show you the bottom of the board, since I’m not proud of the wiring job, but it works. No smoke came out, and that’s what’s important.
Edited to add: Well, after reading the Arduino spec sheet it appears that the recommended input voltage is 7-12 volts if you are using the external power jack. I guess I’ll be using the 12v side of my board for that. And I can pull the 5v for the limit switches off the Arduino board too. Hmm. Oh well, not the first time I did a little extra work.
Upcoming ShapeOko Mods
I had my light tent setup tonight, so I took a photo of some parts that arrived today.
Here we have control panel buttons: Emergency Stop, Reset, Cycle Start, Feed Hold and On/Off.
Also shown are the 70mm bolts and stand offs for the X-Axis double MakerSlide mod (still waiting for the V-Wheels to arrive.)
And the threaded standoffs for moving the belts to the outside on the Y-Axis.
Now if I would only stop modding my ShapeOko maybe I could start cutting something with it!
(I still have to add these parts to the running total.)
New Belt Tensioners on the ShapeOko
When I first assembled my ShapeOko I added eyebolts to the belt clamps to allow me to easily tension the belts.
This caused two issues:
- The v-wheels on the X axis carriage ran into the eyebolts, limiting the travel.
- The mending brackets started bending.
So I came up with some new belt tensioner brackets.
OMG – My first Open Source Coding Project!
This is the first coding project I’ve ever created and shared out into the wild.
I wrote a Perl script to generate some G-Code for my new mill and put it out at GitHub.
g-code-generators v0.1.0 is out in the wild.
It’s far from done, and I expect I’ll add more programs and features to the suite, but the first cut is done and it’s out in the wild. (Of course I don’t expect anyone to just stumble across it – I’ll have to promote it on the CNC forums when I think it’s a little more mature.)
ShapeOko – It’s Alive!
This afternoon I finished attaching the belts and wired up the motors.
I spent a lot of time on the wiring and making it neat and tidy. I got some cable guides and they worked out great.
The first thing you have to run is the ShapeOko “Hello World” plot. So here it is. There is also video of the machine running.
ShapeOko CNC Mill Progress Report – 021513
The mill kit, extended rails and the power supply arrived on Wednesday and I immediately started to assemble it.
The Maker Slide rails did not come tapped, and I was ready to send an email about it when I read in the directions that the standard kit does not come threaded. Ah well, good thing I have a tap and die set.
As of last night the mechanical portion of my CNC machine is 99% complete. I still have to hook up the belts for the drive system. I’m modifying the standard setup a little: I’m going to add some eyebolts to allow for easier belt tensioning. I also added a second stepper motor to the other end of the carriage to prevent racking, so I have to add a belt to that side.
Next up is the wiring. The wiring itself is not difficult, but managing the wires will be a challenge. I bought some photo detector limit switches and I need to figure out how to mount them. I think I have a plan that will prevent the mill from being able to crash into them. I’ll have to make some mounts and small “flags” to trip them. I also need to build a control panel and an enclosure for the electronics. I have a sheet of aluminum, and now I have a mill to cut out the holes for the switch gear!
A base plate with hold down screws is also on the menu and I can use the mill to position most of the holes for that too. It’s kind of a bootstrap process at this point – using the mill to manufacture parts for itself.
I have to hit Home Depot on Saturday to pickup a few more items and then it should be completed this weekend. Well, until I start doing more modifications.
Hopefully the GRBL Shield and Arduino will arrive today or Saturday so I can wire it up and start cutting. The tracking system says the package is in Minneapolis, so there is a chance.
Possible future modifications include:
- Using two pieces of Maker Slide for the Y axis to add rigidity to the Z axis.
- Repositioning the X axis stepper motors to move the drive belt to the outside. This allows about 1″ more Y travel and prevents crashing the carriage into the belts.
- Replacing the Dremel tool with a trim router. I have a Rigid trim router and I think it will make a better tool head. The trim router is much heavier than the Dremel, so I think the double Y axis mod may be required for this change. Luckily it’s not an expensive mod.
- Upgrade the Z axis drive screw.
- Creating a laser engraving attachment.
- Lengthening the Y axis travel. Just needs longer pieces of Maker Slide, some new end plates and a new belt.
With the longer X axis Maker Slide the working envelope is 38″ on the X axis, 7″ on the Y axis and about 4″ on the Z axis.
Photos later this evening.