Yeah, fact! He has a full build series on that shop too.
Yeah, he's crazy talented, and fun to watch. He does put a TON of effort into the video side of his videos, for sure!
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Building A CNC - Watch a first timer stumble through a crazy build
- Thread starter John_Nicholas
- Start date
Yeah, he's crazy talented, and fun to watch. He does put a TON of effort into the video side of his videos, for sure!
Hi Bruce,
Truly, in some way we are missing each other and talking about two very distinctly different applications.
I have zero interest or plans at this time to drill any steel of any kind using my CNC. It is being built to carve wood. Maybe it may be used to carve very small Aluminum parts.
To clarify I have a 2.2KW Spindle, not a router head, it will be driven by a VFD. Although I don't believe it will work very well under 9,000 rpm, so no plans for that either.
I hope this reply clarifies things!
Thank you!
I understand.
To me, that's a "router head". It's designed and intended for high speed routing of wood and soft materials like plastics. It runs way too fast and isn't strong enough for routing or drilling metal. But light spotting with a spotting drill will work on aluminum. Don't try it on steel or stainless!
I understand.
I agree with you 100%!!
I understand.
Strangely, one of my buddies is attempting to talk me into setting this up to use a plasma head to cut steel!! I keep telling him he is absolutely crazy!!
I always try to talk my friends into building things I need too!
You do realize this confuses your friends and makes it weird??
That's not crazy. The CNC machine that you are building would work well as a plasma cutter. A plasma cutter head is basically an electrified torch. It doesn't create much side load while cutting. Your machine could guide a plasma head around a steel plate. And I don't think it would be hard to mount a plasma head onto your Z-axis in place of your spindle motor.
As long as you are okay with sparks and red-hot steel pellets spraying around your sawdust-covered machine!
You'd have to very thoroughly clean the machine and the workspace every time you switched from wood routing to plasma cutting.
The better choice would be to build a second CNC, and dedicate it to plasma cutting. And keep in a separate shop area that's safe for welding and grinding.
This seems perfect! It's almost a bottomless rabbit hole!
This seems perfect! It's almost a bottomless rabbit hole!
Yeah, the writing is definitely on the wall.... this CNC will be used to build a second one!!
With my very limited knowledge a plasma cutter requires some sort of water table. Which of course leads to more complexity and cost!! What the heck, it's only money!!
In watching videos and doing bunches of research, one YouTuber (corvetteguy50)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9OFVqdul6hJDfCifG36cQ
This Youtuber, Vince suggested keeping a log. The idea is to test every single component as you go through your build. Then as you connect each new component, keep track of how everything works together. This way you have a record of every step, so in the future, when there is an issue you have a record to make troubleshooting easier.
Vince is one of the really smart, professional people on YouTube. If you have any interest in building your own CNC or need to buy high end components, you should definitely give his videos a watch!!
Of course, taking this idea to the next level, I created a manual to keep track of everything as I go along in this build.
Any other suggestions to add to my new user manual??
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9OFVqdul6hJDfCifG36cQ
This Youtuber, Vince suggested keeping a log. The idea is to test every single component as you go through your build. Then as you connect each new component, keep track of how everything works together. This way you have a record of every step, so in the future, when there is an issue you have a record to make troubleshooting easier.
Vince is one of the really smart, professional people on YouTube. If you have any interest in building your own CNC or need to buy high end components, you should definitely give his videos a watch!!
Of course, taking this idea to the next level, I created a manual to keep track of everything as I go along in this build.
Any other suggestions to add to my new user manual??
Uh oh @John_Nicholas I see Frank has a new video on some CNC upgrades. 
#BottomlessRabbitHole
#BottomlessRabbitHole
One of the more interesting aspects of building and researching this build has brought up some interesting solutions. This is one of those happy accidents. These power Distribution blocks from Phoenix Contacts are a very elegant solution to the other methods of power distribution I’ve seen.
These blocks are very inexpensive, so I really over purchased many more than will be needed for this build. Of course hindsight is always 20/20. Now that I’ve learned more, it would be a much better idea to have purchased more Black and White ones. Why? Because that would match the Line and Common wire colors.
So why not just purchase more? Even though these were purchased from a Distributor here in the USA, it seems that these blocks are more European in nature and these were shipped from the UK. The shipping times are quite long… even though they only charge shipping costs from the United States.
Just yesterday another shipment arrived, it was supposed to be a single yellow block….
Instead this is what was in the box….
These are so nice, clean, elegant and look great! Once the wires are crimped with barrel ends, they will go together very quickly and it’s quite easy to remove the wires if needed.
This are the type of solutions I appreciate and feel are “elegant”. And why I end up returning so many products, as better solutions show up.
These blocks are very inexpensive, so I really over purchased many more than will be needed for this build. Of course hindsight is always 20/20. Now that I’ve learned more, it would be a much better idea to have purchased more Black and White ones. Why? Because that would match the Line and Common wire colors.
So why not just purchase more? Even though these were purchased from a Distributor here in the USA, it seems that these blocks are more European in nature and these were shipped from the UK. The shipping times are quite long… even though they only charge shipping costs from the United States.
Just yesterday another shipment arrived, it was supposed to be a single yellow block….
Instead this is what was in the box….
These are so nice, clean, elegant and look great! Once the wires are crimped with barrel ends, they will go together very quickly and it’s quite easy to remove the wires if needed.
This are the type of solutions I appreciate and feel are “elegant”. And why I end up returning so many products, as better solutions show up.
Nice! We use a distribution block on our race cars too. It's easier and cleaner to bring power to the block, then distribute from there to all the "things". Plus the added convenience of swapping "things" out and/or chasing down a problem, you only need to replace wiring back to the block.
Back to the Linear Bearing Lubrication conversation.
Finally got some lubrication that was very, very close to the recommended lubrication. Sure I could have purchased the exact proper lubrication, but that would have required a purchase of a 55 gallon drum or a 5 gallon jug of the Mobil SHC 639, but that would have cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
I found this lube which is very, very close… it is Mobil SHC 636. What is the difference? The SHC 639 is ISO 1000 and the SHC 636 is ISO 680… this is so much closer than any other lubricant I found.
A seller on Ebay purchased a large quantity of the SHC 636 and broke it down into 4oz bottles and sold it. This was a fabulous and great opportunity for me.
Worm Drive Saw Lubricant Oil 4 oz "Mobil SHC 636" Synthetic /OEM for RIDGID Saws | eBay
It finally arrived the other day and last night I finally had time to test it out. So I located a small clear tub to soak the Bearing Blocks in 91% Isopropyl Alcohol.
Then began by taking the wipers off…
Then removed all the other parts, cleaning everything really well. I had a special tube cleaner and cleaned the drilled tubes very carefully as you can see how clean they are. So much dirt, debris and even metal shavings came out of these bearing blocks. At least now it’s clear why the Bearing Blocks moved so stiffly and haltingly…
A pipette was used to get oil into the drilled holes in the metal blocks and along the bearing races. Also a puddle of oil was placed on a paper towel and the bearings were rubbed in this oil before inserting the ball bearings into the blocks and added additional oil to make sure the bearings were running through a good amount of oil.
The Linear Rails were carefully cleaned using a 1500 grit 3M sanding sponge, especially the bearing races, to smooth any bumps or rough edges. Then also added some Mobil SHC 636 to the bearing races on the Linear Rails.
Once the Bearing Block was finally finished, cleaned and put together, I had to insert the bearing holder in order to load the Bearing Blocks on the Linear Rail.
Once the block was on the rail I moved it back and forth a number of times, it ran smoother and smoother.
It seemed like a good idea to make a video to show the difference and honestly to hear the difference. The way the cleaned bearing ran on the rail was light years better and smoother than the before cleaning… to clarify, the block on the right is the before and the one on the left is the cleaned and newly lubricated.
So what do you think? Can you tell the difference?
It feels better in person, but feeling is nearly impossible to convey in a video, so only how it moves and sounds can be shown in a video.
Finally got some lubrication that was very, very close to the recommended lubrication. Sure I could have purchased the exact proper lubrication, but that would have required a purchase of a 55 gallon drum or a 5 gallon jug of the Mobil SHC 639, but that would have cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
I found this lube which is very, very close… it is Mobil SHC 636. What is the difference? The SHC 639 is ISO 1000 and the SHC 636 is ISO 680… this is so much closer than any other lubricant I found.
A seller on Ebay purchased a large quantity of the SHC 636 and broke it down into 4oz bottles and sold it. This was a fabulous and great opportunity for me.
Worm Drive Saw Lubricant Oil 4 oz "Mobil SHC 636" Synthetic /OEM for RIDGID Saws | eBay
It finally arrived the other day and last night I finally had time to test it out. So I located a small clear tub to soak the Bearing Blocks in 91% Isopropyl Alcohol.
Then began by taking the wipers off…
Then removed all the other parts, cleaning everything really well. I had a special tube cleaner and cleaned the drilled tubes very carefully as you can see how clean they are. So much dirt, debris and even metal shavings came out of these bearing blocks. At least now it’s clear why the Bearing Blocks moved so stiffly and haltingly…
A pipette was used to get oil into the drilled holes in the metal blocks and along the bearing races. Also a puddle of oil was placed on a paper towel and the bearings were rubbed in this oil before inserting the ball bearings into the blocks and added additional oil to make sure the bearings were running through a good amount of oil.
The Linear Rails were carefully cleaned using a 1500 grit 3M sanding sponge, especially the bearing races, to smooth any bumps or rough edges. Then also added some Mobil SHC 636 to the bearing races on the Linear Rails.
Once the Bearing Block was finally finished, cleaned and put together, I had to insert the bearing holder in order to load the Bearing Blocks on the Linear Rail.
Once the block was on the rail I moved it back and forth a number of times, it ran smoother and smoother.
It seemed like a good idea to make a video to show the difference and honestly to hear the difference. The way the cleaned bearing ran on the rail was light years better and smoother than the before cleaning… to clarify, the block on the right is the before and the one on the left is the cleaned and newly lubricated.
So what do you think? Can you tell the difference?
It feels better in person, but feeling is nearly impossible to convey in a video, so only how it moves and sounds can be shown in a video.
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Nice! We use a distribution block on our race cars too. It's easier and cleaner to bring power to the block, then distribute from there to all the "things". Plus the added convenience of swapping "things" out and/or chasing down a problem, you only need to replace wiring back to the block.
So very true!! It makes sense to make everything as modular as possible. It makes adding or upgrading so much easier and keeps the headaches at bay!!
I’m doing my best to build a CNC machine that is above “hobbyist” grade. So far I’m very happy with the progress that has been made. Although my goal is to make some serious headway this weekend.
As it stands now, my project is still just a scattering of parts lying all over the place. Sure there are a few sub-assemblies which are complete, but the pile of parts doesn’t really look like anything quite yet.
The good news is there’s a very good chance that the Gantry will be assembled and mounted today. That will be a huge step forward, if that’s how far I’m able to progress.
Of course once the gantry is mounted and moving smoothly, the next real “hurdle” will be how to mount the twin ball screws to the brackets. Remember, I’m far off script here and am not following the directions from the plans I purchased. The plans call for lead screws, my machine is using ball screws that mount with bearing blocks. Of course everything needs to be aligned properly… if not, it will not work right.
Since the Z Axis slider is all assembled and ready to go, that is the simple part of the process and will bolt right on. Hopefully without any real issues.
Once the steps outlined above are completed, one of the following steps will be to mount the cable chains, these are the things that look like tank tracks that all the wires and cooling hoses run through.
When the cable chains are finally mounted, then I can finally accurately measure how long the stepper motor cables really need to be! I made what I hope was a very good guess at the length, but it’s possible my calculations were far off. I ordered 15 meters…. And just recently noticed that a seller on Ebay sells these cables complete which are 26 feet long. Which means I will be really short! Hopefully what I ordered will be enough.
Of course, once I figure out how long the cables need to be, the next step is to build the cables. This will require a big step up in my soldering skills. While my skills have improved greatly and the soldered connections I do make are quite clean, these cables are very sensitive and require some very careful, well planned out soldering.
In preparation for this task, I’ve ordered a new “updated” soldering station with all the proper consumables to be able to properly solder these very delicate connectors and wires.
A part of those preparations are to practice soldering a few Aviation connectors. These connectors are far smaller than anything we have come across in guitar building. These connectors have an extremely small interior (only 16mm) have 4 wires and also require you to solder a small jumper wire to the tin braided copper shielding to attach to one of the 5 pins in the Aviation connector.
Since a picture is worth a whole bunch of words, here is a comparison of a 5 pin 16mm Aviation connector and a standard guitar pot.
That end of the Aviation connector is not too bad to connect to, as it is not nearly as small as the other side, which is the female part of the connector. Here is a photo of the Aviation connector dis-assembled so you can see how small the solder connections need to be.
Another issue that must be considered is proper grounding and shielding of all the wires in the CNC. From what I’ve read, EMI can badly affect a CNC. This can result is many bad things, including but not limited to, missed steps, strange shut downs or other strange behaviors.
It appears that many components of the CNC produce EMI signals, so in order for the machine to run properly it needs to be properly shielded and grounded. So lots of information to learn, understand, digest and somehow put into practice.
Some issues can be as bad as the entire chassis of the CNC turning into a transmitter of EMI signals!
Obviously, this is a very important aspect of building a CNC properly. It is very easy to make mistakes, or to cause ground loops or to miss grounding cables or components along the way. My hope is that by maintaining the manual outlined above, this will be easy to troubleshoot or discover.
All of these issues, thoughts, ideas, etc… have kept me very busy and occupied. This is excellent news because it’s all be a fabulous challenge, learning experience and best of all fun!
As it stands now, my project is still just a scattering of parts lying all over the place. Sure there are a few sub-assemblies which are complete, but the pile of parts doesn’t really look like anything quite yet.
The good news is there’s a very good chance that the Gantry will be assembled and mounted today. That will be a huge step forward, if that’s how far I’m able to progress.
Of course once the gantry is mounted and moving smoothly, the next real “hurdle” will be how to mount the twin ball screws to the brackets. Remember, I’m far off script here and am not following the directions from the plans I purchased. The plans call for lead screws, my machine is using ball screws that mount with bearing blocks. Of course everything needs to be aligned properly… if not, it will not work right.
Since the Z Axis slider is all assembled and ready to go, that is the simple part of the process and will bolt right on. Hopefully without any real issues.
Once the steps outlined above are completed, one of the following steps will be to mount the cable chains, these are the things that look like tank tracks that all the wires and cooling hoses run through.
When the cable chains are finally mounted, then I can finally accurately measure how long the stepper motor cables really need to be! I made what I hope was a very good guess at the length, but it’s possible my calculations were far off. I ordered 15 meters…. And just recently noticed that a seller on Ebay sells these cables complete which are 26 feet long. Which means I will be really short! Hopefully what I ordered will be enough.
Of course, once I figure out how long the cables need to be, the next step is to build the cables. This will require a big step up in my soldering skills. While my skills have improved greatly and the soldered connections I do make are quite clean, these cables are very sensitive and require some very careful, well planned out soldering.
In preparation for this task, I’ve ordered a new “updated” soldering station with all the proper consumables to be able to properly solder these very delicate connectors and wires.
A part of those preparations are to practice soldering a few Aviation connectors. These connectors are far smaller than anything we have come across in guitar building. These connectors have an extremely small interior (only 16mm) have 4 wires and also require you to solder a small jumper wire to the tin braided copper shielding to attach to one of the 5 pins in the Aviation connector.
Since a picture is worth a whole bunch of words, here is a comparison of a 5 pin 16mm Aviation connector and a standard guitar pot.
That end of the Aviation connector is not too bad to connect to, as it is not nearly as small as the other side, which is the female part of the connector. Here is a photo of the Aviation connector dis-assembled so you can see how small the solder connections need to be.
Another issue that must be considered is proper grounding and shielding of all the wires in the CNC. From what I’ve read, EMI can badly affect a CNC. This can result is many bad things, including but not limited to, missed steps, strange shut downs or other strange behaviors.
It appears that many components of the CNC produce EMI signals, so in order for the machine to run properly it needs to be properly shielded and grounded. So lots of information to learn, understand, digest and somehow put into practice.
Some issues can be as bad as the entire chassis of the CNC turning into a transmitter of EMI signals!
Obviously, this is a very important aspect of building a CNC properly. It is very easy to make mistakes, or to cause ground loops or to miss grounding cables or components along the way. My hope is that by maintaining the manual outlined above, this will be easy to troubleshoot or discover.
All of these issues, thoughts, ideas, etc… have kept me very busy and occupied. This is excellent news because it’s all be a fabulous challenge, learning experience and best of all fun!
If you have a decent soldering station then I doubt you will have any issues soldering those connectors.
I have a very inexpensive soldering iron and am currently working on soldering up a preamp where there is as little as about 0.25 mm (0.010") space between pads, and it's going well so far:
For scale, those "big" round holes are 0.1" apart.
Also, regarding the shielding, with all you are doing you should have no issues at all. My CNC has no shielding anywhere, and the electronics have performed flawlessly.
Looking forward to seeing your progress!
I have a very inexpensive soldering iron and am currently working on soldering up a preamp where there is as little as about 0.25 mm (0.010") space between pads, and it's going well so far:
For scale, those "big" round holes are 0.1" apart.
Also, regarding the shielding, with all you are doing you should have no issues at all. My CNC has no shielding anywhere, and the electronics have performed flawlessly.
Looking forward to seeing your progress!
Yesterday was a huge day for my CNC build!
First up was to clean, properly lubricate and re-assemble the two remaining Linear Rail blocks. Instead of taking tons of photos, a time-lapse video was used. The entire process took over an hour, but the wacky video is only about 39 seconds.
Do you guys prefer videos like this or would you rather see photos? Maybe not for this process because somewhere in this thread photos were shown.
Once the 4 bearing blocks were ready, it was time to assemble the gantry. Here’s where the rubber really met the road. This would show if I had measured everything correctly and assembled it straight. Again instead of a bunch of photos here is another time lapse video showing the assembly and its only 21 seconds in length.
Once the gantry was completely assembled, it was put on the scale. Many CNC users seem to know the weight of the complete gantry, so it seemed like a very good idea to weigh everything.
So I grabbed the Z Axis slider, along with one of the stepper motors…
And of course the Spindle… this is a big spindle!
Then I was going to have my wife and daughter help with putting the gantry on the base… but of course in my impatience I destroyed a gantry linear bearing… its a very good thing that so many spares were purchased, as I just replaced the damaged bearing.
Still doing it by myself, but with a couple of wide wooden shims, I slid the gantry right onto the Y Axis linear rails. Just an FYI, the bolts holding the liner rail blocks were left slightly loose, just in case the tolerances were very tight.
But here you go… its starting to look like a CNC!!
Of course as soon as it was on I moved it back and forth a bit to make sure everything worked, and then all the bearing blocks were tightened. Just an FYI, every single bolt had blue Loctite applied during assembly.
Then the X Axis was moved by turning the motor connector… it was such a pain to spin this little thing, that I grabbed one of the hand cranks that had been purchased when I thought that was how this machine would be powered. I’m very happy that idea was left behind.
The movement got tight when it was on the X + side (left in the photo) so I loosened the bolts on the bottom linear rail and adjusted it so it moved smoothly from one side to the other. Yes, the top linear rail is parallel to the base.
One of the issues I had with all the changes made during the build, was how to mount the too narrow ball screw to the gantry sides. The simplest solution was to make aluminum stand offs. So they were manufactured and everything was bolted together. The movement is smooth and light from one end of the travel to the other. I’m very happy.
One of the other issues was that linear rail bearings were 15mm “lower” than the ball screw mount, so precision ground 15mm 6061 Aluminum was purchased as stand offs for the Z Axis mounting plate.
My next big project is the mounting of the twin ball screws on each side of the Y Axis. Of course the ball screws are shorter than the length of the machine (only by about 40mm) so a couple of mounts need to be manufactured.
First up was to clean, properly lubricate and re-assemble the two remaining Linear Rail blocks. Instead of taking tons of photos, a time-lapse video was used. The entire process took over an hour, but the wacky video is only about 39 seconds.
Do you guys prefer videos like this or would you rather see photos? Maybe not for this process because somewhere in this thread photos were shown.
Once the 4 bearing blocks were ready, it was time to assemble the gantry. Here’s where the rubber really met the road. This would show if I had measured everything correctly and assembled it straight. Again instead of a bunch of photos here is another time lapse video showing the assembly and its only 21 seconds in length.
Once the gantry was completely assembled, it was put on the scale. Many CNC users seem to know the weight of the complete gantry, so it seemed like a very good idea to weigh everything.
So I grabbed the Z Axis slider, along with one of the stepper motors…
And of course the Spindle… this is a big spindle!
Then I was going to have my wife and daughter help with putting the gantry on the base… but of course in my impatience I destroyed a gantry linear bearing… its a very good thing that so many spares were purchased, as I just replaced the damaged bearing.
Still doing it by myself, but with a couple of wide wooden shims, I slid the gantry right onto the Y Axis linear rails. Just an FYI, the bolts holding the liner rail blocks were left slightly loose, just in case the tolerances were very tight.
But here you go… its starting to look like a CNC!!
Of course as soon as it was on I moved it back and forth a bit to make sure everything worked, and then all the bearing blocks were tightened. Just an FYI, every single bolt had blue Loctite applied during assembly.
Then the X Axis was moved by turning the motor connector… it was such a pain to spin this little thing, that I grabbed one of the hand cranks that had been purchased when I thought that was how this machine would be powered. I’m very happy that idea was left behind.
The movement got tight when it was on the X + side (left in the photo) so I loosened the bolts on the bottom linear rail and adjusted it so it moved smoothly from one side to the other. Yes, the top linear rail is parallel to the base.
One of the issues I had with all the changes made during the build, was how to mount the too narrow ball screw to the gantry sides. The simplest solution was to make aluminum stand offs. So they were manufactured and everything was bolted together. The movement is smooth and light from one end of the travel to the other. I’m very happy.
One of the other issues was that linear rail bearings were 15mm “lower” than the ball screw mount, so precision ground 15mm 6061 Aluminum was purchased as stand offs for the Z Axis mounting plate.
My next big project is the mounting of the twin ball screws on each side of the Y Axis. Of course the ball screws are shorter than the length of the machine (only by about 40mm) so a couple of mounts need to be manufactured.
