jtkendall Posted February 25, 2018 Report Share Posted February 25, 2018 I've wanted a CNC router for a while. I was set to get an X-Carve when budget allowed then suddenly I start seeing a bunch of Shapeoko's popping up on Instagram and was no longer sure which one I would pick. The X-Carve has a 29"x29" max cutting area on a pre-built machine and the Shapeoko has a max 33"x33" cutting area. Neither seems that great for the price, the X-Carve can be upgraded though to 70"x70" with a decent amount of work and more money. At the end of the day I want expandability in size and I want to be able to upgrade components as I need. So I'm building my own. I ordered the parts for the motion controller and axes movement motors today and I am hoping to have it running by the end of next week. Then I'll be figuring out the actual design of the CNC since I'll have a better idea of how big I think I can make it. I ordered some smaller Nema 17 stepper motors that are just slightly lower than the ones that came with the Shapeoko 2 and they require less power; I fully expect to upgrade the motors to larger Nema 23 motors and a better 24v power supply prior to calling it done. I'd like to be able to cut on a 2x4 sheet of plywood with a couple of inches on either side and I want to have a larger z-axis travel so I can cut a piece, flip it over and cut the opposite face with whatever kind of clamping setup I need. One of the future upgrades I definitely want to look into is converting it to a 5-axis machine so I can get the absolute most out of it. So far it has cost me $143.24 for the motion controlling components. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolyz Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 any updates on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMack37 Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 23 hours ago, Toolyz said: any updates on this? Josh hasn't been on the site a lot recently. I do know like a month ago he got the brainbox for it but I don't recall any other updates. He's mainly on instagram lately, a lot of us are following each other on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtkendall Posted September 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2018 No updates on this currently, I actually bought a 500mm X-Carve recently so this has gone to the back burner. I'm going to use that to help determine how I build my own. I know I want a larger Z axis and a frame setup that is stiff enough to handle milling aluminum blocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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