Awesome. And yeah lead screws would cut out any backlash and they could make it stronger if you have goals of it cutting metal, not sure if the 3D printed parts could take it or not.
I would love to build one of these one day, are you planning to track the cost of everything? I would love to use something like this to make positives to create enclosures with a vacuum former.
This one can cut metal, but I would have to make it a smaller build space.
The smaller you make it, the tighter the tolerance.
I just got a bunch of 80/20 extrusion that I’m going to make a smaller CNC out of for cutting metal, I will use this one to cut the braces for that one. SELF REPLICATING MACHINES!!
The MPCNC is mainly going to be used for wood so I should be fine for now!
Hahah exciting!
I still cant fully decide on what control board to use. Alot of people use RAMPs, but I’m still clueless on those and everything I would need.
The Archim is pretty badass looking, 1/32 stepping capability…but its pricey, around $150 for that. And I’m trying to be as cheap as possible.
Anyone know much about RAMPs or any other option for the control board?
Just messing with you man.
That’s a lot of bolts to have to cut down.
I have some experience with RAMPS 1.4 boards since that’s what I ran on my 3D printer before I went to university. All I can say is that RAMPS boards are cheap as hell but be prepared to have a few melt on you if you’re buying the $10-$20 on Amazon/eBay. I’m a big fan of RAMPS PICA, by Marty Rice. It’s basically a more robust RAMPS with better connectors, power delivery, and it actually has fuses. He sells them for about $40, and you can message/email him if you have any issues.
Thats not too bad. I found a few on banggood that have fuses on them as well. I’ll check out the PICA though.
I just don’t feel like buying a $150 control board right now! And this CNC runs on Marlin so I’m good there.
Don’t get me wrong, the RAMPS 1.4 clones have fuses, they just aren’t the kind that will actually save your board in the case of a problem. I went through three RAMPS 1.4 (~$60ish) before I realized I could have just bought a PICA for less and not have been as worried about spontaneous combustion. Note that this knowledge is two years old now, so there may be better alternatives.
Welcome to the club!
Well, I was in that club 2 years ago.
I wrote a guide on cutting aluminum with the MPCNC for Ryan’s website https://www.v1engineering.com/aluminum-guide/
I was waiting for you to step in!! I’m gonna make a small one out of 8020 to do alu.
How big is your working area? What board did you use for yours?
Damn I don’t even remember. Work area was like 14" x 23", something weird
Ramps 1.4 worked fine for me 
I blew up the arduino’s 5v regulator so I had to power it separately. I recommend you buy the LCD screen with sd card reader if you don’t have it already
This is awesome 
I’ve had great experience with a parallel breakout board and cracked Mach 3 on a cheap low end dedicated PC. Mach 3 is much more polished than any Atmel based control software that I’ve tried. I have a Chinese 6040 CNC with a 1.5kW watercooled spindle, although it has been in storage for about a year as I don’t have space for it at the moment.
I’ll have to check out Mach 3, I’ve been hearing it in all the CNC groups I’ve joined.
I actually built a computer just for this last month. It was made by parts donated by friends and ended up being a pretty good computer!
Thanks for the tips, more stuff to research!
The one I’m using is a Core 2 Duo with 4GB DDR2 and 200GB HDD. You don’t need anything too powerful, and you need a parallel port. If you don’t have one, you can use a PCI / PCIe to Parallel port card.
Mach 3 was pretty much the industry standard for PC controlled CNCs, not sure if it still is as I haven’t really looked into it in about 2 years. There are guides for pretty much anything that you might need, no bugs at all, and a lot of macros available. It’s interface is not very good looking or modern, but I found it pretty intuitive.
Although you can run and Arduino board and use a free software to run your CNC I advoce to take a parrale board or a USB based with at least 3 axis. I can link the Aliexpress link of the 5 axis board I have with parallel port since my pc is an old XPbthat still has dedicated parallel port. Otherwise a USB board will be perfect as well. Then I sue Mach3. With one license I run both CNC mill and router. It’s not user friendly but it can do way more than whatever grbl free program. Some use UCCNC which is basically a more refined copied of mach3 but to me you will find more users with mach3 or 4 on forum ready to help. Since mach3 was often used on professional machines too. As you can see we are already 2 just here.
Fuckin rad…
Yea man, send me the link when you get a chance!
Which PC do you have. Meaning parallel port or USB?
Might I ask why you are making a MPCNC? I mean I am in for everything that is DIY and I get it is really cheap. But despite the motor parts that are the same price of whatever metal router the only money you save is on the frame. While you can take a 6040 supported frame and then DIY your board, stepper motor, spindle ecc… Well you can do way more with that machine.
A 6040bframe will cost you like 500-700Euro last time I checked. The rest of the cost is the same. Just my two cents.
As if I don’t already have enough things to spend money on… this is great inspiration for me to spend more!
