Short Update!

 
23:14:07:13 passed the deadline

I'm now five hundred bucks poorer! Why am I sooo excited about that you ask? If you'll take a look at the nice picture on the right ----------------------------->

You will see that the money will soon be converted into a set of three high torque stepper motors, a Gecko g540 motor driver, and a matched power supply to get this party started! Hell yeah I'm excited. This should make getting up and running a lot easier. No more dealing with the Arduino and those tiny tiny stepper motors I was playing with. On a side note I will most likely be building a 3d printed or something smaller when I get the CNC up and running. So in the end those stepper motors will have a home....even if I end up selling the whole thing.

For those wondering, I got the job at ORNL and that's the main reason I have the excess financial funding needed to acquire these final pieces. There are upsides and downsides to this deal though. The upside is that I have a job and am being paid good money. The downside is that this is only a spring term internship with the possibility of extension. So the hunt is still on for a permanent job once I graduate. I've got some leads but nothing solid at this point. Fortunately my resume is getting full of all kinds of different and important acronyms that make me a strong candidate for many positions.

Tip for those looking for a job in the science/research field. Mention specific instruments you have worked with in your resume. HPLC, GC, NIR, Bioflo reactors, Fermentors,  Mills, etc, etc. It tells the reader what kinds of things you can already do and also says that someone trusted you with high dollar research equipment.

More to come when it unfolds.

23:14:20:37 passed the deadline

Ardunio GPS on the CHEAP

I'm still waiting on money to get straight before I go off and purchase anything else for the CNC. I've got about 300-400 more to go on the table and then Im going to have to figure out the electronics I've already got. I'm sure they are going to need repair and Ill have to navigate my way through the software. That's all for another day.

I get antsy when I've got nothing going on in the project realm so I went ahead and spent 20 bucks on a Pharos 500 GPS. Its one of those stamp sized units that came with Microsoft's streets and maps software...I think. Anyway I've got a couple Arduino Mega 2560 boards and since the 500 natively outputs in a serial fashion it was easy to communicate with..

I say easy but it took me some tinkering. The mega has several serial communication pins and if you hook the GPS up to the main one, it trips up the Arduino on start up. So you have to (well I did, I dont guess you have to) unplug the GPS and then plug it back in after you get booted up. The solution to this is to move to one of the other serial pins and just edit the code. Ill post a follow up with the modified code and a picture of the modified receiver.

Modified receiver? Yeah! That's how its done. Everything Kuztoms! No for real I had to break it open and solder pins to the board to make it bread boardable<-- Spell check says Im making that word up].

All in all the project has been a success. It was relatively cheap and  filled that whole in my boredom. So check it off the list. Where can I go from here? I'm thinking a reverse geo-caching project but that will have to be another day.

Competition motivates me!

I wasn't planning on working on the machine today but I was inspired by one of the other members on CNCzone. KriegKuts is in the process of building a FLA-100 as well. Dude's Build Thread can be found at the link provided! The rail system I set up to drill the holes for the X rail needed to be modified for the 6 inch Y rail. Basically instead of the small bolts and wing nuts I had to use a C clamp. Not as elegant but it worked. Today I didnt have the help of my dad so having a plethra (<---Nice word huh?) of C clamps of all shapes and sizes to hold the rail as I drilled it. I skipped the mid size bit this time and went straight from the center bit to the 3/8 bit.

 

I was going to stop here for the day but then I realized that the Z axis only needed 6 holes to be mounted. I didnt trim the rail or the supporting 8020 extrusion so pretend you don't see that. As for going straight to the 3/8 bit.

 

 

You can see it turned out fine. Im sure it shortened the life of the bit but after today Im done with it and its paid for itself. I bought 2 and only needed 1. That means Lowes gets to have one of their nice $11 kick ass bits back Im am so amazed that Im able to work with raw steel and get precise enough results to even slide the rail into the extrusion. 

Without adjustment of anything I checked the height of the bottom of the Z rail on both sides. Less than 1/16th of an inch different. Thats nuts. Now Im off to check my bank account and see what I need to do to pick up the power components.

$310 plus shipping. Ouch. But that's all that stands between me and moving on to the electronics....which Ill be salvaging from my last build. Arduino + DIY Reprap drivers + some creative thinking. Thats the teaser of the day.

One step closer - Base Assembled

Here is a couple pictures of one of the more beautiful things I have made. Alright alright. I didn't really make that. I assembled it. A lot of work went into it to get it from the raw t-slot to its current state. Its incredible how many times you have to take that thing apart in order to fit everything and then you realize that something else needed to go on there so you have to take it all apart again

Extruded Aluminum CNC frame

Extruded Aluminum CNC frame

Next task is to drill the hole in the x-axis rails. That's going to be a long hard task to do in a steel rail.

Turning $350 in $670

Before I go into the aw inspiring way I cut $320 from the bottom line of this project, lets first take a moment to look at a fine piece of hardware purchased from FLA and explain why I have this big countdown running now. The bearing blocks are crazy cool in the way that they are adjustable. Much better than anything that I have attempted in the past.

Now on to this count down thing. As I mentioned in a previous post, I need a dead line. so here it is.



If that's not enough time then I deserve to fail.




Here sits $350 worth of aluminum.


And here is $670 worth of aluminum.






The difference is a five dollar saw blade from Lowe's and the ability to accurately cut the different lengths. The lengths needed to make the bed have been cut. Holes still need to be located in all of the pieces in order to assemble the bed.

I have ordered the flat steel bar stock for the X and Y rail. I'm not looking forward to drilling the multitude of holes in each of them but I will save over a hundred dollars by drilling them myself...If I can manage to get them accurately located.

Other news is that I found out I'm going to have to order some 8020 gussets that aren't included in the fastener bundle I picked up. Not a big deal but another expense to add to the list.