My CNC Build

This is my build LOG I know it is not an Open Build but I had planned on using some open build components.
Today's 2015-02-14 updates ended with reworking some of yesterdays work. When working on getting everything squared up I kept fighting with not being able to square anything up. It was all square before I started adding on my new extrusions so was at a loss of what was going on. The only thing different on the frame were the 20x60s from open builds. Well upon closer inspection and measuring found that the 1000mm that I ordered were NOT 1000mm but 1003mm. What a pain the butt. So Had to pull them out of my build and move on with just using 20x40s that I had.. I got my Gantry all bolted together today. I am very PLEASED with the results...... There is NO flex at all.












Below is my full Build LOG.

Let me start buy saying This has been some of the most fun I have had in a long time. I ran into the ShapeOKO quite by accident searching for some woodworking tips on Youtube. Someone had a video up of their shop tour and one of the items in the shop was a ShapeOKO. Well since then it is all history and has brought me to this point of talking about our build.

A little bit bout My Dad and I. My Dad is a Retired Truck driver He is not a typical truck drive he love tech stuff and all this CNC stuff he finds fascinating. He does not know much about CAD Or CAM for that matter but he keep trying. A Huge Thanks to Caleb Peters for his videos on Inkscape and Maker CAM. He is working every day to create a gear coaster. He just has to keep at it. Once he can get it all down He should be able to design and generate gcode also. So far he is building accessories to go with our shapeoko like a platform for the Shapeoko to sit on with a drawer so that we have a place to put tools clamps and a space to tuck the electronics in the back. (Pictures to come)

I am a Project designer for a EPC(Engineer, Procure, Construction) firm that designs and build Solar, Wind and Thermal renewable energy. I primarily use Civil 3D. I do Civil and Electrical layout this is very large scale 1 to 500 Megawatts 600 Volt to 12-112KV transmission. This is a lot of fun and is also nice knowing you are working in a field that is good for the environment. I do know cad and my primary expertise is in 2D and Survey and surface models in 3D but that is not the same as small mechanical design. So I still have a lot to learn about Programs like fusion 360, Sketchup and such.

First I am not sure of our Serial Number of our unit yet.
We Purchased the Full Kit and added in some upgrades from the Works. Decided after doing some reading to go with the Makita Trim router instead of the quiet spindle. We also have known since we started the build that we would want to go bigger down the road so opted to upgrade to Nema 23 steppers right away. We were not able to get a couple of the upgrades we wanted to do during the build like the Nema 23 belt drive so our Z axis Nema 23 upgrade is on hold until the belt drives come back in stock. We did do the ACME Z-Axis upgrade. Already doing some looking and research on possible electronic upgrade for when we do the expansion of the CNC to make it bigger.

Our build actually went very well. We got our Unit on Tuesday during the day. Keeping Dad from waiting to opening it up was really hard I know he really wanted to open it up bad. After reading all of the great build stories on here I knew I wanted to document all of our adventure from start to end. Weather good or bad I wanted to take pictures of every single thing we did. The nice part is that there was 2 of us working on this so things went along quite fast. Reading all of the step by step instructions and being able to help each other interpret what each other did not quite understand. He worked on building the structures I worked on the electronics and making sure all of that was working. This is where I ran into my first issue. My Laptop did not pick up the Aduino. The instructions were a bit vague on what to do other than it states not to go past Step 4. It really should have stated ONLY do Step 4 it would have made more sense. Basically Step 4 is install the Aduino Driver from the Aduino site. The only thing is that you have to do a 100+ meg download just to get the driver. While I was at work he would work on assembly. Then we Hit the Second snag I mentioned that we Opted to get NEMA23 Steppers. Well the instructions are messed up when it comes to the Gantry assembly and the Nema 23 upgrade. Anyone doing this upgrade DO NOT Even bother to install the bolts with the Nut on the inside of the motor mount. turn them around so that the NUT is at the Stepper motor itself. This will keep you from hitting a brick wall and thinking WTH. With the nuts on the inside it is almost impossible unless you have the nuts in just the right way(which we never found that way). Then When I got home we worked on getting the final assembly and squaring things up. Which we got got the X and Y squared up quite nice and boy did we mess up on the Z. When we went to put the rotary tool on to get going on doing our first cut found that the knockoff Dremel was broke. Called up Inventables and no problem we will get you a new one sent out. That did not really matter as we were only going to use it to get brackets cut out for the Makita then use that anyway. I pulled out my trusty old Dremel and we got that mounted up instead and cut out our Makita brackets got them all mounted up and got our Makita installed. Started doing some playing around with different things. Then is when I noticed how bad we had messed up on the Z I was sitting at the work bench looking at the side of the ShapeOKO when I noticed that the Gantry had a bit of a tilt on it. it was leaning to the front probably about 3-4 degrees so we got that all fixed up. On now on to the pictures. I will post a few the rest can be found at
http://www.pbase.com/damin69/shapeoko_2_build_and_projects&page=all







The Nema 23 install ISSUe


The Nema 23 FIX



Not for the rest of the build















ACME Z Axis upgrade



The base with Electronics area






And My First Paid Creation from the CNC..

Switches and wire ready for Homing and Limit upgrade


Ok so did a couple of upgrades today. Got a set of Aluminum Mounts for the Makita from Criznach. Since the mounts do not have the same clearance as Targs HDPE mounts the top of the Makita would hit the Stepper motor mount. Found a zero Clearance bracket design on here by Criznach and decided to take a wack at cutting out the bracket out of a piece of 1/8" aluminum flat stock I had laying around. That went OK Probably could have used a little better end mill but in the end it is just a temporary bracket right now anyway. We are still waiting for the Nema 23 Belt drive kits to get back in stock so we can get that put on. But in the mean time this will work quite well.








Also do a wack at designing a dust shoe. That has been pretty a load of trial and Error. More on the side of error. First couple of attempts have pretty much been garabage. Good Idea on some bad process. Haveing the skirt getting sucked up in the vacuum port sucks..




and this is what we ended with..



Pun intended. Our shop we have a home made dust collection system set up. I will detail that out a bit more. Our Dust collection system is small but does a good job for us in the small space we have. The shop is roughly a 24 foot by 24 foot garage that has been converted to a wood working shop. We have it all insulated. For summer months we have a 13,000 BTU window AC keeps it quite nice in there. And for the Winter we have a wood Pellet stove. So anyway the dust collection is comprised of a Thein Baffle cyclone unit that dumps into a 5 gallon bucket. We build the cyclone with plans from Woodgears.ca. It is driven off of a Rigid shop Vac. We have a 2 1/2" piping installed down along our main bench and a port over head for benches in the center of garage and for the table saw.
Been busy with odds and ends.. Working on dust shoe all week and coming up with decent ways to mount Limit switches. Took a few ideas from here on line and mixed up in to ideas of my own.
all of my mounts are cut from .125 HDPE. Hardest part was setting up plates to strike the switches to trip them. I felt the locations of the switches seem work well. Though the switches are not stationary.











Ok latest update is Building out Drivers. Getting ready to run on a C10 Break out board which I am still waiting on getting here. Drivers are DRV8825 from Pololu. Going to try out LinuxCNC.
(Edit: As Mentioned. DO NOT forget to put the Cap in Parrallel on the 24V Input) Added in my Wiring Diagram



Got my Brackets cut out for the new drivers.






Christmas vacation upgrade. Expanding ShapeOKO2 to a 1000 x 1800 monster. Wow this thing is big. Ok This was a lot more work than the stock shapoko was to build. Huge learning experience. Learned I miss counted how many insertion nuts I would need. Ran out ended up using 3/16" carriage bolts. Note.. This did work but only use if you are in a pinch which we were. They worked but was a royal Pain in the butt to space and move around.

What I did. I had 2 2 foot by 6 foot work benches. Well One of them ended up being a Donor for the base of this project. I cut off 9 inches from the height of my bench to get the work area of the CNC low enough that I could reach across with out having to get a stool to clamp or unclamp work pieces. I decided on trying to make the base as adjustable as possible so I used 3/8" 7" long carrage bolts through my 2x4 frame and up through 1x1 steal tubing I used 6 of them each bolt gives me an individual adjustment for aiding in leveling and support. I then used 1/2" emt clamps with a bit of bend in the end to clamp down the Shapeoko frame to the steal tubing. The Shapeoko frame is built from 20x40 extrusions 2-1800mm and 5-1000mm. 2-1000mm Maker slides and 2-1800mm maker slides. 2 pair of side supports from shapeoko.com. I use one sheet of Baltic birch 3/4" then 3/4" MDF waste hold down board. I staggered 1/4" t-nuts spaced 6 inches apart every 3 inches.

What I still need to get my final wiring done which is getting my limit switches wired and changing out the arduino and grbl shield to C10 board with 4 sainsmart drivers using Mach3. Hope to get this all done over the next week. I have it up and running right now on the Arduino. After getting all squared up I ran flat router bit accross my entire waste board surface to true everything up.