***Final* *CNC router / engraver***

06 June 2007 : My Gecko G203v stepper drivers
from www.geckodrive.com
with my new interface card

Click a picture to see a larger view.

The interface files :
Gecko interface schematic.pdf
Gecko interface PCB.pdf

24 August 2006 : Rotary table - pen engraving

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My rotary table in action while it's engraving a pen :

My rotary table in action (1)
My rotary table in action (2)

14 July 2006 : The 19" box

After a long time, I placed all the electronics in a nice 19" box. No more mess ...
I also made a interface between the stepperdrivers and the PC's parallel port with opto-couplers.

Click a picture to see a larger view.

27 March 2006 : New table

This table is much lighter than the solid previous one,
so I can drive the machine faster without lossing steps and it's easier to clamp pieces on it.
I found it on Ebay : T-Nutenplatte 270x19x1000 Neuware CNC

11 January 2006 : First PCB engraved with the new Floating head.

Click on the photos for high resolution pictures

PCB engraving with floating head
PCB drilling with floating head

05 January 2006 : New Kavo K9 engraving spindle with a new Floating head design !!

Click on the photos for high resolution pictures (1200x1600)

03 September 2005 : Milling WindTurbine blades

I like alternative power. I found this WindTurbine blade design (diameter = 1m)

http://www.smallwind.co.uk/
http://www.windstuff.org/

Windturbine blade milling (1) Windturbine blade milling (2)

Windturbine blade milling (3)

29 August 2005 : First Double sided PCB engraving

Not bad for this first time, but there are some isolation channels with burrs (see detail).
Maybe the bad bearings in the Dremel ?

14 August 2005 : First 3D milled part

3D modelling form a 2D GIF-picture

Original logo file

Relief Model

finishing milling pass

the setup

end Result

Click on the photos for high resolution pictures

This logo is from the Diving Team 'Medusa Gent' : http://www.duikteam-medusa.be/

3D logo milling

03 August 2005 : First engraved PCB

Click on the photo for a high resolution picture (1600x1200)

PCB engraving
PCB drilling

30 July 2005 : Floating Engraving Spindle

Click on the photo for a high resolution picture (1200x1600)

I attached a second slider on the Z-axis. This slider is forced down with 2 springs and is upwards floatable. This flotation allows constant depth engraving across the material surface even when the material is not perfectly flat. The engraving depth is adjustable with a precision screw ring.

The amazing result.

Floating spindle TEST

22 July 2005 : Engraving example

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Butterfly engraving

Mach2 MeanScreenDump
Mach2 ToolPathScreenDump

The Butterfly-Files :
Original picture : butterfly.gif
After vectorisation : butterfly.dxf
HPHL-Plotfile : butterfly.plt
G-code file after importing in Mach2 : butterfly.tap

04 July 2005

Yes, it works !!!

Work area XYZ : 550 x 180 x 90 mm
Ball Screws : 4 mm/Rev - 3200 Steps/Rev ( 1/4 microstep mode).
Mechanical resolution on all axis : 0,005 mm
The stepmotor drivers (step/dir) are controlled with Mach2.

Mach2 is a 45 kHz 6-Axis CNC-machine Controller for Win XP and 2000
http://www.machsupport.com/