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Challenge for you Ben

Ltrain66

Hey Ben,

 

Love the show really gets me amped up about making some of my own things. One Idea that I have been toying around with that I think would be awesome to try and make is a combination of a 3d Printer, Laser Cutter, and CNC mill. My theory is to make the Z axis stage have the fittings for each system such that they are interchangeable. The main issue that i could forsee is making the 3 axis stage robust enough for the CNC mill but quick enough to work well as a 3d printer and laser cutter. This would require a little bit more wiring and coding, and maybe a new approach to software used, but overall if this could be executed it would make for an awesome useful tool for many makers, including myself. Let me know what you think of this, I am going to start drawing up plans myself to see if I can tackle it.

 

Thanks and Keep Being Awesome,

Lee

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  • Basically you'd have different heads you could swap out.

     

    You are correct on the issue. A drive system with enough torque for CNC would be slow for laser / 3D printing which is typically belt driven.

     

    A laser / 3D printer combo would thus be more practical. Start with 3D printing, far easier and no bouncing of deadly lasers!

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  • Basically you'd have different heads you could swap out.

     

    You are correct on the issue. A drive system with enough torque for CNC would be slow for laser / 3D printing which is typically belt driven.

     

    A laser / 3D printer combo would thus be more practical. Start with 3D printing, far easier and no bouncing of deadly lasers!

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  • in reply to benheck

    I guess in order to go to the next step of cnc mill along with everything else it would need to be mostly all screw driven with servos and servo drives/controllers, which make the programming easier because most vendors have their own software to go down that path, however would then need a more industrial controller, unless there could be a way to get servo drives that accepted serial commands that could be cast by an arduino. Servos would supply much higher speed while maintaining the torque requirements for the system.

  • in reply to Ltrain66

    This idea comes up often. Usually, for those that try, it doesn't turn out well. There is a reason they are three distinctly different kind of machines.

     

    Everyone I know who's tried to just attach a extruder to a CNC machine has been dissapointed by the results.

     

    We discussed this here in the forums in this topic : http://www.element14.com/community/thread/21013?tstart=90

  • in reply to benheck

    Hey Ben for your first 3D printer build in season one of your show, the one that was supposed to be portable, I had some questions regarding the Z Axis. One of the big questions I had was how are the two z axis motors synchronized? Are they just wired into the same motor signal ports or is there a little more magicgoing on? Also for the threaded rods on the Z Axis did you use just regular threaded rods you can pick up at Home Depot or McMaster Carr or are they the more industrial Ballscrew rods?