Thank you for the kind words about my milling work. It is something I enjoy doing as a hobby very much. Nice to take a break from shooting the cameras and work in CAD/CAM and them mill something out. I am just glad the big move is over and everything is almost back to normal in the mill room once again. I really hope I do not have to move again for a VERY long time! On the plus side though, it is far drier here than Houston and we no longer have the 4 huge reef tanks in the house. So the Max as been printing like a dream and has only been calibrated once since we moved. Back in Houston the humidity caused so many issues that I had to re-calibrate every few weeks to keep everything printing well. So that part along almost makes the move worth it.briankb wrote:It is stunning the quality you are getting our of your Shapeoko. You mentioned another CNC Machine, what are you upgrading to or using now?
Inventables sent me a new X Carve mill and asked me to work on aluminum milling and a few other projects on the new mill which is an update to the Shapeoko design. The new mill has had a ton of upgrades on top of what the X Carve comes with over the Shapeoko to start with. The overall mill is stiffer than the Shapeoko due to the new gantry plates and a redesigned X extrusion over the old plate system on the Shapeoko. I have further done the following changes: Full metal t-slot extrusion bed, Switched from TinyG controller to new Planet CNC MK3 controller board with 4X Leadshine DM442 DSP stepper drivers. Upgrade from stock NEMA 23 140oz motors to new 185oz NEMA 23 motors. I also added a .8KW 1hp 220v VFD water cooled spindle and a forced air chip clearance system. I used to use Chilipeppr for my Gcode interface, but now I use the CNC USB from Planet CNC and I have to say I wish I had done the controller/driver/interface change much sooner.
The Shapeoko now has the spindle holder from the X Carve which was a huge improvement over the old 3D printed one I had (held the spindle too far out). I upgraded the Z axis to belt drive allowing the spindle to be pulled in closer to reduce off axis twisting. The Shapeoko also is now on a Planet CNC MK3/4 controller board with 4X Leadshine DM432C DSP drivers. For now the Shapeoko is still running the old 48V 400W DC spindle. But I plan to upgrade it also to the .8KW water cooled spindle shortly along with a X gantry mod to 40 x 40 Vs the Makerslide. Also will be moving the old X Carve NEMA 23 motors to the Shapeoko shortly.
Both mills are housed in enclosures made partly from wood reclaimed from their large moving creates hence the oddball mixture of wood types.
