[Coco] Homebrew CNC (was: high density floppy controller mods

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 07 August 2006 14:34, Roger Merchberger wrote:
>Rumor has it that Joel Ewy may have mentioned these words:

>>I've got a homebrew CNC PCB drill press that's just waiting
>>to punch holes in some copper-clad...
>
>Do tell... ;-)
>
>Any specifics? Details? Plans? Schematics? Tips?
>
>Also - is it strong enough to route? I'm thinking of the odd "winged"
>ground connections on the CoCo's socket - if they could be auto-routed on
> a board, that would be *very handy*... ;-)
>
>Thanks!
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger

I think I could do that, Roger, for board sizes up to about 4.5 x 10 
inches.  The control computer runs linux (kubuntu-6.06 atm) and emc2's cvs 
HEAD I built yesterday.

What I'm missing, and thats being worked on by Chris Radek on the emc list 
I believe, is a gcode generator that can scan a 1 bit image depth file of 
the artwork and make gcode out of it.  We're already doing that with 
truetype fonts and a text input, so I can carve brass house and mailbox 
nameplates, & other such onesie and twosie stuff.  For pcb's, I'd also 
need a source of suitably smallish endmills as the least width I can 
remove ATM is 1/8" wide.  My brass carving bit is smaller, but its also a 
round nose style.   But they are available, just bring money.  And 
patience as a .010" diameter mill isn't going to slice 2 oz copper at 
20"/minute at only 2500 rpm.  Too fragile to push that hard unless you've 
10x the spindle speed I have.  I'd need to invest in or make smaller R8 
collets too, currently 1/8" minimum there.

The basic machine is the $300 Harbor Freight micro-mill but I've replaced 
the z screw with a good 10 tpi acme, and the tables have been replaced by 
the bigger acccessory tables for it available from The Little Machine 
Shop, aka LittleMachineshop.com.  I've probably blown another $400 on 
other accessories for it along the way.  The motors and drive amplifiers 
are steppers, from www.xylotex.com, and I made the motor mounts and 
couplings, and the new z axis drive.  And I'm having a ball :)

>--
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger   | "Bugs of a feather flock together."
>sysadmin, Iceberg Computers |           Russell Nelson
>zmerch at 30below.com          |

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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