Preliminary Research-McGeen

What else is out there that might serve as inspiration for our CNC machine, or also competition:

According to this site, buildyourcnc.com, you can buy a kit to assemble your own CNC laser engraver/mill but for a hefty price of, $750 dollars for the structural and mechanical pieces, and over one thousand dollars for the optics and electronics. Although this is not directly related to the goal we are trying to achieve, this information of structural components plus electronics equating to over $2,000 gives us a starting point of what to shoot under.

“Quite, efficient, easy to use”

Othermill, is an interesting little machine that would be more suited to what we will be working on. Just reading through the features of this machine makes me excited to what is possible with home modeling and prototyping.

The self containing cube stands only 10”x10”x10,” which makes it perfect for taking a mill on the road.  It appears that the machine has three axis, an x-y-z axis. The bed size is 5” by 4” and provides roughly 2” of z-travel.

Diagnosing their kickstarter success, Othermill has received 652 backers that pledged bore than $300,000! This should inspire both inspire us, and confirm that there is a interest in home fabrication. So how do you get one of these little machines? Well the price is slightly lower than the cnc kits from buildyourcnc, but only by about $1000 dollars. We must ask ourselves, can we do better than this? I believe we can.

           

Here is a link to the source:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/otherfab/the-othermill-custom-circuits-at-your-fingertips

Pros and Cons to the different forms of motion:

Belt Driven:

-Pros:

Cheap

elastic

-Cons:

Belts can slip due to the elasticity

Cracks when worn

A belt is more likely to snap than any other form of movement.

Screw:

-Pros:

Less of a chance to slip

Ball screws will be one of the most accurate methods of movement, but are very expensive. According to McMaster-Carr 1 ft of 3/8” screw rod would be 31.45.

-Cons:

If they are not calibrated right and there is any “play,” then the accuracy will suffer.

Cost of Ball Screws