Hi all..
Just got the board and motors. Now, need to figure out how to make cnc rails.. Any ideas, have you seen any good projects. I am interested to make then, to be as cheap as possible..

I was thinking to get kitchen cabinet rollers, they made very good once these days. I have seen few rollers over tube setup, anything simpler then that.. Would L profile steel work with rollers from top to bottom sliding work?? Or maybe, sliding/hanging door rails.

All comments welcome.. I am planing to do wood carving CNC..

Interested to hear your experience.

thanks


While back did Lumenlab projector.. Very happy with it..
Also, if anyone is interested in other DIY project look at my old project http://www.sadik.net/gokart/

I think you can use pretty much anything that is smooth and straight. Angle iron would probably be fine, some people (like joecnc2006) use gas pipes (with the paint stripped off), or even aluminum extrusions (like Pirin over here or this dude). Looks like you've already got experience with steel tubing (maybe you even have some laying around?), seems like that would probably work as well.

These things seem to work, but I think a big problem with them is that they're not very hard. I'm not sure how long it takes, or how it effects performance, but non-hardened rails will get worn down by the bearings riding on them much more quickly than hardened rails. From what I've seen it looks like you could rotate any round rails if/when they get worn to get more life out of them.

If you haven't already looked, there's lots of people selling rails on eBay. Every now and then there's a pretty darn good deal to be had. There's lots of "used" stuff being sold, be careful of what you buy though, some people have very warped ideas of what "good condition" means.

If you've somehow not seen it yet, the Lumenlab micRo is probably the best deal out there for a small CNC machine. It's $500 still (I think), I'd be surprised if that price lasts very long.

You might try going to Instructables and doing a search for CNC. There are dozens of home built CNC machines using off the shelf components. Keep in mind that many of these are "hacked" together and won't give you the accuracy, tolerances, or durability of a more thoroughly researched piece of equipment.

You might want to think about how large and what kind of work and materials you may be dealing with.

A small machine for wood and plastic is a bit different than a 4x8 for Aluminum.

I am planing to make 1000 mm by 500mm machine, wood carving CNC machine.. It is bit big..

Has anyone considered using L profile steel with roles from both side holding it in place.. to me this sounds like simple enough setup.. Or even square steel with 3 roles holding position and bearing..

How big is the machine?

These are my two ideas...
what do you think


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Or these

Used for sliding doors, rated for 75 kg
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Sliding doors as well, rated for 100 kg
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Kitchen cabinet rails.. rated for 45 kg
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For Sliding door setup.. was planing to use pull force between two opposite sides to ensure perfect slide.

Check out what this guy did. It looks pretty good to me.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48749

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62271