Milling Machine CNC conversions?

[justin1985]

So, I gather that Santa might well have picked up on my hint about a Proxxon mini milling machine (much to my surprise!). 

 

It looks like it's relatively simple to fit these machines for CNC. At least simple to buy / make the brackets and couplers to fit the stepper motors to the existing axis screws of the machine.

 

But there seem to be many ways to drive them, and I'm a bit lost on what to start with. It looks like you always need both controller and a separate driver for the motors. But an old PC with a parallel port can act directly as the controller? So options are:

 

- PC with Parallel port and 32bit Windows, running Mach3 software, plus a driver board for the motors

- SmoothStepper or similar controller board with USB or Ethernet connection to any Windows PC, PLUS driver board for the motors

- Arduino based kit with controller shield and driver modules. Arduino needs GRBL code to be flashed to it (but how do you load the gcode for thing you want to cut?)

 

How do the options compare in practice?

 

Arduino seems by far the cheapest option. Parallel port seems initially appealingly simple, BUT finding a suitable PC (and space for it) would be pretty tricky these days.

 

I'm sure I've seen some forum members mention having tried CNC conversions of the MF70 and similar mills. It would be great to hear about your experiences!

 

Cheers

Justin

[mdvle]

On 24/12/2019 at 15:47, justin1985 said:

- Arduino based kit with controller shield and driver modules. Arduino needs GRBL code to be flashed to it (but how do you load the gcode for thing you want to cut?)

 

How do the options compare in practice?

 

Arduino seems by far the cheapest option. Parallel port seems initially appealingly simple, BUT finding a suitable PC (and space for it) would be pretty tricky these days.

 

No experience, but just did some quick looking around.

 

The Arduino connects to a PC via USB, and the gcode gets sent across the USB connection in a virtualized serial connection (the same connection that is used to flash the GRBL code).

 

There are a bunch of GUI's available to handle it for you, see https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Using-Grbl

 

 

[kipford]

Justin

For a cnc conversion to work properly you need ball lead screws to eliminate any back lash on all the working axis. Does the Proxxon have them fitted? It may also be worth joining this forum:

mycnc