[Coco] Homebrew CNC

[Joel Ewy]

The design is by Dan Mauch, and it showed up in Nuts & Volts magazine
around 199Idon'tremember.  The bulk of the machine is made of plywood. 
It has an X-Y table that moves under the Z axis.  The tool I'm using is
a Dremel.  I bought the 3-axis stepper controller board from Dan Mauch
as a kit and soldered it up.  It hooks up to a PC parallel port.  I'm
currently using DANCAM (different Dan) for DOS to run the motors, but
I'd like to switch it over to EMC.  To do that I'll have to redefine the
way EMC uses the parallel port.

The machine may be able to route PC boards.  I haven't really tried,
because I need to come up with better software in order to do that.  I
noticed last time I used it that my (hardware store-grade) threaded rods
aren't all that straight, so the table moves up and down a little when
moving on the Y axis.  That would probably play havoc with any attempt
to remove a thin layer of copper from a PCB.  But that might be fixable
with better all-thread.  I attribute it more to my sloppy construction
than any inherent flaw in the design.

The machine can do 8000 steps/in. with the motor controller doing
microstepping, 200 s/rev steppers, and ordinary threaded rod.

Dan Mauch has a web site at:  http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

I'll dig around tonight and see if I can come up with the original N&V
articles so you can look for back issues if you want.

JCE


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