Mostly Printed CNC

I have been thinking about this project for a long time. After I started using the needle cutter, I really wanted a vacuum table that could flatten the foamboard, and an underlying work surface that would not destroy the cutting tool.

After a two week hiatus from the MPCNC, I got the itch to get back to making things. I wanted to salvage the spoilboard as much as I could, level it out, and create a few clamps to make workpiece holding a little easier.

In the process of creating a spoilboard for the MPCNC, I came across several lingering issues with the machine that needed to be resolved. It ended up being an opportunity to correct a bunch of broken bits, tighten up nuts and bolts that had loosened, and come to terms with an accuracy problem I had been ignoring. This project also gave me a chance to try a new method of documentation, and learn a lot about what works and doesn’t work for my creative workflow.

After a few years of rebuilds, teardowns, and tool changes, I am finally adding a router to my MPCNC. I have been wanting to work more with sheet material like wood, acrylic, and even aluminum if I can get the hang of using this tool.

After a hiatus, I decided to revisit the needle cutter and get back to making planes from the free svg plans on FliteTest. I wanted to characterize the performance of the MPCNC and develop a streamlined workflow for creating parts that would fit together snug without being too tight.

In my pursuit of speeding up my RC plane building, I found a new tool on the Flite Test forums, a needle cutter. This is a simple tool where a flexible piece of music wire is attached to a brushless motor to repeatedly puncture soft materials. When these punctures are spaced close enough, it acts as a cutting tool.

With the laser up and running, I wanted to try and dial in the settings to get good engravings and cut through some material. Most laser cutters are of the CO2 variety, which operate an order of magnitude faster than the MPCNC, and with two orders of magnitude more power. There are lots of forum posts about setups similar to mine, but no two machines are alike, so I had to figure out my own parameters.

There seems to be a proliferation of inexpensive diode lasers available from overseas ranging from 1 to 15 W. It is somewhat concerning that someone can purchase such a high powered blinding device so easily. It is also very tempting…

Now that the MPCNC is assembled and wired up, it’s time to make something! I decided to start with some simple actions with a pen plotter and vinyl cutter.

Soon after finishing the initial build, which was significantly scaled down from my original plans, a garage unit opened up in my apartment. I had been keeping an eye out for this, so I leased one, and moved some things down to set up a small shop. I used this newly acquired space to scale the MPCNC up to it’s intended size; a 2’ x 3’ working area. Fortunately, the most inexpensive parts of the machine are the parts that determine it’s size.