Category: CNC

  • Yeti – Limit Sensors

    Yeti – Limit Sensors

    Limit switches or sensors are not absolutely required on a machine, it will work just fine without, but they are a very good addition as they prevent potentially expensive and dangerous crashes. There are three levels of safety when it comes to limits: Take care to never program the machine to go outside the working…

  • Yeti – Electrical Design Part 1

    Yeti – Electrical Design Part 1

    I always knew that the electrical side of this project would be difficult but I hadn’t realized quite how difficult it would be. With the mechanical aspects of the build at least you can look at either the part or a 3D model and have a good understanding of whether it will fit together /…

  • Yeti – Component Purchase

    Yeti – Component Purchase

    Since the last article all the way back in September the build hasn’t move very far forward but I thought it was time for an update as a few interesting things happened in the last couple of days. My main focus has been on getting the power supply designed and getting all the parts ordered…

  • Yeti – Beginning Yeti

    Yeti – Beginning Yeti

    Those of you following my build logs will have noticed that the Wyvern machine build seems to have ground to a halt (as of Sept 2013). There was nothing inherently wrong with the build (although I can now see several areas for improvement) but I simply ran out of space and time. I plan on…

  • Wyvern – Welder Purchase – Day 22

    Wyvern – Welder Purchase – Day 22

    Yet again it’s been a while since the last update because I’ve been debating what the best way forward is (read being indecisive for debating). As I mentioned in the last entry the bolting together plan was working, mostly, but it was very time consuming and didn’t offer the advantages I’d hoped for. If I…

  • Wyvern – Frame Building – Day 21

    Wyvern – Frame Building – Day 21

    I’ve not managed to get much done over the last few days as work has been getting in the way, I suppose I need to do something to pay for all this CNC equipment though. I’ve got all of the brackets for one side drilled and fitted now but I’m starting to wonder whether I’d…

  • Wyvern – Bracket Fitting Tutorial – Day 20

    Wyvern – Bracket Fitting Tutorial – Day 20

    If you have been following this build you’ll know that I’m new to engineering so this may or may not be the best way to go about the task of fitting a bracket but what I can say is that it works. Since all the brackets are the same size and have the same hole…

  • Wyvern – Frame Building – Day 19

    Wyvern – Frame Building – Day 19

    It’s been a while since the last update, I’d like to say that’s because I’ve been busy building the CNC but the truth is that I only got a few days to work on. I’ve made a good start on the frame though so I thought it was time to do an update.

  • Wyvern – Test Bracket – Day 18

    Wyvern – Test Bracket – Day 18

    Well I’ve found my new favourite paint in CombiColor. It goes on smoothly with very little odour and the coverage is pretty good considering it’s yellow which doesn’t tend to cover very well. That lot you see in the picture below was covered using <100ml of paint. It needs another coat but the 2 litre…

  • Wyvern – Test Bracket – Day 17

    Wyvern – Test Bracket – Day 17

    Before I piled into drilling holes in the actual steel that will make the frame I thought it was best to do a dry run with some of the off-cuts that I have. I’m really glad I decided to do this as it has shown me that I’ve got some accuracy issues that I need…

  • Wyvern – Steel and Paint – Day 16

    Wyvern – Steel and Paint – Day 16

    The big clean up continued over the last few days. I was beginning to think that perhaps this coating on the steel should be left in place and that was confirmed by someone on the CNC forum. It seems steel comes with a protective coating. My problem with that is it holds onto the oil…

  • Wyvern – Steel – Day 15

    Wyvern – Steel – Day 15

    The last few days have been devoted to the steel for the base. Someone I met through the CNC forum offered to source and cut the steel for me which has saved me a big job and I collected the parts last weekend. After leaving them in the hall for a week I carried them…

  • Wyvern – Routing Aluminium – Day 14

    Wyvern – Routing Aluminium – Day 14

    Before I got all carried away and did something all unnecessary, like spend money, I thought I should try hand routing some aluminium. The compound table is only £100 but that’s £100 I wouldn’t have to spend on something else in the build which is already costing too much anyway – why do I always…

  • Wyvern – Routing Aluminium – Day 13

    Wyvern – Routing Aluminium – Day 13

    For the last few days I’ve mostly just been doing research into how I’ll actually build the frame and the rest of the machine. I found a really cheap welder (stock clearance) which I almost bought but I’m glad I didn’t now. As I mentioned in the last update I decided to weld some of…

  • Wyvery – Power Transfer and Gantry Design – Day 12

    Wyvery – Power Transfer and Gantry Design – Day 12

    I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading of build logs in the last week and a some tinkering in sketchup to try and improve the design. One of the things that I constantly read people being advised to do is beef up the connection between the gantry and the x-axis ball screw. It’s very…