Wobblycogs Workshop

  • So it turns out that 1500mm is a magic length for home made CNC machines, who could have guessed. My new super long 1800mm design is going to cause me some problems and I have to decide whether it’s worth…

  • After chatting with some of the guys on the MYCNCUK forum it seems steel is a lot cheaper than I thought it was. In fact 50x50x4 mild steel box section can be had for almost the same price as and equivalent piece…

  • Having realized that SBR20 rails are 45mm wide I scrapped the 80x40x4 box section in favour of 50x50x4 – should have checked that before designing the thing I suppose. I then plugged the figures into the gantry stiffness calculator and, if I…

  • So there was quite a break between day one and two of this CNC build which was probably a mistake but nowt I can do about that now. After much debate my better half has convinced me to try building…

  • After several seconds of hard thought I’ve come up with a name for the machine the “Doozer V1”. My nick name is Doozer and I can’t think of a better (imaginary) creature to name the machine after than one that…

  • For years now I have wanted to build a CNC machine. I don’t know why they have just captured my imagination and stuck there. I think it might be the mix of skills required that appeals, woodwork, metalwork, electronics and…

  • In the previous part I discussed most of the major components in the power supply. In this part I wrap up the discussion by talking about the smoothing capacitor and other components that will be needed.

  • In the previous part of this series I looked at the calculations needed to determine the current and voltage the stepper power supply should be built to provide. In this part I start to discuss the components that the power…

  • A CNC machine without power is little more than a very expensive lump of inanimate metal but supplying power that is appropriate, clean and safe is not entirely trivial. It is certainly possible to just buy a power supply that…

  • What you should know before you start planning to build a CNC… I wrote this article because looking back I wish I’d read this article before setting out on my dream of building a CNC machine. That’s not to say…

  • I think its fair to say there are two big players in the DIY CNC market when it comes to control software Mach3 and LinuxCNC (formerly EMC2). Pretty much the whole time I was designing my machine I was completely…

  • Something I’ve always wanted for my workshop was a sink I could call my own. For years I’ve made do with a bottle of water and a bucket or, if more water was needed, going down to the kitchen to…

  • Please accept an apology up front as this is a bit of a rant about Vegas Movie Studio 14 Suite. I bought the application not long after it was release but I’m not a terribly happy customer and I’d like…

  • I find that plumbing is, for the most part, reasonably logical and straight forward. Generally as long as you’ve only got water coming out where you want it you’re good to go. One area that is totally confusing though is…

  • This is the second article on fitting and LED lighting solution in my workshop. The first article covered the light levels that I’m hoping to achieve. This article discusses LED ribbon which is a both cheap and easy to work…