Inor
12-30-2021, 11:08 PM
It seems every year over my Christmas break, I start thinking it might be cool to build a CNC Router for my wood shop. I honestly do not really know what I would do with it once I build it other than using it for making templates for furniture parts. But I think it would be really fun to build one. Past years, I have postponed the idea because the mechanical parts and a few of the electronics to build it would be too expensive.
This year I was checking the prices for linear bearings and guide rails (previously very expensive components for the build) and the prices have dropped significantly! The other expensive part that prevented me from building it last year was the price of the controllers for the stepper motors. For the design I have in mind, I would need at least four controllers and they have always been in the $40-$60 range for each controller. In the last few months I have been working on a prototype for a home-brew controller and have gotten it working consistently with a small stepper motor from a CD drive. I can have the printed circuit boards printed and get the necessary electronics for less than $10 each!
In working out the details of the stepper motor controller, I was just using a cheap Raspberry Pi computer to drive the controller. It would require a bit of modification to the CNC software to get it to run correctly on a Raspberry Pi instead of an old laptop computer, but that is really not a big deal at all to get working. In short, I was figuring this might be the year when I can finally start building a project that I have wanted to build for at least 3 years.
Then I went out and priced stepper motors... Last year, NEMA 34s (the size motors I want) were in the $25-$40 range (each). This year, they start at $60 and for a decent brand they are running closer to $85 each! What is even worse... The $35 Raspberry Pi computer that I was planning on for the brains of the whole thing are now running $200 and that is if you can even find one in stock!!!
Oh well... I waited this long, waiting for another year won't kill me. But damn...
This year I was checking the prices for linear bearings and guide rails (previously very expensive components for the build) and the prices have dropped significantly! The other expensive part that prevented me from building it last year was the price of the controllers for the stepper motors. For the design I have in mind, I would need at least four controllers and they have always been in the $40-$60 range for each controller. In the last few months I have been working on a prototype for a home-brew controller and have gotten it working consistently with a small stepper motor from a CD drive. I can have the printed circuit boards printed and get the necessary electronics for less than $10 each!
In working out the details of the stepper motor controller, I was just using a cheap Raspberry Pi computer to drive the controller. It would require a bit of modification to the CNC software to get it to run correctly on a Raspberry Pi instead of an old laptop computer, but that is really not a big deal at all to get working. In short, I was figuring this might be the year when I can finally start building a project that I have wanted to build for at least 3 years.
Then I went out and priced stepper motors... Last year, NEMA 34s (the size motors I want) were in the $25-$40 range (each). This year, they start at $60 and for a decent brand they are running closer to $85 each! What is even worse... The $35 Raspberry Pi computer that I was planning on for the brains of the whole thing are now running $200 and that is if you can even find one in stock!!!
Oh well... I waited this long, waiting for another year won't kill me. But damn...