[Adam Haile] has been spending some time improving his CNC router and his latest change is a custom wasteboard with improved bed support. Not only does the MDF wasteboard have plenty of threaded inserts to make for easy clamping solutions, but [Adam] replaced the frame underneath the board with a new set of aluminum extrusions to provide better support. Originally, there was only support for the edges of the wasteboard, which allowed the middle to sag. While researching the machine’s specs, he was able to recognize and order the exact extrusions he needed from Misumi and construct an improved bed to go with the new board. Should you wish to make your own version, [Adam] provides all the part numbers and CAD files required.
Embedded below is a video showing the machine drilling the holes, followed by surfacing the entire board so that it is flat. Since the bolt heads are well below the surface of the board, and the threaded inserts for the holes are on the bottom, there’s no worry of the tool hitting anything it shouldn’t during this process.
Continue reading “An Improved Bed And Custom Wasteboard For A CNC Router”
The first thing to catch one’s eye might be that leftmost seven-segment digit. There is a simple reason it doesn’t match its neighbors: [Juan] had to use what he had available, and that meant a mismatched digit. Fortunately, 3D printing one’s own enclosure meant it could be gracefully worked into the design, instead of getting a Dremel or utility knife involved. The next is a bit less obvious: the display lacked a decimal point in the second digit position, so an LED tucked in underneath does the job. Finally, the knob on the right could reasonably be thought to be a rotary encoder, but it’s actually connected to a small DC motor. By biasing the motor with a small DC voltage applied to one lead and reading the resulting voltage from the other, the knob’s speed and direction can be detected, doing a serviceable job as rotary encoder substitute.
