HHH: Sniffing Proprietary CNC To Hack In G-Code Support

October 25, 2013 by Mike Szczys 19 Comments

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Here’s a beautiful desktop CNC mill which had one big drawback: it used a proprietary interface for driving it. To increase the flexibility of the tool it was hacked to work with G-Code.

The project is a Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen submission from rLab, the Reading Hackspace in the UK. [Barnaby] explains the entire project after the break. The machine itself wasn’t altered, but a translator script was written in Python after capturing a bunch of packets and working out the protocol. This script listens for G-Code and does the translation into the type of commands the machine is expecting to receive.

If you know of a CNC hack from your own hackerspace send us the story for a chance to win some loot.

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A Very Professional Homemade CNC Router

October 24, 2013 by Mathieu Stephan 26 Comments

[Benne] has a small workshop at home so he decided to make a very versatile CNC router for his final project at school. It took him around 6 months to arrive at the result you can see in the image above and what is even more impressive is that he was only 17 years old at the time.

[Benne] used the free cad program Google Sketchup to draw the different parts he needed around the linear rails and ball screws he already had lying around. The CNC’s travel is 730x650x150mm, uses Nema 23 (3Nm) steppers, 15mm thick aluminum plates and 30x60mm aluminum extrusions. In his article, [Benne] gives great advice to those who would like to design their CNC like his, providing very useful links to manufacturers. He estimated the cost of his CNC to be around 1500 euros (about $2000). We’ll let you browse the many lines of his very detailed build log, which makes us wish to be as talented as him even at our age…

HHH: PCB Mill From Connecticut Hackerspace

October 23, 2013 by Mike Szczys 15 Comments

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The latest Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen entry comes from [Bremster] and the Connecticut Hackerspace. He mentions that he’s been meaning to write about the PCB/engraving mill used at the hackerspace for some time, but it was the HHH program which motivated him to do so. Yay! That’s exactly what we envisioned with this and we hope there are more submissions which will encourage us to continue and expand the program.

We think this is a perfect CNC project for any hackerspace whose members are into electronics. It’s compact, and we find milling PCBs to be more desirable than chemically etching them; the tool should get quite a bit of use. This particular build uses x, y, and z axis hardware which was pulled separately from unknown machinery. Like any good hacking project, the fabrication process was so addictive that [Bremster] stayed at the space all night, breaking at 5am to shower and eat before heading to work.

It originally used a Dremel rotary tool but had too much play in the mounting mechanism. When they replaced it with the motor shown above they also machined an aluminum bracket that dramatically stabilizes the cutting bit. This results in clean PCBs, and they’ve even used it to make stamps for their hackerspace passports. There is an enclosure attached, which has been hinged to the right for the two images above.

Check out the demo video below, and get your own CNC submission in for the HHH program before the October 31st deadline.

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Introducing The Shapeoko 2

October 21, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 39 Comments

For all the 3D printers that hit the Hackaday tip line, it’s surprising we don’t see more CNC routers. They’re arguably more useful tools, and with the ability to mill wood, plastic, and non-ferrous metals, open up the door to a whole bunch more potential builds. One of the most popular – and certainly one of the least expensive – CNC routers out there, the Shapeoko, just received a huge update that makes this minimal machine even more capable.

The new Shapeoko 2 keeps the same V wheel on an aluminium extrusion design with Makerslide, but fixes a few problems that limited the original Shapeoko. There’s a larger work area on this version, and the Y axes feature dual stepper motors. The biggest feature, we think, is the ability to handle materials larger than the machine itself thanks to its open front and back.

The Shapeoko 2 is available in two versions, a $300 mechanical kit that requires you to go out and get some motors, a power supply, and a grblShield, the full version, for $650, includes everything you’ll need to start routing wood metal and plastic at home.

HHH: CNC Storage Base From The Rabbit Hole

October 18, 2013 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

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Remember when we announced the Hackaday Hackerspace Henchmen program and asked you to send in the best CNC hacks from your Hackerspace? Well so far this is the only entry, which puts [Mazz] in the top spot to take all the loot for himself. Send in your projects by 10/31/13 if you want a shot at stickers, shirts, and a parts vendor gift card.

What he sent in is a storage cabinet base built for his hackerspace — The Rabbit Hole in Rochester, Minnesota. The group managed to get their hands on a CarveWright CNC machine but didn’t have a spare bench to put it on. The thought of dropping a lot of cash into something wasn’t appealing to them. But as luck would have it, about the same time this arrived at the space one of the members spied a free filing cabinet curbside.

The cabinet was a vertical four-drawer unit. It was chopped in half, with the resulting two-drawer units bolted side-by-side to each other. From here a frame was built to support the cabinets, along with locking casters so that it’s easy to move around. The inaugural run with the new machine/cabinet combination was to mill a sign for the space:

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Unorthodox Home-made CNC Machine

October 17, 2013 by James Hobson 61 Comments

Here’s a rather unorthodox home-made CNC machine we haven’t seen before!

[ModHappy] recently accepted a challenge to design and build a CNC machine out of cheap and readily available components from a hardware store.

Wandering around the store he noticed the plumbing isle and he started playing around with PVC pipes on the floor, greatly confusing the store employees. He had a frame constructed, but still needed a way to achieve linear movement. His calls were answered in the electrical isle, where he made use of conduit wall-mounts! They only required a minor modification to go from gripping the pipe, to sliding along it. A few fasteners later, some stepper motors from a broken scanner, a CD-ROM drive for the z-axis, some hacked together couplers using set screws, and the mechanical build was complete.

On the controls end, he made use of a cheap Chinese TB6560 CNC driver board off eBay, which he modified slightly to increase reliability. The whole thing runs off LinuxCNC (which is free) on his old laptop — good to note, it can also be run live if you aren’t yet enlightened with a Linux OS.

Stick around after the break to see it in action, drawing out an awesome site’s logo!

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PACCAM: Interactive 2D Part Packing

October 14, 2013 by James Hobson 12 Comments

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Do you have a laser cutter or CNC router? How much material do you waste from project to project due to inefficient part packing? Enter PACCAM, a software interface designed by [Daniel Saakes] to aid in efficient 2D part packing.

Using a cheap webcam, it is possible to capture the outline of used material, exactly where it is located in the CNC machine. The software then can limit your workspace to the material available in the machine. New parts can then be dragged into place, automatically avoiding interferences — certain algorithms also exist to utilize the remaining material most efficiently.

Looking to engrave custom items? The software can do that too by showing you the material (or in this case, object), you can simply drag your design onto the material available, without having to worry about aligning your object inside the CNC machine!

In the video after the break, [Daniel] shows just how powerful and useful the software is by putting a crooked, cookie-cutter riddled piece of material in the machine, and then using the software to cut new parts out of what would be scrap material in any other shop.

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