Updates

The MPCNC build is going forward. Here’s what’s happening.

Spindle

Purchased Makita RT0701.

Conduit

Found that galvanized pipe doesn’t match MPCNC parts so I’ll go with the conduit. It’s not as stiff but it should work, especially if I make the machine smaller.

Parts Bundle

Purchased and received. I got the RAMBo Dual Firmware & wire kit version.

3D Printed Fittings.

I ordered two reels of ABS via Amazon. (1kg per reel) They arrived yesterday and Fred and I did our first print in ABS this afternoon. The test print was the corner spacer part and it turned out just fine. The ABS feels great! It’s the same material as Legos so it just feels less fragile than PLA.

Just before leaving work, I kicked off a 10 hour build of the corner tops.

Build Planning

So, looking forward, I need to finalize the machine’s dimensions and then cut the conduit.

Dimensions

For cutting aluminum, the site recommends a small size. And if I’m cutting mainly aluminum angle stock, I only need about 3 inches of travel in the Y dimension. But it seems that would be too restrictive for other uses. I’m thinking 12” would be better.

In the X dimension, I don’t think any single piece of a KAP rig will be longer than about 9 inches. It would be nice to set up the machine to cut multiple parts from a piece of stock, though. I’m thinking 18” sounds about right.

A 12x18 inch work area would accomodate an 11x17 sheet of paper if I want to use it as a plotter, too.) The V1 Engineering forum references a 24”x24” machine that worked with aluminum so 12x18 should be good. (I’m not sure that was made with conduit or stainless steel tube, though.)

The other recommendation for working with alumimum is keeping the legs short so the work plane is close to the frame. I’m going to go with 4” initially at least. That’s the default in the cut calculator so I’ll just go with it.

All of these dimensions should be easy enough to change if necessary.

Actually, I’ll round the dimensions up to the nearest inch when cutting the conduit. So:

Piece	Num	Working Width	Calculated Len	Conduit Len
X-Axis	3	18	28.4	29
Y-Axis	3	12	22.4	23
Z-Axis	2	4	11.5	12
Legs	4		3.5	4

Table

It would be nice to source some T-slotted plate to make the table base. There’s a good product here that might work. (For $127)