Not too long ago I put the CNC shaping machine I made on here for sale. It is sold now but I had a few people ask about how they can make their own so I will share my info and experience with it here.
The goal of my machine was to make a shaping CNC as inexpensively as I could, while still being capable of cutting surfboards at a high precision. Speed was not something I cared about since I would just be shaping boards for myself. I do not know exactly how much I spent to build it but I believe it was around $2,500. Most of the parts were bought on E-bay.
Since I dont’ have the machine anymore I can’t get any new images of it, but I will share what I have.
I’d be interested to hear input from other people who have experiece with shaping machines on how it could be improved.
I will add more info and images here as I come across it.
The CNC g-code program is a free download and is called Universal Gcode sender.
On ebay I bought 3 Nema 23 stepper motors with the controllers and a power supply included. (If I had it to do over I would probably put a larger motor on the X axis, or put double motors).
Its put together with 8020- its metric 30mm type. Its this size because most of the components have that size spacing and mount on it easily. The whole machine is very light weight, but that is a little bit of a problem because it can move and shake. I piled some heavy stuff on the base to hold it steady. But beefing it up with a heavy base of welded steel wouldn’t be a bad idea. Or maybe making the legs shorter so it wasn’t so tall. But its nice to have it high enough to not have to bend over to load the blanks and stuff.
I’m just spouting off info as it comes to me. More to come.
Router motor- The router I used is a Makita, the same router I use for the Futures fins install, can’t remember the model #. Worked fine. I did end up turning the RPM’s to fairly low becuase it started to melt the EPS blanks, I think because the machine moves slow. Also it happened when I did deep cuts. To avoid deep cuts, my method was to cut the outline just an inch or so deep and I would cut the outline a 1/2" or so oversize, then I would take the blank off the machine and cut the outline by hand with a saw, to get rid off all that extra foam. That would also help to get rid of the foam so it didn’t vibrate and cause problems when it eventually came loose.
I would just plug it in and turn it on when I was ready to cut. There are ways to have the machine automatically turn it on and off, but didn’t seem necissary.
The basic steps in programming the machine to cut a surfboard are; 1. Make CAD designed board 2. Define toolpath program 3. Output G-code 4. Run G-code on computer that is connected to machine.
I do CAD for a living so I probably did the CAD part different than most people would. I drew the boards from scratch in a program called Solidworks. Solidworks is a pricy program but I already had it for work anyway. Once I had a board drawn I could modify dimensions to make different board shapes. I wouldn’t recomend this method unless you are a CAD master and just want the challenge.
I know that there are surfboard shaping programs out there but I have not ever used one. The little I know about them, they look great and fairly easy to use.
Once I had a board in CAD that I was happy with I would import it into a CNC machining program called MasterCAM. MasterCam is a pricy program but I already had it for work. So in this program I would say exactly what I wanted the machine to do, what size and shape the cuttig tool is, how far to step over in each pass of the tool, how fast to move the machine, stuff like that. This program would output a text file with the G-code.
G-code is basically a file with a bunch of X,Y,Z points defined. The machine will read these points and move to the point in space. So it you have X3.0 Y2.0 Z0.5 in the code the machine will move in a strait line to that point. to make the curves of a surfboard there are just a whole lot of these points in the code.
The G-code gets opened in a program called Univeral Gcode Sender, free download. This program runs the machine, so you will need a computer hooked up the machine with a USB while it is running. And this program will be sending the coordinates to the machine. You can use this program to move the machine around manually also.
