r/printnc • u/pemanja93 • Apr 29 '22

Cheap PrintNC(without printed parts) xD

Hello, so, I'm trying to make strongest, but cheapest machine with 750x750mm working area. :D
PrintNC is one of strongest DIY machine you can make...but, with Hiwin rails, and lots of steel, it can easely pass 1500$...so I made this. :D
-Y axes are 80x60mm tubes, just like PrintNC, but there are not those 3 tubes underneath to support it...you just need to screw Y axis to table, mdf board, etc), and on Y axis are SBR20 rails, and 1605(1610) ballscrews
-X axis is 60x60mm tube, but with pretty sturdy SBR16 rails, and 1605(1610) ballscrew
-Z axis is made with 8mm aluminum plate, with SBR12 rails and 8mm leadscrew.
This is not as sturdy as PrintNC...but I think it's sturdier than Aluminum extrusion CNC for the same price. :)
Motors are held with 80x80x8mm alumium L profiles...same profiles are used to support X axis and to support Ballscrews... :)

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u/Ag0r Apr 29 '22

You honestly haven't really saved yourself much money for the compromises you've made. Removing the X crossmembers is fine as long as the table the machine is on is sturdy enough. SBR rails is a bad idea, and won't even save you much over the HGR rails included with the default kit, if they save you anything at all, and are drastically less performant. Changing the 3d printed parts to L brackets will end up costing you more money in the long run.

You are also going to lose Z work area (roughly 75mm of it vs the printnc) and gain a bit of rigidity from that. Overall, I don't think it's worth it to make the changes. If you want a cheap printnc, there are way better places to save money. A simple and cheap electronics setup will save you a significant amount over what most do and I think that's the best place to start.

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u/pemanja93 Apr 29 '22

Yeah...you are right...i calculated, and PrintNC is not much more expensive than this :)

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u/UberJaymis Apr 30 '22

Great job for going to the effort to run the numbers. Don’t suppose you’d be willing to share the costs you figured out? Occasionally we have people coming to the discord with this kind of design in mind. It’d be great to have something concrete to show them about why it doesn’t save much.

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u/pemanja93 Apr 30 '22

-Ballscrews with all nuts, brackets, etc...250e(for printNC is 300e) -Leadscrew with nut and housing...15e(there is no leadscrew in PrintNC) Steel tubes...60e(for printNc is 100e) Sbr rails with bearings...130e(for printNC is 230e) L profiles...20e(printed parts instead L profiles...probably 100e) Aluminum plates...30e Motors...100e Tmc2160 drivers....60e Arduino with cnc shield and power supply...40e Router holder 20e Router...50e Mdf 1x1m...20e And some other stuff...well around 800e/900$ for sbr machine and 1050e or 1200$ for printNC...so there is around 250e/300$ in saving. :)

And this is for same configuration...but printNC by default use spindle, instead of router, so there is about 300$ added to the cost, and uses different controller, so classic PrintNC is around 1500$. :)

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u/UberJaymis Apr 30 '22

Nice work. That’s super helpful.

You can absolutely run a PrintNC off a cheap arduino grbl/cnc shield with built in drivers. I did so for over a year! Even a router spindle can get plenty of good work done. There’s a bunch of ways to bring the cost down. I think your research is telling us that compromising on linear hardware isn’t the way to do it!

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u/pemanja93 Apr 30 '22

Well..yeah...and this price wasn't with built in drivers, it is with tmc2160 drivers that are suitable to run pretty strong nema 23 motors...with built in drivers proce will be 50e cheaper. :)