The CNC itself was used to cut the groove for the T-track. I only did one track so far because my cheap 20K RPM router and cheap HSS bit were getting too hot. I also completed a probe setup for automatically determining workpiece height but failed to snap a picture.
I was playing with my CNC tonight and came up with this:
The text is the demo g-code that comes with EMC Axis and was engraved using a 0.5″ 90 degree v-bit. I hand calculated the offsets and wrote some simple g-code to cut out the text from a large scrap of MDF. The bottom edge looks pretty rough because I needed to fine tune the feed rate. Initially I had the feed set at 30 ipm (inches per minute) but this was too fast for my el-cheapo 2 flute up spiral bit. 10 ipm worked much better but still chattered a bit. Each pass was taking off 0.25″ and that might have been too aggressive.
These images show that the CNC is fairly accurate and precise, at least good enough to make nice 0.75″ text.
I still have no good CAD/CAM software stack but at least I am making chips.
I finally made some sawdust tonight.
My HobbyCNC Pro kit arrived the other day and several evenings later I had the steppers moving. My son (age 3) and I enjoyed watching the steppers move on the workbench as EMC thought it cut out the standard test image. I also made more progress on the CNC machine build. In spite of several layout errors I have the X and Y axis pretty much assembled. The X axis is mostly dialed in but there is a bit of slack in the end bearing. These bearings may end up getting replaced if I can not eliminate enough play. Sadly I broke a tap while fabricating my stepper coupler so I did not achieve CNC movement as hoped this weekend.
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