Time to dabble in CNC. Shapeoko 2 on the way

Hi all,

I know its not a perfect platform but I have decided to finnaly bite the bullet and have ordered a Shapeoko 2.

Really its my 1st dabble at CNC and I'm looking forward to it a lot. Not a massive bed, not as clean as a laser but also not as expensive either.

Has anyone here ever used one in anger? Do you think I will be able to make decent panels with it?

Any pointers from those who know these things would be very appreciated.

J.

I am waiting for mine. Ill gladly share anything I learn. What software will you be using?

Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago and its an awesome bit of kit.

This is my first time with a CNC so I haven't really progressed much past the "hello world" stage, and aside from destroying a few pens (thankfully I didn't use the cutter for testing!) I haven't really made much.

I'm following this guy (https://www.youtube.com/user/krayvis) as he's documenting his setup and his first learning steps so its a good resource and answers a lot of the newbie questions. I also found these guys: http://www.makerslideeurope.com/ who offer UK sourced components if you ever want to expand the bed size.

Good luck and I'd be glad to hear how you get on / swap any tips as I'm 100% new to this.

Guys,

Thanks for the support. I think we can probably help each other out a lot here.

I've been following the YouTube guy too Jimbo as I don't want to muck it up too much. Did you manage to build it pretty painlessly? I've been reading the Wiki a LOT :)

As far as software I guess I need to work that out next. Do you have an idea to use anything other than the usual freeware Stevos?

J.

Guys,

Thanks for the support. I think we can probably help each other out a lot here.

I've been following the YouTube guy too Jimbo as I don't want to muck it up too much. Did you manage to build it pretty painlessly? I've been reading the Wiki a LOT :)

 

As far as software I guess I need to work that out next. Do you have an idea to use anything other than the usual freeware Stevos?

J.

I was planning on using Linux CNC but I have a USB CNC so i will use mach 3. Pycam for my toolpaths for now.

You can run free trials of pretty much all of the major Cad/Cam programs now days. Ill post more tomorrow.

Even on my larger machine which I had a few bigger commercial options I wanted to go with mach3 because there is good support for various plugins and things you can do that are not so easy on dedicated controllers.

The price for it is not too bad at all. As far as the software to do design and spit out the gcode I am not that familiar with any freeware or really cheap stuff. For most of the work I do where I will use the cnc router I use vectric software which has vcarvepro, cut2d, aspire.

I think cut2d, one of their cheaper options would do everything you need for panels while vcarvepro is more useful overall when doing a variety of things the cost is a lot more.

Meshcam Looks to be pretty good for the price. Yea I've been messing around with cut 2d and it seems it will get panels and 2d stuff done.

Putting it together was really easy! I did it in an afternoon. I think if you had Lego as a kid then it'll be a walk in the park. The one thing I'd suggest is going through the shipping manifest thoroughly and laying out the components so they are easily identifiable and reachable.

I have an extended 2'x4' shapeoko2 in the garage right now as well. Although I'm going to be converting it to an OpenBuilds Ox this spring.

Keep in mind the kind of cutting you want to do. Do you want to do 2.5D where you are cutting pockets and profiles of shapes, v-carving or full 3D objects. That will affect which CAM software you want to invest in.

Here is the list of all the CAM software I evaluated around or under $500.

V-Carve Pro is hands down the winner in my opinion for 2.5D and V-Carving. It's easy to use feature rich within those sub-sets. I've used older versions of V-Carve pro to cut out my pit.

Cut2D looks like a good intro software if you are focused on 2.5D, but has no or limited capabilities for anything else.

For those who are SketchUp fans (I most definitely am not in that group). Check out SketchUCam which does CAM right inside SketchUp. It's fairly limited but roughly equivalent of Cut2D.

Meshcam is a good cheap 3D CAM system and was primarily designed to do it. It can do 2.5D but still uses STLs as input so it's going to be very limited in comparison to 2.5D tools.

You can get a great deal ($149) on BobCAD v24 over at the shapeoko forums. BobCAD is a lot of capability for that price although it has a steeper learning curve. It can do 2.5D, 3D and V-Carve out of the box and with BobArt can do photo to carve operations as well. Be aware that BobCAD has a somewhat sketchy reputation for really aggressive sales. I worked directly with Al Depoalo and did not encounter this. One thing I do not like in BobCAD is it can't do automatic tabs unless you use there nesting component which is only useful in limited circumstances. You'll have to manually setup tool paths to do tabs.

There are a few more I did not look in detail at - Sheetcam or pycam.

Out side of these everything shoots up to $1k - $3k price range.

Gadroc,

Thanks for that, its much appreciated.

Its clear to me that I'm going to have to do a lot of research and some trial and error I'm sure.

Still whats the point of doing it of it isn't a challenge ;)

I need to look at what i want to do with it. I'm thinking some engraving, some PCB production (maybe) and definitely some panel work. I know that the engraving and some other elements aren't as clean as a laser but Im thinking I may go and do a laser upgrade sometime when I get to the limits of the milling tools.

Its really good to have a community here to bounce ideas off and the same in the Shapeoko community too.

Rgds,

J.

Mine arrives today! I can't Wait!

Mine is now mechanically built.

Electronics next. Pretty easy to put together and looking forward to the tweaks now before getting it up and running properly. Takes about 10 hours to mechanics built if you take it steady, read read and then re-read the instructions :)

J.

What bits are you guys using for engraving the text?

Hi Stevros,

Last ones I purchased were these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380466424152?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Cheers

Hans

Cool! That is what came with mine!

Broke my first bit! Trying to run 3600mm feed through a screw holding down a piece of wood...... Snap! HAHAHA! Had to happen sooner or later.

From my experience.... that's going to happen alot :lol:

Cheers

Hans

Just be careful. While I don't know much about CNC, a friend of mine had his hand literally perforated by shrapnel from a blown bit. That was nasty to fix and heal :( Now i do hope (and assume) that that's rather exceptional, but keep i mind that they don't always break cleanly and don't let your hand get in harm's way.

That said, much success! :thumbup: I love lurking in threads like this and see what awesome you're up to.

As an ex-CNC machinist, I would advise you to get some decent safety glasses if you haven't done so. Otherwise, crack on!

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned CamBam for CNC. I use AutoCAD to design my panels and then import them into CamBam as a dxf file. CamBam lets me tweek my drawing if need be but after that i can use it to profile, pocket or engrave whatever i need to in the drawing and then it makes the G-code. That gets sent to MachIII and consequently my mill where the panels are cut/engraved.

I have used this for 10 years and it works very well. CamBam can be purchased for $150 but it also has 40 uses before you need to buy it. So far I have not needed to purchase it but I do plan on it as it works so well for me. MachIII is the only CNC that I would use. Nothing else comes close to it and it's only $200 I think.

I would suggest that compared to laser my panels would be as good as but maybe not as easy to make compared to laser cutters. But quality wise, the engraving is superb and consistent. You also need either a vacume table or another means of holding your work. I have experimented with double sided tape and the 3m poster tape (mega expensive) works best.

I use .125" dia profile cutters 30 degree, .020" and the same in an engraving cutter except .010 for finer detail. I also use proper engraving plastic .060 thick for all my panel faces and .125 diameter carbide end mills for cutting my lexan light and back plates. You need a slow spindle speed for the lexan or acrylic otherwise it will melt around the bit. Trial and error will be necessary. Once you have your speed and feeds rates established for your various material types you are all set to rock and roll.

Engraving plastic has a thin black top layer and a milky white base layer. When using engraving plastic, once the front is engraved I flip it over and pocket out everywhere there is engraving. I pocket .030" deep for .060" plastic. That way the thickness of plastic where engraving is located is no more then .020" thick...just enough to let green LEDs beautifully highlight the engraving. The other parts of the panel are too thick to let any light through. It really looks amazing at night.

Good luck. It's a lot fun making panels. If have any questions, feel free. I would be happy to help if I can.

Mine shows up next month. I plan on using it for panels as well as prototyping PCBs