My CNC Router Project

[Tom in SoCal]

In the beginning of the year I finally took the plunge and made a major investment in a CNC router. The first thing I did was to build a stand with an enclosure to provide sound proofing and dust control. The main problem was to keep all four corners of the machine accessible for cleaning and maintenance. Since this puppy weighs a few hundred pounds or so moving it around isn't easy but I did put the stand on some heavy duty wheels. Of course the fact that the whole thing is 6 foot square dictates where it stays. pictures of the machine are below. I also made a built-in dust collector.

[LCHIEN]

Looks great. More info to come?

[cabinetman]

Very cool indeed. It's expensive investment. A 6'x6' footprint is a pretty good size.

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[Tom in SoCal]

Loring,
More info as you requested:

The machine is made by Velox which conveniently enough is located about 20 miles away from me in So Cal. I was able to go to the factory and watch the machine in action before I ordered one. Delivery was about 6 weeks after I placed the order. The people there are great and the support has been exceptional. They even gave me some lessons on the CAM software by way of Citrix's Go To My Computer. The machine is really solid. I was originally looking at the Shark HD that Rockler sells but the table wasn't big enough for what I wanted to do. The Velox was $2000 more but they gave me a discount on the CAM software that saved me about $600. So all in it was a net of $1400 more.

I wanted to build the enclosure mainly to reduce the noise. I figured it was worth the effort to keep the neighbors and LOML happy. It also makes it a little more pleasant to operate the machine. I spent some time searching for an appropriate soundproofing material to line the inside of the enclosure with. After looking at the cost of some of that stuff I decided to go a less expensive route. I bought some moving blankets from Uhaul and cut them up. They cost me about $7 per and work just fine.

I also bought the $99 dust collector from HF and put the blower inside a closed compartment that exhausts back into the enclosure. I used the faux cyclone lid on a standard 30 gallon trash can. I used a standard shopvac filter and attached it to the underside of the exhaust port of the trash can lid such that the dust stays trapped inside the can as it would in any shopvac. The airflow is decent enough to pickup the dust that is ejected from the router spindle in the direction of the nozzle. The problem that I am having is that the waste is only ejected in that direction when the spindle is moving in the direction opposite to the nozzle. It looks like I will need a second nozzle.

[cabinetman]

Are you going to use this commercially, or as a hobbyist?

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[Tom in SoCal]

I am planning to turn my hobby into business at some point in the near future. So the answer is yes and yes ;-)

[LCHIEN]

That's a pretty big bed, looks to me to be about 48 inches by 48 or 60 inches.
What are you planning on cutting that needs such a large table?

[chopnhack]

First off Tom, congrats!! That is a beaut of a machine. What are you intending to batch out?

[Stytooner]

Nice looking machine there. I see you didn't jump into CNC with just swimmies. That is a full blown life raft. That machine can accomplish a lot of different things.

Without the enclosure, that machine could theoretically do full sheets. Half sheets are a good choice for a machine size though.

Good job on the enclosure as well. I wish I had something around my router. A PC690 can get annoying after just a few seconds. Hearing protection is required on mine.

Looking forward to hearing more about it and good luck with it.

[Tom in SoCal]

Loring,

I am making guitars with it. I am starting with a bass guitar hence the large bed. The neck assembly needs at least 45 inches of cutting area.