We returned from an excellent vacation week in the Outer Banks on Sunday. Great weather, great time. Being away from the shop for a week was killing me though, so Monday I spent quite a bit of time in the shop (with my great wife keeping our kids busy).
I virtually completed the physical construction of the CNC-Lathe attachment. I mounted the 2nd stepper motor and built the cutter-head assembly out of UHMW plastic. The cutter itself is made from 1/2″-square steel stock. It will have a small screw-on carbide cutter insert shortly.
I also modified John K’s design slightly for the 2nd stepper-motor mount. The UHMW plastic that I have been using was flexing too much for my liking, so I built a UHMW box around the original motor-mount to provide more lateral strength. Probably unnecessary, but I tend to overbuild things!
The only work left to do on the physical construction of the machine is to make the chip-guard for the carriage and add the carbide insert. Both simple tasks.
Next steps are to wire the stepper-motors to the controller board, and the board to a power-supply and an old PC….then get the software working. I am going to use an old PC that has been in storage in the basement for a few years as the navigation system for the CNC machine. Therefore, the first task will be to bring the old junker PC back to life…I hope to work on that in the next couple of days. After that, we should be ready for power-on and see if this thing will cut wood!
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About mattsanf
Matt Sanfilippo is the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Director of its Engineering Research Accelerator. In this role, Matt coordinates and enables strategic and sponsored research opportunities across the college, and stewards the development of proposals for major research opportunities along strategic themes. Additionally, he enables collaboration among the college's research institute/center executive directors, and industrial and government relations personnel in the pursuit of opportunities with industry, federal and state governments. Before becoming CPO for the College, Matt was the Senior Executive Director for Research Initiatives, the Executive Director of CMU's SII (Smart Infrastructure Institute) and ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) and RAMP (Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania).
Before CMU, Matt was Managing Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, an engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed Baker's technology division including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality, visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on information security, supply chain and mobility solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, an infrastructure engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is on the board of Larson Design Group (LDG), past Chairman of the Board for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, current board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), current Vice President of the Sewickley Heights Gun Club (SHGC) and former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
A Learning Adventure in the Workshop 