Official Luthiers Forum!

what do you folks think about this kit?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Axis-Nema-34- ... 0677990615?


would these steppers have enough stones to handle milling out a neck with a .375 or a .50 dia ball endmill, contour a fretboard, mill out a bridge, and handle minor engraving? I have a 1.5 hp variable speed Hitachi router that i could use as a spindle and am considering either building or buying a basic gantry machine.

I'm not new to cnc but am new to home router cnc machines -i'd have no problem on the cad-cam/programming end of things.

opinions?

thanks

The driver board is junk. I've never actually used one but everyone who has says the TB-6560 is garbage and you'll have to buy a new one soon when it smokes.

Gecko G540 is a very safe bet but it costs more .

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Overkill.

Seriously.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, I suspect it's actually worse than overkill - they're 878" motors with only a 24v supply and 3.5A max current. Those probably would need closer to 70v to get any sort of performance out of them.

The true point to consider is that without a lot more information about the router, one can't say how it's going to perform. Lead, gantry weight, drive method etc. is going to have a huge influence on the drive selection.

Rule of thumb is to buy electrics & electronics last, not first.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

thanks for the input guys!

Yes. Good rule. You need to actually design a machine (assuming you're building one) and then figure out if steppers or servos are actually better for what you are trying to do. I have 600 oz/in stepper motors on my cnc, an sometimes I think they're overkill. I probably could have gone with something closer to 300 or 400 oz/in motors, but I didn't realize just how much power they have. The Gecko vampires are great drives though. If I had it to do over again.....servos, Granite drives.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

so there arent any good kits on ebay? I live in europe and the gecko kit will have way too much of a shipping cost plus custom fees....I am intereated in buing something cheap but not garbage maybe something like this?http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/131021116511

Most the guys from Joes's CNC forum buy from this company.
Way more expensive but top quality and great service.
It's gives you something to compare.
http://www.cncrouterparts.com/3-axis-di ... -p-74.html

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Rick Hubka
Chemainus BC Canada

I have bought a lot of CNC stuff from cncrouterparts and it's all worked out well. One thing about the board you mentioned. It has a flawed design, and can be fixed but there are others available for not much more so it's not worth the trouble. http://www.homediystuff.com/fixing-a-ch ... 560-chips/

I would buy it from them but I live in Greece an the custom would be alot money plus shipping If in wre in europe I would be ok...so any other source maybe or other peaces that I can find on ebay.co.uk?

Go on AliExpress, find someone with a high rating, buy from them. I only go on eBay for specialty stuff I can't find on there, like high end encoders or linear motors.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

could you please recommend ?