OPEND CNC Mark 1

A first venture into the world of DIY CNC.

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Part 4 Stepper motor mount

The stepper motors are mounted to mounting boxes that are mounted to the guide rails. Although it was hoped to have guide rails free, unifying the stepper motor and the guide rails does offer the advantage, that the two are always at a fixed distance from one another.

The mount is made from 5 pieces of 12mm thick MDF board. The 5 pieces are glued together to create one unit.4 5mm bolts are used to clamp the pieces together during gluing and later, to mount the motor to the unit.

stepper motor mount picture

Here is the cage without the motor and one can see how the individual pieces fit together.

The 8mm shaft interface.

The interface piece consists of 3 hole saw cut pieces of 12mm MDF board. Two of the circular pieces are offcuts from the motor mount box pieces. The motor shaft is press fitted to one of the mounts, a center piece holds an 8mm nut, with the 8mm treaded bar passing through the outer piece. Another 8mm nut on the other side of the final piece clamps the threaded bar onto the interface unit. Finally a set of 4 5mm bolts clamps the the set of 3 pieces together. Either Nylock nuts or split washers have to be used to ensure the nous don t jiggle loose.

Part 5. to come...

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