Some of this is copy/paste from my blog:
Jan 16th: Ordering
So I’ve just ordered myself a CNC machine from China. It’s a “6040" model (that’s 60cm by 40cm working area) from ebay seller “amonstar”. So far so good. I’ve received a tracking number and the seller was quick to respond to my question about the watercooled spindle motor (needed to know if it was an ER11 or ER16 collet. It’s ER11). Will keep this blog updated with my progress. ETA for arrival is 7-10 days as long as there are no customs delays.
Can’t wait to get it set up Already have an old PC with a parallel port, 17? monitor and everything else.
Additional Notes: tracking number took 2-3days to update as a valid number with info. This is the item:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300550896456 ~$1750 delivered
Jan 22nd: Delivery (not quite...)
According to DHL it has cleared customs and is ready for delivery (hopefully on monday!).
Update: DHL passed the package on to Australia Post for delivery... AusPost left a card saying I had to pick it up as it was a 53.5kg package and they would not deliver!
Jan 24rd: Pickup
Drove down to AusPost depot to collect it. It was all in one big box but fit fine into the back of Mum's Ford Territory
Would never have fit it in my car.
Click for bigger pics:
For the last week I've been a bit sick, but I had time to setup an old IBM/Lenovo desktop PC with Windows XP / Ubuntu dual-boot. I've got Mach3 that came on a cd with the machine (probably not a legit license...) and EMC2 in linux to try. Spent the last couple of days clearing out the store room in our house. Put up some pine shelving to make room on the table
Assembly of the machine is pretty easy. The side rail that the cable chain sits on, as well as the moving gantry part are packed separately in the box. 5 bolts either side secure the gantry and the cable chain is secured via a screw to the side rail. It only took about 15mins to setup including the PC and wiring.
Current Setup:
And a quick video running some sample G-code that was on the cd:
Still need to hook up the VFD controller for the spindle, and work out some kind of water cooling system. There is an included 24v pump that can be connected to the main control box (there's a switch on the front panel to control it) but it looks pretty cheap/crappy. I think the idea is you just run it with a large bucket/container of water or coolant. I've got a spare 2x120mm radiator and some pumps from a PC cooling kit I'll probably use to make a closed loop system with a small reservoir (Swiftech MicroRes).
Will see if I can get my first cut going tomorrow as it was about 10pm when I shot that video.
Some specs of the machine are on that ebay listing. It's not immediately obvious from the wording, but it has a step resolution of 0.05mm which is ~2mil ?? Should be good enough for some PCB stuff. Has a milling movement area of about 60cm by 40cm but the table itself is a little bit bigger. The specs seem to have been copied and pasted from a similar machine or something. Mine came with 3A steppers not 2.5A, and the 1000-8000rpm is for the 200w spindle, not the 0.8kW VFD one which goes up to 24,000rpm
Any questions, just ask. I'll add more info/vids as I go and learn more (i'm a complete noob to CNC atm).