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Toughen up the CNC

A project log for SATRAN - Satellite Tracking Antenna

Wifi-controlled, azimuth/elevation antenna rotator.

daniel-nikolajsenDaniel Nikolajsen 04/23/2021 at 05:440 Comments

Yup, theres a long way to go until I can make injection molded parts. To be able to produce reusable molds, I needed to stiffen up the old CNC that I built many years ago to be able to handle aluminum.

I've just finished all the rewiring, with a new USB controller since the old one (parallell-port) didnt work with my "new" computer. 

At the moment I'm changing the old Y-axis that was made with metal rods I got from an old printer, into a lot more rigid linear rails. This will take the tolerance down from 3mm to 0.5mm. When milling plastics and wood that worked fine, but aluminum is a whole other ballpark.

To get it down to 0.1mm I will also replace the nuts for the threaded rods to anti-backlash versions. Also a new router spindle is on its way from china, to replace the noisy and cheap dremel-style machine. Then we're good to go...

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