Finally getting around to having time to work on the CNC. I have been drawing up plans for CNC #2 and that is coming along well. More on this to come... For now though, I have started to build an enclosure to hold the dedicated shop computer for the CNC machine. The tower lays sideways in the box and the monitor has holding tabs and is strapped with a tie down. The keyboard and mouse sit on the front panel. Also there is a power strip mounted to the inside of the box.
Plans are to make a stand with rolling wheels to elevate the computer and be able to move it around. Not sure when I'll get around to this though. Ive just got to find some wheels and I'll probably just use 2x4's to build a sturdy rolling base.
Despite the short Thanksgiving break, I've found time to work on the CNC. I've built a box to hold the driver board and power supply as well as four fans for cooling. My power supply is 24 volts so I wasnt able to use normal 12 volt computer fans for cooling. Luckily there's Ebay. I found a lot of 24 - 24 volt fans for $35 shipped. That comes out to ~$1.50 per fan which is incredibly cheap. Not sure what I'll do with the extra 20 fans that I now have but they work on 12 volts so Im sure they'll eventually get used for projects. Yesterday I cut holes for the fans, power cord, and computer cable and mounted the fans and power supply. I'm still not sure on what connectors I want to use for the stepper motor wires. Here are some pictures of the progress. The top of the box slides open. I used the router with a round bevel bit to shape the fan openings after cutting the circles out with the jigsaw. The four fans push and pull a lot of air through the box so there should be more than enough airflow to cool the driver board.
