Anyone used the 3018 mini CNC router from banggood

[Lord Nicoll]

I bought one of those cheap kinda bad mini routers from banggood, the model 3018 ones, made from the crappy aluminium extrusions and such.I plan to play around with it a bit before making own much larger version from steel. However before that happens I plan to upgrade it a bit and then give it to someone I know who's interested in CNC and circuits to play with, but the upgrades is what I came here asking about. Has anyone done any super great upgrades or seen any? I ordered some ER11 collets because I know damn well the one it comes with is jank and, not gonna lie, the temptation to mill and turn some new parts and weld the thing together is gonna be hard for me to resist, but I don't wanna have to all that effort and such. Any upgrades that are cheap and easy to make it less sucky? I got this one and if you kinda was thinking about it, it's got 47% off so it's not as overpriced, which is 100% the only reason I got one. Offer ends like Monday though.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Lord Nicoll
colour accidentally got set to blue

[imbrock]

I see some good cnc mods on hackaday every once in a while but most seem to be for the cnc lathes.

[Hackentosher]

There might be a reddit or Facebook group community surrounding it similar to the CR-10 community.

[W-L]

13 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

-SNIP-

They're mainly engravers more than anything else due to how lightweight they are. If you want a hobby CNC for soft metals and wood and don't mind a kit build you can get one of the open builds machines and customize to your liking. They are still extrusion based builds for the ease of modularity and assembly but can provide acceptable repeatability and accuracy. 

 

 

https://openbuildspartstore.com/

[Lord Nicoll]

6 hours ago, W-L said:

They're mainly engravers more than anything else due to how lightweight they are. If you want a hobby CNC for soft metals and wood and don't mind a kit build you can get one of the open builds machines and customize to your liking. They are still extrusion based builds for the ease of modularity and assembly but can provide acceptable repeatability and accuracy. 

 

 

https://openbuildspartstore.com/

Yeah I wasn't planning on milling anything, no hope for it, but engraving PCBs and front panels might be fun. The one I plan to build will be what I use for routing at a decent rate

[W-L]

9 hours ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Yeah I wasn't planning on milling anything, no hope for it, but engraving PCBs and front panels might be fun. The one I plan to build will be what I use for routing at a decent rate

For a base to start with those engravers aren't bad but I would recommend to replace the motors they use as a spindle with either a small trim router or dremel. 

[Lord Nicoll]

On 4/21/2019 at 9:56 PM, W-L said:

For a base to start with those engravers aren't bad but I would recommend to replace the motors they use as a spindle with either a small trim router or dremel. 

Well it arrived Friday, and I've been playing with it a bit now, I can see a good few things to upgrade to make it better. Number 1 is something I knew I'd need so ordered the next day (the ER11 collet) but definitely a much better variable speed spindle would be nice, a new Z axis system as I don't like the 3D printed one much but it works. I think I'll keep it around for making smaller scale model parts of bigger ones, it seems a good way to verify ideas and such. 

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Well it arrived Friday, and I've been playing with it a bit now, I can see a good few things to upgrade to make it better. Number 1 is something I knew I'd need so ordered the next day (the ER11 collet) but definitely a much better variable speed spindle would be nice, a new Z axis system as I don't like the 3D printed one much but it works. I think I'll keep it around for making smaller scale model parts of bigger ones, it seems a good way to verify ideas and such. 

Should be alright for light cutting and engraving mainly, the included motors aren't very powerful or rigid due to how they have the collet adapter mounted onto the spindle shaft. If your plan is only to do engraving a dremel with it's high spindle speed would be quite a good upgrade. 

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, W-L said:

Should be alright for light cutting and engraving mainly, the included motors aren't very powerful or rigid due to how they have the collet adapter mounted onto the spindle shaft. If your plan is only to do engraving a dremel with it's high spindle speed would be quite a good upgrade. 

Having looked at dremels, it'd leave very little Z hight as they usually have quite long shafts from where I could grab onto it, plus the ER11 collet would be more usable, my only complaint with the spindle is lack of variable speed and overall low power, so a 24v DC motor with a speed controller but likely be a better fit, plus I gotta keep the style points and  a dremel is just too easy. Since you're a moderator, check the drafts page for an example of what I've done with it lol

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Having looked at dremels, it'd leave very little Z hight as they usually have quite long shafts from where I could grab onto it, plus the ER11 collet would be more usable, my only complaint with the spindle is lack of variable speed and overall low power, so a 24v DC motor with a speed controller but likely be a better fit, plus I gotta keep the style points and  a dremel is just too easy. Since you're a moderator, check the drafts page for an example of what I've done with it lol

Haha that's not bad at all!  

 

 

You can compensate the lack of speed control with feed rate to ensure you are cutting at an acceptable rate, but only worry with that is if it needs to move extremely quick to keep up. Motor speed controller may work but usually it will affect the motor's torque since they are usually not linear under load. 

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

Haha that's not bad at all!  

 

 

You can compensate the lack of speed control with feed rate to ensure you are cutting at an acceptable rate, but only worry with that is if it needs to move extremely quick to keep up. Motor speed controller may work but usually it will affect the motor's torque since they are usually not linear under load. 

Yeah It'd be more for differently sized bits and engraving bits in materials, some get nicer cuts at slower speeds while others at higher. I wish I could take the milling machine at work home........ that'd be nice but I can't move a 1 ton machine myself quietly.