Rebuilt SpectraLight CNC Milling Machine

Rebuilt and installed a CNC machine in my apartment. It had been sitting in my father's shop collecting dust, because this machine originally operated off of a card that fits in your computer using an ISA slot. It didn't come with the machine, and I guess this is pretty common. You can still buy the card from Light Machines, but it cost $999.

So obviously we decided against that route in hopes that one day we would rebuild it our self with cheaper and easier to replace parts.

The other day I decided that I really wanted to get this working, and did the research to figure out how.

I wanted to use the G540 Gecko driver.

Found the Deepgroove system. It was nicely packaged.

Took the whole machine apart.

I could have used Mach3. It runs on windows, and I don't have any complaints about it. But I figured EMC2 running on Ubuntu would give me everything I need, and would have just as much of a learning curve. Plus it is open source and free.

It didn't take too long to configure the machine. After reading the manual, I had it up in running acceptably well in a few hours. I still want to do some fine tuning to maximize the potential of the machine.

As you can see it is working great.

First Post

This will hopefully be the first of many post. I started this blog to collect and organize various projects I undertake. They range from a variety of topics like electronics, woodworking, metalworking, and even cooking.

My plan is to share tips and tricks that I've learned while completing these projects, and to keep people updated on their status. Comments and suggestions are encouraged.

I hope that you subscribe to my feed and learn.