MGN12H crappy linear rail bearing blocks

What’s more sensible than spending $9USD on a basic, possibly non working chinese no-name bearing block?

……..Spending hours and a few quid trying to do ’em up!

Parts I’ll need…

• 3/32 Drill Bit (or possibly 2.4mm if it needs some play) …………..[edit, turns out a 2.4mm is too small! Looks like 2.5 is the go]

• 3/32 Ball bearings (bound to loose a few)
• Something to drill with
• something to clamp down the carriage without damaging it

After a few minutes with the calipers and Tinkercad, I give you……….

Chinese ‘cheap’ clone linear rails MGN12 Beware and a teardown

The Cheapy ‘Hiwin’ clone rails and blocks arrived a while back and they haven’t really dissapointed. By that, I mean, I kinda got what I was expecting. Still, only a small premium paid and 3 workable carriages / rails……

Limit Switches & other stuff – Purchased, list of websites

Some pics of the two types of limit switch I picked up, 5 of each type for under $6AU delivered

I’m also grateful to all of those websites out there that allow us to mispend minutes hours days weeks perusing endless pages of cheap tat.

Some of my favourites to date that i’ve spent waaaaay too much $$ on

http://www.dx.com – The original source of my additiction

http://www.banggood.com – The new favourite

http://www.tmart.com – a nice all-rounder site with some occasional good deals

http://www.lighttake.com – used a few times, not so much nowadays

http://www.focalprice.com – seems to have lost its way with pricing of late

http://www.buyincoins.com – has some ridiculous offers from time to time

http://www.icstation.com – so much i WANT from that site, yet don’t have the free $$ to buy 😛

and of course, now the ubiqutous http://www.ebay.com.au

oh, and whilst you’re there, check out http://www.ozbargain.com.au too

Yet more unboxing

What’s in here

More unboxing. This time the power supply, another three of those 57HD0401-15SB steppers. two have large adaptor things on them, one has a smaller – must be the X,Y axis and the Z axis

Nicely packaged

Layed out nicely on the dining room table

Parallel Port!

I did get quite excited now, thought I’d be CNC’ing on the weekend IF the power supply was 240V as ordered. Well, it is. However, I did see a somewhat ominous DB25 style connector, a parallel port. That’s something that i’ve not seen on a computer for a while. annoyingly, none of  the computers I own (don’t ask) seem have the pre-requisite hardware to drive this thing.

A quick Google suggests that it’s not gonna be that easy and more hardware’ll be required.

Tools and Bits

Ah well, a cute little case full of Screws, bits and tools is always good for a cheer up

More unboxing

Some more pictures….

Well packed so far

Pulled out the smallest box to start with, this is exciting

No Idea why I’d need an ‘inverter’

However, something a little ‘odd’ here, I’d ordered a 240V version of the CNC, could it be possible they’ve sent some other voltage?

Uh-Oh…

Aaw, crap, this means I’m probably not going to be able to ‘play’ on the weekend

The Unboxing….

For those thinking of having one of these delivered….

The outer packaging was pretty much 51cm x 40cm x 40cm,

DHL had it down as 0.082 cubic meters and 24.2 Kg

Not exactly small……

First thoughts are.
‘lots of packaging’

It’s arrived!

I’m rather impressed really, Twenty Five Kilograms rolled up  to the front door on Thursday. Just four days after purchasing…..

The Box…….After being lugged into the dining room

I Purchased this CNC from An eBay 3020T CNC seller late one late night,

it was the 15th June and the chaps at Ozbargain had become aware of a fantastic 20% flat discount off anything purchased from eBay offer.

Turned out that eBay had goofed somehow and globally enabled a discount code only intended to be released to select individuals back home in Blighty.

That discount code tipped me over the edge. I frantically rummaged around for my credit card details, my forgotten paypal account’s password and perused the behemoth auction site for something, anything, a bargain to acquire. I simply MUST save money (ironically by spending money)

I’ve always liked the thought of making stuff, have been ‘making’ vicariously through various websites over the years, finding little time to end the procrastination and actually, physically do something. This CNC, this 3020T I believe will allow me to grasp within my grubby mitts the ability to turn some lovingly crafted and digitally stored squiggly patterns, three dimensional wotzits, any old crap really. It’ll allow me to turn digital crap into actual, physical, holdy in your handy, crap.

Yep, that’s right, I’ll effectively be procrastinating no further, no longer filling hard drives with even more ones and zeros. This CNC, it’s an enabler, I’ll be contributing physically to the amount of detritus in my abode by converting those digitally stored files into three dimensional junk that I can store all over the house, thoroughly annoying the missus even more!

Unboxing to come