I was searching on instructables to make a cheap CNC machine. I've found several examples and have decided to make one myself with only the parts of a office drawer (Excl. Electronics and Drive). My old home desk has one I never use so it can't be cheaper by that. With this drawer I've got enough wood to build a basic CNC. There are 4 Drawer slides voor the X and Y-axis. I'm searching for a rail to manage the Z-axis.
Question: I want to use a pitch timing belt but I don't know if my motors are strong enough for this. The info of my motors is: 5Volt / 1Amp / 5ohm / 6,90mH. Holding torque: 304 mN-m / 43 oz-in Detent torque: 12 mN-m / 1.7 oz-in Rotor inertia: 70g.cm2 / 0.4 oz-in2. In a few weeks it wil be transformed to a CNC machine.
An update of my progres. When the CNC will be done I will make an step to step explaination. The drawer is gone and transformed to an basic CNC table. Right now on the photo's you can only see the X axis. The Y axis is almost ready.
I'm also installing the bearings on the threaded rod. The bearings I've got from my old TAX indoor Cycling trainer. When the drawer project is done I will make another CNC of the metal coming from the TAX.
The controller board for the Unipolar motors is coming from Chromationsystems.com for $45,- You can find an instructable of the controller with the following search tags (Parallel Port 3 Axis CNC Driver, Opto-Isolated, Unipolar Steppers by ChromationSystems).Or by clicking this link The power resistors are 25 Watt 10 Ohm to get 5 volt on the motors. This is working like a charm with KCAM. You can buy a full kit including stepper motors for only $ 70,- Perfect for a simple first time CNC.