Well, it's finally arrived! Thanks to Ron Rogers of Romaxx for making this possible. What you are about to see is the unboxing of a shiny new HS-1 CNC router.

This machine is considered a tabletop CNC, and as such, doesn't take up a lot of space. Since I work primarily in small form factor, this will fit 99% of every need I have. Even though it's a compact design, this thing arrived to me in a 125 pound box. 105 pounds of that is the machine itself. If weight is any indicator of strength, then this thing is a beast.

So, shall we look at a few pics of this thing?

The box...





Let's crack this thing open. It's definitely well packed, and bolted through the bottom of the crate.

















That's it for now, but I'll follow up once the machine is setup in the shop. Until then!

Looks good, man. Can't wait to see what you cut up with it!

Thanks! There should be epic times ahead man!

While I know everyone is anxiously waiting to see the CNC running, I needed to take care of a few small details first. One of those details involved a custom misting solution for cutting aluminum. Why mist? Well, for the work I have to do it can be just as effective as flood, yet it's so much easier. I should say it's easier, only if you can find a workable and convenient way to implement it.

I have been doing some research into CNC misting techniques, and most of the options are geared towards commercial applications, and are quite expensive. I wasn't really willing to spend $300 on something I was convinced I could do myself. Since I'm a modder, it only made sense to mod a homebrew solution. Many hours were spent Googling anything that misted, before I came across the mention of using an airbrush as an option. I tried to find where someone had actually followed through using this method, and came up with nothing. So, I figured I might as well be the first. Even if I'm not, I'm hoping my methods and documentation will make it easier for others to find and implement themselves.

Now, before any fabrication could begin, I needed an airbrush and dedicated on-demand compressor. Amazon came through with this nicely outfitted kit.







Okay, well, now that I've got the airbrush, I need to find a way to get it mounted to the Romaxx machine. Since the mister needs to follow the mill bits as they cut through the material, it was obvious that it needed to be attached to some location near the spindle. It just so happens that there were some unused spindle mounting locations that would be perfect. So, I just needed to come up with a workable bracket of some kind. Not only did the bracket have to hold the airbrush securely, but it couldn't interfere with any machine operation whatsoever. I needed full X, Y, and Z operation with no limits or restrictions. I broke out the cardboard and started experimenting. This got me in the ballpark...



Since I was satisfied I had a workable idea, I committed it to metal...



I love bending things, so the newly cut bracket received some attention.



With the cutting of a few well placed slots, and the help of some rubber o-rings, the brush and it's coolant reservoir were attached to the bracket. I used a simple mounting method for two reasons. Ease of maintenance, the ability to have flexible mount points should some unforeseen interference occur.



So, let's get this bracket mounted! You can see how cleanly it sits in it's location. It's also easily adjustable for height.





There is plenty of room for travel with no interference.



Now finally, here are a few pics of the machine as assembled and ready to run.







All that I've got left to do is make sure I'm set for live streaming, and I'm ready to cut. If I can find a good material hold down solution, I'll give it a go tonight. (Yes, I'll likely be getting the aluminum top w/ mounting holes soon.)

Okay guys, since I have a habit of never being satisfied... I made a few changes to my CNC router. After my dry run with the picture in picture webcams, I started thinking about how cool it would be to add one of the cameras near the spindle itself. I thought it could capture the mill bit working as I machined. Well, in order to make this happen, I went ahead and got a $10 camera from newegg, and set out to find it a home.

I knew I had to get it as close to the spindle as possible, yet there could be no interference in the machine operation or safety. This was a must. The machine comes first, and these little extras second. So, as I was poking around with the cam, one thing became clear. My new mister bracket wasn't going to cooperate. I could either ditch the idea of a camera, or redesign the bracket. Well, I chose to make a new bracket. It is greatly simplified over the other one, but required the flexible metal shaft from a donor lighter. This shaft was the key to making everything work, as only this, a piece aluminum angle were going to be used in the new design. After a short while, the new bracket was in place, and I could move on the mounting the camera. This was even easier. I just needed a small aluminum triangle and a rubber washer... I removed the camera's original mount, and attached the aluminum. I then bolted the bracket to a free hole behind the spindle, and I was in business. So, shall we get on to a few pics?

Here you can see an overall pic of the machine. The new mister bracket, and the webcam behind the spindle are visible.



A little closer...





A few more closeups...









As you can see, there are no clearance issues of any kind. The machine is still just as easy to maintain, and I don't foresee any issues. Now all I need to do is get something cut!

I came home from work today to find a nice sized box on my front porch. Inside was one of the last items I needed for setting up my Romaxx CNC machine. It was a VT6040 vacuum table that I had purchased from ebay seller dcad100. It measures 24.0”x16.5” x 0.8125", and was the perfect size for my machine. The vacuum table will allow me to hold parts in place without clamping. Should I need to clamp things anyway, there are M6 holes on the table that should easily allow this.

So, should we take a look at the table? Here it is as it arrived to me.



Opening the box revealed a very well packed table.



The table also came with a the necessary tubing for hooking up to a 2" vacuum line.



Also included was a solid rubber mat for blocking off unused holes during vacuuming, and a holed rubber mat that sits below parts that are being cut. The holed mat not only allows transfer of suction, but will help keep the end mill just above the aluminum table surface. These should be easily replaceable should the need arise.



The table looks to be of pretty good quality, and is well constructed.



Now finally, here is the table sitting on the machine. As you can see, it's the perfect size. All that's left is to get the vacuum lines hooked up, and it's ready for use. More coming soon!

I had a little more time tonight, and was able to get the vacuum assembly finished. As of now, the vacuum table is completely ready to use. I am pretty happy with the way that things turned out. It's compact, easy to maintain, and fairly cost effective. Of course, none of that matters if the table doesn't perform as expected. Well, I'm happy to report that it performs even better than I had hoped. I know everyone is anxious to see how it turned out, so let me walk you through the rest of the setup process...

There are really only 3 major components needed in a vacuum table setup. The first is obviously the table itself which I covered in the last update. The second is the source of the vacuum itself. For this, I went to industrial parts supplier Grainger, and picked up a vacuum pump. I selected a two stage tangential unit capable of 97 CFM and 81.8 Hg vacuum. There were more powerful units available, but this one was an outstanding deal, and worth taking a chance. So, let's take a look at the pump...



Now, I should mention that although this is a vacuum pump, it's also a blower by it's inherent design. Unfortunately the only fitting for attaching a hose is on the blower end. That meant I had to get a little creative and epoxy a fitting over the vacuum hole. It was a simple fix, but just one more step I had to take before I could move forward.



Okay, now we've got two of the three major components out of the way. The third? Well, that should be easy. We've got to have tubing connecting the table and the vacuum pump. This shop vac hose kit offered the perfect solution.





As you can see the shop vac hose was a perfect match for the tubing adapter and splitter that came with the table.



Now all that was left was to route the tubing and hoses, mount the pump, and connect everything together. As you can see, the whole assembly is pretty clean and simple.





At this point I was pretty anxious to kick it on and do some testing. I'll try and get some video of that up in the next day or two, but as I mentioned above, I was very happy with the results. I could lay a block of wood in the center of the table, and with the pump running, it was surprisingly hard to move laterally. Keep in mind that this was without blocking off any of the other holes in the table. Doing so would increase the vacuum significantly. I'm pretty confident that as long as my feed speeds are appropriate, and my end mills are sharp, nothing is going to move while vacuum is applied. The only way to know for sure is to actually cut something, and I'll be doing that very soon!