The 3040 CNC machine is the world’s most popular low-cost rigid CNC, but nobody in the maker community knows about it…until now. Go get one for yourself and use ChiliPeppr on it with a TinyG.
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=eBejoI6qHJI&u=/watch?v%3D42ew5xjIBWM%26feature%3Dshare
Nice work! Just add some homing stops and you’re set. I’m a bit jealous now.
I have a secret up my sleeve for the homing stops—my 8 channel inductance to digital converter Arduino shield. I really want to get that working now that I’ve got this new machine. No mechanical switches!
this is awesome. i had never heard of a 3040. Where did you get it and how much did you pay for it?
sweet conversion by the way. you are awarded +10 geek points.
I only heard about this for the first time like 3 months ago. It seems to be massive in China and it looks like nobody really owns the design, thus why so many companies sell it. It was $800 + $200 shipping. So, $1k is up there, but it’s around the same price as Shapeoko 2 which is $1,022 + $50 shipping. However, this machine is so rigid it can cut aluminum whereas Shapeoko really can’t (it sort of can, but barely). The 3040 is also much more rigid and precise for PCB’s which I do a lot of. The 3040 uses ball screws so that vs the timing belts on the Shapeoko is night and day different. It makes me wonder why I never just did this from the start, but then I realize I bought the $200 shapeoko mechanical kit as my entry into the world of CNC initially thinking that’s all I needed and went from there.
that’s awesome. My only big dissatisfaction right now with the shapeoko2 is limit switches. It doesn’t have any, and trying to add them is a giant pain in the ass since the grblshield doesn’t have built in circuitry to do the filtering and isolation. But, it looks like this one doesn’t have limit switches either. I’m guessing you have to add that on custom or do they make a limit switch set? Where did you buy yours from?
Yeah, the mechanical only ShapeOko kit was the gateway drug wasn’t it. And then you keep throwing $$ at it to improve it. Sounds like my Makerbot Cupcake too… Hmmm.
@Frank_Graffagnino I had min and max switches on my SO1, but am just using them for homing because of the noise issues. I even made myself a little protoboard with filtering caps and everything – didn’t help.
man, this really does look like a great deal. Of course, the $1k doesn’t include the cost of the TinyG… but if you have a parallel port card i guess you don’t have to have the TinyG right away. But if you want to use CP… 
i paid about 650 for my SO2 for the full kit, and assembly wasn’t too bad… a few afternoons i guess.
anyhow, this just seems like it has more built in and more rigidity. For $1k, this seems like a great entry level mill.
Well, let’s compare though. For $650 u get NEMA 17 motors, you get a low-end spindle, and only 3 axes. So, to get a better spindle you’re at $200 extra. For NEMA 23’s you’re at $156 more. You’re just about at the same cost, but the biggest issue is you are still on timing belts. Timing belts are awesome if you’re going to size up though, so in my book that’s the #1 advantage to Shapeoko–sizing up to a massive machine but losing precision and rigidity. I need precision and rigidity as my first priority and I don’t need a big size since i’m doing PCB’s and smaller parts.
Now, on the issue of having to buy the TinyG, sure that’s another $120 then. I want the 4th axis though and so there’s no other option out there. I’ll be doing some future videos on the 4th axis option that comes with the 3040. That is a big extra in my book and TinyG already supports it.
that’s cool. i know absolutely 0 about using a 4th axis so it would be cool to learn about how that works.
Can you please tell me why you needed the Beagleboard? I now own a tinyg but have not replaced the GRBL with it. Am I missing something?
@Frank_Graffagnino I’ll post lots of videos on using the 4th axis. New features will be added to ChiliPeppr as well to support it. This will be an ongoing project.
@Britton_Evans you need to have Serial Port JSON Server run on something. Instead of me dragging a USB cable all the way to my old Vista desktop, I wanted to a tighter setup. So by putting the BBB in there, I just run ethernet to my home network and presto–my CNC machine is online so I can connect direct from ChiliPeppr from my laptop. I usually run jobs from upstairs while machine is downstairs. So I do make heavy use of webcams as well and usually use 3 inside ChiliPeppr to monitor the machine. I run that “inject webcam macro” all the time.
BTW, u can get an Arduino Due for $18 at http://banggood.com. Get a Gshield for $40. Load the TinyG G2 firmware on it. You now have a $58 CNC controller that’s AMAZING.
Now you tell me. Jk. I just bought myself the 120 tinyG. Thank you for your great input into this growing passion. Your simply becoming an institution.
I love that the enclosure already has a place for the A axis…
@Britton_Evans i think you are good… i think you are better off with the TinyG instead of the GShield… from what I understand, the TinyG has a number of advantages including filtered, isolated inputs for limit switches (or at least that is what I heard).
Anyways, you should feel good about your purchase. I have the Gshield and have constantly had the itch to upgrade to a TinyG.
When I was looking at a first CNC for myself, I seriously considered ordering one of these before capitulating and picking up a Shapeoko instead. I read a few horror stories about some of the 3040 build qualities. 3040 isn’t a model as much as the platform size: 30cm x 40cm. Most of the time the controller kit differs, or the motor ratings differ. There’s no real standardizations.
I’d be curious to see a follow-up video showing what sort of mill quality you accomplish, +John Lauer, and how accurately those motors track over longer jobs.
Thanks for your input @Frank_Graffagnino . I’ll sleep better tonight lol. Now just to find the time to implement the tinyG.