After using my enlarged eShapeoko for some years i wanted to build something larger and a bit more powerful. In between i had made some experiments with a large but very light coreXY portal usable for foam sheets and thin plywood and balsa. That was fun, but i wanted to have something more rigid and powerful. In Summer 2017 i bought some supported rails with 1500mm and 1000mm - just because they were so cheap at banggoods EU warehouse. Once they arrived i started planing a portal mill around them ;_). Due to the large size, i opted on using HTD3 timing belts with 15mm width instead of ball screws for X and Y. Timing belts worked fine on my other machines and ball screws in that length would either need to be very thick or make use of rotating nuts which would have been to expensive. For the Z Axis i bought 2 MGN 12 linear rails with 4 carriages and a 1204 ballscrew from china. After experimenting with some very cheap NEMA23 Motors, i changed my mind and bought 4 JMC NEMA23 closed loop steppers with integrated drivers. That should give enough power and ease all the cableling as is does not require an extra set of stepper drivers. Now that the machine had powerful motors, i wanted to have a powerful spindle as well. with some luck i found a good aliexpress deal for a 1.5kw aircooled spindle with inverter.

Well, getting father and buying a house took most of my time since the first parts arrived, so that it took nearly a year before i really started to assemble the machine - the good thing is that now that the machine is finished i have some space to put it ;_) Would have been quite crowded in the small basement of my former flat, now i have ~90 square meters of basement to play around.

All in all everything that i planed in librecad in 2D fitted quite well. Compared to my eShapeoko it looks really huge, massive and rigid - of course not comparing it to other machines made to work mill aluminum and steel.

All listed prices are what i payed for (most incl shipping). Most of the stuff was bought over a longer time period waiting for items to go on sale or being available in the EU stock. If you have some time and do some research you will find them for a similar price i guess.

XY Portal

• SBR12 1500mm Support Linear Rail Optical Axis Guide with 2pcs SBR12UU Bearing Blocks special offer in the EU warehouse. US$19.50×2
• SBR20 1000mm Linear Rail Optical Axis Guide with 2pcs SBR20UU Bearing Blocks special offer in the EU warehouse. US$20×2
• Aluminium Angle Corner Joint 28x28mm 10pcs $4
• 10pcs 6060 European standard aluminum bracket $12
• Profile 40x80 I-Type slot 5 1500mm Portal 30€
• Profile 20x40 I-Type slot 5 1500mm Portal Back 10€
• Profile 60x60L I-Type Slot 6 2x 1000mm Sides 40€
• Profile 30x60L I-Type Slot 6 2x 1500mm Back/Front 45€
• Profile 30x60L I-Type Slot 6 3x 1280mm Table 55€
• M4 Square Nut 50pcs 2x $2
• M5 Slot6 Nut 50pcs $6
• M4x8 Screws 100pcs $5
• M5x10 and M5x8 Screws 50pcs $8

• HTD 3M Timing Pulley 15T 15mm Bore 8mm 2x 2pcs 14$ Choose matching to your Motor shaft.
• Idler Pulley 3M Type 20T Passive Pulley Bore 6mm Width 16mm 3x 2pcs $23
• 5meters 3M Timing Belt 3M 15 Width 15mm HTD3M $18

Belt-Step-Resolution calculation: GT3 Belt with 3mm pitch * 15 tooth pulley = 45mm per revolution. 45mm / 2000 steps = 0,025mm/step

Z-Axis

• 250mm MGN12 linear guide rail + 2pc MGN MGN12C Blocks 2x $14
• SFU1204 rolled ball screw 300mm $18
• FF10 for SFU1204 Ball Screw End Support $10
• 8x10mm CNC Motor Jaw Shaft Coupler $1 Choose matching to your Motor shaft.

Electronics

• Cisco WS-CAC-1300W AC Power Supply 42V 27A 19€
• 5 Axis CNC Breakout Interface Board $7
• JMC-iHSS57-36-20-NEMA23-2Nm-283oz-in-Integrated-Closed-Loop-Stepper set of 3 motors 210€
• JMC-iHSS60-36-30-NEMA24-3Nm-425oz-in-Integrated-Closed-Loop-Stepper 80€
• Nema23 Mounting Brackets 3x 3€
• 1.5kw air cooled spindle + inverter 212€

Working Plate

• 18mm MDF sheet 145x106cm
• M5x10 Wood Insert 100pcs $5

• Cisco Power Supply Mod
• 5 Axis Breakout Board User Manual
• JMC iHSS57-36-20 Closed Loop Integrated Stepper Motor