What is the Onefinity CNC?

The Onefinity (1F) is a different take on a Desktop CNC from the guys here. They market this particular machine as “reinventing the CNC experience” and for good reason. The biggest difference between this machine and others is the fact that they use hardened steel cylindrical shafts on all axis with ball screws to provide the motion. No belts, no wheels, just solid movement across all axis. This system seems very robust and can operate at higher speeds than using wheels and belts. With better accuracy as well!

Step 1: The Enclosure.

Even before getting the new 1F Woodworker into the workshop I decided to get an enclosure built. My aim here was to enclose the whole CNC so that I could put a job on and actually hear my own thoughts in the shop. Not sure if you have heard a spindle cutting at high speeds, but it can be loud! The enclosure needed to be solid. This is what we ended up with.

Step 2: Attaching the Onefinity

Most setup videos will guide you through attaching the 1F to a wooden base, however I was not sold on this idea and had a few lengths of Aluminum V-slot hanging around. It turns out the mounting holes on the 1F marry up nicely to the slots and I was able to use some T-Nuts to secure. The Vslot itself is secured to the wooden top using some large coach bolts at either end.

Step 3: Spindle

The default 1F build comes with a Makita Hand router that mounts into a 65mm spindle mount. These are very loud routers and decided early to go with a VFD controlled spindle. This kind of setup is not supported by Onefinity, however they do now sell an 80mm Spindle mount which will accommodate most 1.5kw and 2.2kw spindles. I ended up purchasing a 1.5kw water cooled spindle and HuanYang VFD. The spindle comes with an ‘aviation’ type 4 pin connector. These are ok, but decided to upgrade to a more robust connector. Whilst I was at it, I checked to make sure the spindle had Pin 4 connected to ground. Often these Chinese spindles do not have an earth connected which can be dangerous in a fault situation.

step 4: Electronics and Wiring

I’ll try and keep this brief, however the electronics and wiring can be broken up into a few areas: (CONSULT AN ELECTRICIAN!)

VFD and Spindle: The VFD requires a single phase 240v input, I ran the main input through an RCBO and up to the VFD, This provides some protection to the user, I also made sure all parts of the spindle, frame and router itself were earthed. From the VFD I wired a shielded control cable up through the cable management to the Spindle. This is a 3 phase 220v cable and needs some caution when running and connecting.

AC-DC for 12V Components: We also wired in a Mean Well AC-DC power supply to provide 12v DC to the LED Lights and the Spindle cooling pump.

X/Y Servo Motor extension cables: The cables supplied by 1F are not long enough to run through cable management, thus we had to build our own. The pinouts and types of connectors are readily available in the Onefinity forums. We made one piece cables so that no connections were being made inside the drag chains.

1F CNC Controller: This uses a singular 240v (or 110v) IEC cable depending where you are in the world. These are pretty common.

Earthing: All earthing, including the VFD comes back to a service earth bar.

Step 5: Everything else!

What is left! Spoilboard, some surfacing of said spoil board, some cladding for the frame. etc etc. I’ll update this when it’s complete. In the meantime enjoy the rest of the pics from the build.

My Failures…

Materials

Wood – At first I tried to glue and join 2 x flat 19mm pieces of jointed pine together, this turned into an epic failure as the glue did not hold on at the joints and the router eventually chipped away at the carve. Also, weight was an issue here as it made the flag WAY to heavy for the wall. I ended up opting for using a singular piece of 19mm Pine and living with the fact that the waves of flag would not be so deep!

Epoxy – For the epoxy side of things, I did try 3 different types and they all seemed to work. The art epoxy in a 2:1 mix ration was plenty as the pockets I was filling were not too deep.

Epoxy Tip – Make sure you use some kind of sealing agent in the pockets, the porous nature of the Pine meant that you could easily see the ‘bleeding’ of colored epoxy into the wood. I ended up just using clear epoxy to seal the wood after pocketing. This works ok, but you need to make sure you get into all the small crevices thoroughly.

Sanding Pads  – Because I carved the waves of the flag into the wood, a flat disc on the orbital sander was not going to work. I was able to pick up some 15mm foam sanding pad attachments that work with any hook and loop orbital sander. This allows the sanding pad to follow the contour of the flags.

Varnish/Sealer – Depending on the finish you want to achieve you will want to experiment with some different wood finishing products. I have about 5 different types. Including a wax.

CNC Routing the Flags

Though time-consuming, this is actually the easiest part. The problem I had, is that you can not just go ahead and carve the 3D flag into the wood and then fill with epoxy. You need to pocket the flag, then fill with epoxy, let it set, and then do the 3D Carve. If you try to do it in reverse the epoxy will flow out of the areas you want to fill as it is no longer level. This process does waste a bit of epoxy, but the results speak for themselves.

I decided on 2 sizes of flags, 250×500 and 1000×500. The process is the same for each size, however, time on the machine for all tool paths is extended on the larger flag.

The Results

No matter the finish I tried to achieve I think all generally turned out pretty good. I ended up with a blue wash flag, a burnt flag, a high gloss flag, and even some flags with presentation plates indented. If you have any other ideas for finishes let me know! I’d be happy to give them a shot.

CNC – The lazy man’s router…

The CNC router has served me well. Even though I don’t really do a lot with it, it sure makes cutting 2D items super easy and quick. For this design, I decided to widen the board slightly so that the corners of where the photo and acrylic sit is a bit stronger. I was a bit worried that where the pine is laminated it could split apart. However, after cutting it seems to be pretty strong. The laminated panels I’m using are 450mm wide and somehow, as you can see I managed to cut outside the panel slightly. This was because I got a bit lazy and didn’t measure properly. (I also assumed my ‘zero’ reference points were wider than the cut, obviously not!)

Also, not sure if you have spotted it, but I had to use the ’tile’ function in my CAM software as the router is not long enough. This can be tricky, but having one straight edge is good to slide the panel through. This keeps everything aligned.

Manual Labour

I still have not figured out how to do a beveled edge on my router, so against my will, I did this by hand. This gives the frame a bit more of that actual surfboard feel. It’s the little things that finish it off. Oh, I also sanded a whole lot. 250 grit, 120 grit and even 1200 wet and dry to see if I could get that ultra-smooth look.

okay, okay, so I made two frames…

As you may have noticed I did make two frames. The first was only 12″ x 18″. I felt the picture was drowned out a bit by the board, so I went to the larger format which I think will be a much better setup. The first frame I finished in a clear coat stain. I wanted to try and make the Pine ‘pop’. I am still undecided about this and will try some different stains over the next week or so. Anyhoo, I am sure you are sick of reading my babble so check out the progress pics below.

• Cut area 1200 x 1200
• 3Kw Spindle
• Hiwin linear bearings
• Vacuum Table
• Rack and Pinion X axis
• Dust Brush/Collector
• DSP Controller with remote.
• Collets, Router Bits and a few other accessories.

Software and Firmware

The CNC came with a RichAuto A11 DSP. To be brutally honest it is not the most user-friendly interface. However, it is usable and after a bit of manual flicking, you will understand what the controls are. You can find more details about the RichAuto DSP here:?http://www.richauto.com.cn/en/product_view.aspx?id=53

On the software side of things, I?use Aspires Vetric CAM software to generate my tool-paths and convert to a format the CNC/DSP can understand. So a complete project flow?might?involve designing the 2D part in solid works, then import the DXF into Aspire to create the tool-paths. From here I export the tool-path to a USB drive and bring it up on the DSP controller.