I purchased my first CNC router earlier this year. I’ve been researching forever and was pretty set on building my own for my use case of mostly machining aluminum. However, the longer I waited to get started, the better the hobby level CNC routers became. Then I came across the, then new, SainSmart Genmitsu 4040 Pro Max. I decided to order it with the A-Axis Rotary Table accessory and Hybrid Spoilboard.
A few weeks after ordering and not seeing the status on the SainSmart web site change to shipped, I sent an email to check on it. And that’s when the black hole of never ending time and money sucking began….so I thought…more to come. Turns out the 4040 Pro Max wasn’t actually released yet even though there was no indication on the web site or when I ordered it. The broken English email I received back informed me that it was a pre-sales order and would be another 2 months before it shipped, making a total of over 3 months since time of order. The customer service rep apologized and offered a free gift for my trouble if I didn’t cancel the order. I decided to wait and chose a $70 Genmitsu vise. I wasn’t in a hurry and was busy learning CAD/CAM using Fusion 360 anyway.
Free gift??? Heck Yeah!! (Spoiler: After receiving the vise I learned it is totally useless and won’t even clamp down on a part.)
I finally received the large heavy box with my shiny new CNC Router along with a couple of other boxes with the Rotary Table and Spoilboard. The assembly was amazingly simple due to a lot of effort spent on engineering mostly assembled assemblies that fit together with alignment pins. It was very exciting….except I didn’t have a place to put it. I was planning on repurposing an old cheap metal frame office desk but wanted to wait to have the fully assembled CNC in hand before making final measurements and placement. The desk was a little too long but just the right depth and height. It had a fairly thick MDF top and a thin metal square tube frame but metal non the less. It needed about 18″ taken off the length so I cut and welded the frame to fit. Yeah, I was being sucked in ever deeper into the black hole.
Finally got the table in place and the CNC fit perfect. Time to power on and try it out. Yep, the Universes Black Cloud that looms over my soul joined forced with the CNC Black Hole so the machine was partially DOA. Having no experience with powering on a new CNC Router, I joined the official SainSmart Genmitsu CNC user group on FaceBook to seek help. First post about the DOA here https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BKBNrp19U/
I did a ton of troubleshooting and determined that the stepper motor drivers were not getting the full 24V from the power supply. No idea why. Eventually a user on the FB group suggested sending a controller reset command to set to factory settings via a gcode sender. The command $RST=* did the trick and the CNC worked!! However, there was still issues. I would still have to send the reset command occasionally. In the mean time, I had been sending emails to SainSmart support and they determined I needed a replacement main/controller PCB. An inexpensive $40 part according to their web site. HOWEVER, AGAIN the BCBH (Black Cloud/Black Hole) appeared and support informed me they were on backorder for 3 months!!. Yay.
In the mean time I was able to start using the CNC with the occasional reset command to make parts for my laser pointer hobby/business. That’s when I learned how CAD isn’t too hard to learn but CAM is a total BITCH!! I’ve been using a manual metal lathe for decades so I never guessed milling something on a CNC Router would be so different. But OMGosh it’s incredibly different. You have to know EXACTLY what you’re doing on a CNC Router milling metal. On a manual metal lathe, I can just adjust feed and speed intuitively by feel. If the tool bit is a little dull or maybe just sharpened, then I simply adjust the speed and feed to compensate. But on a CNC, as the name implies, it’s computer controlled and you better have the settings pretty perfect or there’s going to be a mess.
So I made a lot of messes but eventually figured out what works with the stock I was cutting and the capabilities of the CNC I was using. I spent the next few months refining the parts I needed to make and the CNC settings to make that worked best.