@Alex_Krause I also purchased my 750x1000 OX with a 400W spindle from @Brandon_Satterfield . My extra costs included a Smoothieboard (~$150) I had lying around and 4 motor controllers at about $10 each since the Smoothie drivers max out at 2 amps. I also 3D printed my own cable chain and had to buy a spoilerboard, Rockler clampdown rails, and endmills.
To deal with the noise and dust, I ended up building an enclosure with V-slot, acrylic panels, sound-proofing acoustic panels, etc. for about $200. Probably a bit overkill but it’s quiet and clean so worth it. You can see some pictures at https://openbuilds.com/builds/ox-cnc-build.4523/
If you look at the last picture you will see purple corners attached to the vertical V-slot. These were 3d printed and added in anticipation of eventually adding a laser. You can see the slots that would allow me to just slide in the colored, eye-protecting acrylic panels.
All in, I’m guessing $1800 but it came out nicely.
Michael, I’m curious how much current your motors draw. I had been using the on-board drivers on my controllers. I wonder if it would make noticeable difference switching to external drivers.
@George_Allen The NEMA 23 motors I received in the smw3d kit are rated at 2.8A and the NEMA 17 (z-axis) is rated at 1.8A. I was told that 2A should be sufficient but it could run hot and there was always a risk of peaking above 2A. I figured the motor controllers were cheap enough to not have to worry about it and it would place the heat on the controllers and not the board. I could have used only 3 for the X and Y axes and put the Z on the Smoothieboard but I figured I would rather be consistent in my use.
@donkjr The smoothieboard has usb, but also wifi and an sd card. I tried to drive it directly with the computer but then if there was any hiccup in the computer it would fail AND I would lose access to the computer for fear of causing an interrupt. I therefore settled on using the wifi.
Basically, I connect computer to the USB file to upload the gcode to the smoothie’s SD card. I disconnect the USB and then connect using wifi to load the file and run the file/monitor the progress.
The firmware and software I used is built into the smoothie. If you go to their github site, you can download the latest smoothie firmware and UI interfaces for the corresponding type of project you have such as 3D printer, milling, etc.
I hope this answers your question. If you have any others just ask.