Sunday, September 2, 2018

Homebrew CNC Machine

A few years ago I built a version of this CNC machine. I had some difficulty getting accurate cuts out of it so I've rebuilt it (a couple of times). I scrapped the old MDF version and the system of roller skate bearings and angle aluminum guides, and rebuilt it using mostly scrap pine wood I had laying around, drawer slides for Y and Z axis, and sliding door hardware for the X axis. While this wasn't my final version, I'll throw some photos of it here in case you are looking for ideas for yourself:


Here's a more detailed photo of the Y and Z axis components, not attached to the base:


For the electronics, I'm using:

Motors:

Software:

After a little bit of testing with this version of the machine, I found there was too much play on the various axes, especially the Z-axis.

I redesigned the Z and Y axes, and used poplar wood for the various components that needed more rigidity, so that the (possibly) final version came out like this:


To test it, I uploaded a small engraving (about 10cm wide by 6cm high) and ran the job using a piece of scrap MDF, and it seemed to turn out OK:


Hopefully this will help others out there working on their own machines. I'll post some more details later - thanks for reading!