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Back in 2001 I put together a homemade CNC machine. Due to recent requests, I'm posting some pictures here of it. Well, whats left of it, anyway. It's currently in pretty sad shape. I tore it apart to replace the motors and control board and, well, as you can see I haven't got it done yet. But maybe someone else can get some ideas from it, so here it is. Sorry it's so dirty. It's been under a bench in my wood shop for a while now.
The frame is made from 1/2" aluminum. Bed size is 22" by 18", with a 3" Z axis. I'd thought the table was a bit bigger than that, but I guess my memory ain't what it used to be. Lead screws with zero backlash nuts do the moving. In the pictures it's setup for running a dremel around, but I have several other setups I can change out if I need something with more power. I've considered mounting a laser on it, but that idea got dropped recently when I got a FSL 40watt laser.
Control was with a MaxNC motion control kit. Not my best decision. Almost all the problems I've had over the years have been because of going with MaxNC, but I won''t get into that frustration. I haven't decided what to go with next. Cross that bridge when I get that far...
At the bottom of the page is a sample of the output. It's a photo of my collie I did for a grave marker in 1/4" Corian. The piece measures 12" by 12". I used a V bit to just make tiny dots on the corian, and then filled them with black paint. Sorry for the pic, it's raining here right now and it's hard to get a good shot of it.
Enough. Time for the photos, eh?
This one doesn't have any edge trimming, or her name and dates on it. One laying flat on the ground,
does. This was the first really succesful picture I did. Since then, they keep getting fancier and fancier as I do them for other
people.