Fwd: Home-made CNC milling machine

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May 23, 2016, 9:03:00 PM5/23/16
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From: "Liz Upton" <>
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Subject: Home-made CNC milling machine
Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 08:19:18 -0400

For the uninitiated, a CNC milling machine is basically the opposite of a
3D
printer. With a 3D printer, you’re adding medium from a nozzle to a blank
space
to create an object. A CNC milling machine starts with a chunk of medium
and
removes parts of it to create an object, drilling out parts of the medium
with
great precision while moving its spindle on more than one axis.

CNC milling machines (the CNC means Computer Numeric Control) are really
expensive.

Screengrab from eBay today

So Colin May did what any thinking engineer would do to bring the price
down. He
built his own, using a Raspberry Pi for its brains.

Colin says:

My friend and I thought about building a CNC Machine for a while. But we
didn’t
want it to be just an ordinary CNC Machine. We wanted to make a very unique
machine that could have very unique attributes. We set out to make a CNC
Machine
that could do different types of Machining. For example, routing, laser
engraving, 3D printing, drag knife, etc. We took about a few months to
design
the basics of the machine. For example, what kind of linear motion we
would have
for each axis, what kind of material we would use for it, what kind of
style to
make it, etc. We chose our build area to be 24″ X 24″ X 7″. After those few
months of finalizing everything, we took our first step into physically
making
the machine. Note: This is made for the average consumer, for home use,
and for
someone who doesn’t have the money to invest in a $1000 CNC router or 3D
printer.

Colin’s machine is still a work in progress, but it’s showing great
promise, and
we’re very interested to see where he takes it next. Here’s some prototype
output:

First test of the machine

Second test

And here’s some video. (Turn the sound down if you’ve got a dentist
phobia.)

Raspberry Pi CNC Machine Test Pt: 2

Uploaded by Colin may on 2016-04-24.

Colin is intending to add extra functionality: 3D print capability, and
some
other machine tools – to the setup. You can follow his build and replicate
it
over at Instructables. Thanks Colin – we’re looking forward to seeing more!

The post Home-made CNC milling machine appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/home-made-cnc-milling-machine/Full article
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