Build a Cheap Handcrafted CNC Mill

Ever since I knew what a CNC was, I've dreamed of having one. As a kid, my parents didn't take it seriously. They said it was too impractical to buy one, specially for my age. CNC and 3D printing services in our country were absent at that time. I was very eager of building a DIY version so dreamed big and kept on searching online for designs. Luckily instructables had tons of CNC tutorials although none were made completely by hand. Most CNC builds were made by CNC machines. It's very ironic on how you need a CNC to build a CNC.

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Due to the limitations of what I had at that time, I was forced to improvise and use common materials found in local malls to build a homebrew version by hand. I've built this for 3 days, day and night, a rough estimate of 34 man hours.

It never really ran with an uploaded g-code but I was able to test it by cutting straight lines of acrylic with my Black & Decker RTX rotary tool. Sadly, I'm discontinuing this project since we (my friend and I) decided to build a cheap 3D printed version using his 3D printer. I'm getting mine soon so stay tuned with more 3D printed projects. I'll give this to my friend so it's up to him if he wants to continue updating this tutorial.

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***Please bare with the dull photos, they were taken with my phone. I really had no intention of documenting this, but after seeing my photo roll, I've realized it's enough to make an instructable. Cheers! :))

Do your research on DIY CNC builds. You can find a lot here in instructables (https://www.instructables.com/id/CNC/). Once you've decided on your design, doodle it.

Electronics:

- L298N

- Arduino Uno/ Mega

- Stepper motors ($3 Alexan)

- Switching Power Supply

Materials:

- 4x8ft MDF Wood

- 14" Cabinet Sliders (4x)

- Plastic Project Enlosure

Tools:

- Leatherman Multitool

- Electric Drill

- Rotary Tool

- Metal File

- Jigsaw

Time to put your drawings to life! Buy a 4x8ft (1/2" thick) MDF sheet from your local lumber yard then use a ruler and marker for marking the measurements.

Too lazy to use a handsaw? Use a jigsaw! :D Be sure to cut the MDF as straight as possible. Crooked cuts could result to having a poorer performance of your CNC.

Judging by the result, I could say I'm quite satisfied with I had cut.

Remember always keep your work area clean! :D

You know how this works, mount those cabinet sliders the same way how you mount them to your cabinets.

This is was included in my original plan. An extra bar of wood was added perpendicularly to the topmost bar of wood. This is done to reduce shaking once the CNC starts milling and to keep both sliders moving at the same time.

Be sure to plane your frame to prevent the other moving parts from touching the bumpy surface. Less friction = more efficiency!

This is where I had to improvise. I used two square blocks of MDF from my junk to suspend my CNC from the ground. I did this to give way for the screw mover and give a gap between the stepper motor and the ground.

In this step, I sawed off a small portion of the CNC's uppermost base. This is where the stepper motor should go. What's with the superglue? I used the superglue to reinforce the mounting holes for the stepper. Why? MDF is soft, a few turns and the wood either splits of turns threadless.

Get you very long bolt/ screw, then file/ grind the thread of the

If you can't find stepper to bolt adapters, just use a blob of 2 part epoxy to connect them both. Be sure too keep it centered until it hardens.

Once the stepper motor rotates, the screw rotates too, this causes the sliders to move. The sliders are moved by the help of the movers. There's no terminology for this free moving arm so let's just call it the mover. I used wood glue to temporarily align the wooden pieces.

After leaving the CNC to dry, I came back and fastened the wooden pieces together with screws, making them more permanent.

Here's a bottom view.

I cleared a small portion of the sliders to prevent the Y-axis slider from touching the X-axis slider.

Mont the sliders to the Y-axis frame.

Keep them parallel with each other to reduce friction.

Drill a hole for the X-axis stepper then add the screw, just like how I did on step 11 & step 12.

I was looking for junk that I could recycle, then suddenly I found this scrap aluminium bracket from my collection of junk. I used it together with a block of MDF as the X-axis screw mover.

This is where I stopped constructing. Finding and designing the perfect mount for the rotary tool was really challenging for me.

I used an L298N as a single stepper motor driver. I used an Arduino uno clone to control the driver. BTW, the Arduino Mega has enough pins to run three l298N drivers.

A separate instructable coming soon! :D

This is where it ends, I hope you enjoyed reading my guide.

Guys, please support our entry for "Next Bright Idea" contest! Under "Elizabeth Seton School Team - 2". A vote from you really means a lot to us!

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http://brightidea.enderuncolleges.com/vote

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Also, I will be posting the finished product around January for the US-Mexico green contest here in instructables so stay tuned! :D