For many home craftsmen, it may seem that this is somewhere on the verge of fantasy, since this equipment is a device that is complex in design, technical and electronic terms.
Meanwhile, having the appropriate drawings at hand, the entire necessary material and a tool, a mini home-made woodworking machine equipped with CNC, you can do it yourself.
Of course, for this you will have to spend certain efforts, including financial ones, but nothing is impossible, and if you approach this issue correctly and competently, homemade table milling machine on a mini woodwork with a CNC block, every home craftsman can do it with his own hands.
As you know, such a mini unit for wood is distinguished by the accuracy of the processing, ease of control of all work processes, as well as the high quality of the finished product.
Currently, there are several ways to implement a home-made desktop CNC milling machine in a mini version for working on wood and other materials.
First of all, you can purchase a special kit for collecting this type of structure, or you can do all the necessary work yourself, getting at the output ready product with high quality processing.
If the decision is made necessary work to design and assemble a mini desktop milling machine for working on wood and other materials with CNC to do it yourself, with your own hands, then you should start by choosing the most optimal scheme for the future unit.
In this case, as the initial equipment, you can take a small old drilling machine and replace the working body in the form of a drill directly with a cutter.
Be sure to think carefully about how the mechanism responsible for the necessary movement in three independent planes will be arranged.
You can try to assemble such a mechanism from recycled carriages from an old printer, which will make it possible to ensure the movement of the working cutter in two planes.
Here you can simply connect the necessary software, which will make it possible to make a home-made desktop CNC milling machine automatic, however, such a design can only work on wood, plastic or thin metal.
In order for a self-made milling machine assembled by oneself to be able to perform more serious operations, it must be equipped with a stepper motor with high power ratings.
This type of engine can be obtained from the standard version of the electric motor due to a slight refinement. This will completely eliminate the use of a screw drive, while all its advantages will be preserved in full.
The necessary force on the shaft in a homemade unit is best transmitted through toothed belts.
In the event that, in order to ensure the necessary movement of the working cutter in a home-made CNC milling machine, it is decided to use home-made carriages from printers, then it is better to take these devices from large printer models for these purposes.
When creating a CNC milling unit with your own hands, Special attention should be given to the manufacture of the milling mechanism, which will require the appropriate drawings.
Assembly of the milling machine
It is best to take a rectangular beam as the basis of a home-made milling machine, which should be firmly fixed on the guides.
The whole structure must have high rigidity, while it is better if welding work will be kept to a minimum.
The fact is that in any case, the welding seams are subject to destruction and deformation under certain loads, during the operation of the machine, its frame will be subjected to, among other things, vibration, which may adversely affect these fastening elements, which, in turn, will lead to to a failure in the settings.
To increase rigidity, it is recommended to fasten the beam and fastening elements with screws of certain diameters.
This should completely eliminate the possible backlash during the operation of the CNC milling machine, as well as the deflection of the guides under severe loads.
By exactly the same principle, do-it-yourself self-made milling and engraving machine equipped with CNC. The do-it-yourself assembly process of a fairly functional CNC milling machine is described in detail in the video below.
In the design of the unit, it is mandatory to provide for the lifting of the working tool in a vertical position, for which it is recommended to use a screw gear.
In turn, for the necessary return of rotation directly on lead screw a toothed belt should be used.
The vertical axis, which is also an indispensable element of any CNC milling machine, is made from an aluminum plate.
It should be precisely adjusted to the dimensions that were obtained at the design stage of the unit and entered in the corresponding drawings.
At home, you can cast a vertical axis using a muffle plate, in which case you should take aluminum.
After that, two stepper motors should be mounted directly on the body immediately behind the axle, one of which will be responsible for horizontal movement, and the second, respectively, for the vertical.
All rotation must be transmitted through the belts. After all the elements are in place, the home-made milling machine must be checked in operation with manual control, and if defects are identified, eliminate them on the spot.
A bit about stepper motors
Any CNC unit, including an engraving machine, is necessarily equipped with stepper-type electric motors.
When assembling homemade CNC milling equipment, engines from old dot matrix printers can be used as such a motor. Most dot matrix printers have two of these elements with sufficient power.
In addition, dot matrix printers also have steel rods made of durable steel, which can also be used in homemade machine.
In this case, it should be noted that to assemble such a unit with your own hands, you will need three separate stepper motors, which means you will have to look for and disassemble two dot-matrix printers.
It is better if such motors have about five separate control wires, since in this case the functionality of a home-made machine will increase several times.
When selecting stepper motors for a homemade CNC milling machine, it is necessary to find out the number of their degrees per step, as well as the operating voltage and winding resistance.
This will help subsequently to correctly configure all the hardware software.
It is best to fasten the stepper motor shaft with a rubber cable with a thick winding. It will also help when attaching the engine itself directly to the stud.
You can make clamps from a do-it-yourself sleeve with a screw. To do this, take nylon, and as a tool a drill and a file.
How to make an engraving and milling machine with a CNC block with your own hands is described in detail in the video below.
Electronic provision
The main element of any CNC machine is its software.
In this case, you can use a home-made one, which will include all the necessary drivers for installed controllers, as well as stepper motors, and in addition, standard power supplies.
An LPT port is required. It will also be necessary to think about the working program, which will provide not only control, but also management of all necessary modes of operation.
Directly the CNC unit itself should be connected to the milling unit through the above port, always through the installed motors.
When choosing the necessary software for a home-made machine, you need to rely on one that has already managed to prove its stable operation and has great functionality.
Video:
It should be remembered that electronics will mainly affect the accuracy and quality of all operations performed on CNC equipment.
After all the necessary electronics are installed, it is necessary to download all the programs and drivers necessary for the operation of the desktop milling machine.
Further, immediately before the machine starts to operate for its intended purpose, the electronic software should be checked in operation and, if necessary, all identified shortcomings should be eliminated on the spot.
All the above operations for assembling a CNC milling machine with your own hands are also suitable for creating a home-made coordinate boring unit, as well as many other equipment of this class.
In any case, if all the work of assembling a CNC-equipped milling unit with your own hands is done correctly and in accordance with the technology, home master it will be possible to perform many complex operations, both on metal and on wood.
How to make your own CNC milling machine is described in detail in the video in our article.
Execution condition professional works according to the tree is the presence of . Commercially available roads and not everyone can afford it. Therefore, many make them with their own hands, saving money and enjoying the creative process.
There are two options for the manufacture of mini machines for:
- purchase of a set of parts and its manufacture (Modelist kits costing from 40 to 110 thousand rubles);
- make it with your own hands.
Consider the manufacture of mini CNC milling machines with your own hands.
Choice of design features
The list of actions in the development, manufacture of a mini device for wood milling is as follows:
- Initially, you need to decide what kind of work we are talking about. This will tell you what dimensions and thicknesses of parts can be processed on it.
- Make a layout and an estimated list of parts for a homemade desktop machine for DIY manufacturing.
- Select software to bring it into working condition so that it works according to a given program.
- Purchase the necessary components, parts, products.
- Having drawings, make the missing elements with your own hands, assemble and debug the finished product.
Design
A homemade machine consists of the following main parts:
- bed with a table placed on it;
- calipers with the ability to move the cutting cutter in three coordinates;
- spindle with cutter;
- guides for moving calipers and portal;
- a power supply unit that provides electricity to the motors, a controller or a switching board using microcircuits;
- drivers to stabilize the work;
- sawdust vacuum cleaner.
Guides are installed on the frame to move the portal along the Y axis. Guides are placed on the portal to move the caliper along the X axis. The spindle with the cutter is mounted on the caliper. It moves along its guides (Z-axis).
The controller and drivers provide automation of the CNC machine by transmitting commands to the electric motors. Using the Kcam software package allows you to use any controller and provides motor control in accordance with the part drawing entered into the program.
The design must be made rigid in order to withstand the working forces that arise during operation and not lead to vibrations. Vibrations will lead to a decrease in the quality of the resulting product, tool breakage. Therefore, the dimensions of the fasteners must ensure the solidity of the structure.
A homemade CNC milling machine is used to obtain a three-dimensional 3D image on wood detail. It is fixed on the table this device. It can also be used as an engraver. The design ensures the movement of the working body - the spindle with the cutter installed in accordance with the specified program of actions. The movement of the caliper along the X and Y axes occurs along polished guides using stepper motors.
Moving the spindle along the vertical Z axis allows you to change the depth of processing on the created drawing on the tree. To obtain a 3D relief drawing, you need to make drawings. It is advisable to use different kinds cutters that will allow you to get the best image display options.
Selection of components
For guides, steel rods D = 12 mm are used. For better movement of the carriages, they are ground. Their length depends on the size of the table. You can use hardened steel rods from a dot matrix printer.
Stepper motors can be used from there. Their parameters: 24 V, 5 A.
It is desirable to provide fixing of cutters with a collet.
It is better to use a factory-made power supply for a home-made mini milling machine, since performance depends on it.
The controller needs to use capacitors and resistors in SMD packages for surface mounting.
Assembly
To assemble a home-made machine for milling 3D wood parts with your own hands, you need to make drawings, prepare essential tool, accessories, make the missing parts. After that, you can start assembling.
The do-it-yourself assembly sequence of a mini CNC machine with 3D processing consists of:
- caliper guides are installed in the sidewalls together with the carriage (without screws).
- the carriages are moved along the guides until their motion becomes smooth. Thus, the holes in the caliper are lapped.
- tightening bolts on calipers.
- fixing assembly units on the machine and installing screws.
- installation of stepper motors and their connection with screws using couplings.
- the controller is allocated in a separate block to reduce the influence of operating mechanisms on it.
A homemade CNC machine after assembly must be tested! Testing 3D processing is carried out by using sparing modes to identify all problems and fix them.
Operation in automatic mode is provided by software. Advanced computer users can use power supplies and drivers for controllers, stepper motors. The power supply converts the incoming AC (220 V, 50 Hz) into D.C. needed to power the controller and stepper motors. For them, machine control from a personal computer passes through the LPT port. Working programs are Turbo CNC and VRI-CNC. CorelDRAW and ArtCAM graphic editor programs are used to prepare the drawings necessary for implementation in a tree.
Results
Homemade mini CNC milling machine for 3D parts is easy to operate, ensures accuracy and quality of processing. Make more if necessary complex work you need to use stepper motors of higher power (for example: 57BYGH-401A). In this case, to move the calipers, you need to use toothed belts to rotate the screws, and not a clutch.
The installation of the power supply (S-250-24), switching board, drivers can be done in the old case from the computer, modifying it. It can be equipped with a red "stop" button for emergency shutdown of equipment.
In the home workshop, it is desirable to have the simplest desktop machines- drilling, grinding, etc. But if you need to perform precise work, then you can not do without a milling unit. To do this, you can make a simple CNC with your own hands. This can be done in two ways:
A homemade CNC machine is necessary for precise drilling or cutting, as well as turning parts.
- buy a kit for the manufacture of a similar design;
- make such a cutter yourself.
The first way is associated with certain financial costs. Branded machines for home use have a relatively high price and not everyone can afford.
CNC requires certain knowledge and possession of the tool to create it.
Where to start designing a homemade router?
To get started, choose suitable scheme unit. You can take an ordinary drilling machine as a basis, but instead of a drill, use a cutter as a working tool. Naturally, it will be necessary to think over the mechanism of its movement in three planes. Usually, for small units, redesigned carriages from the printer are used, with the help of which the working tool can move in two planes. This is also beneficial in terms of connecting software to work in automatic mode. But such designs have one drawback - they allow you to process wood, plastic and thin sheets metal (1-2 mm).
Therefore, for more serious CNC work, the router must have stepper motors with increased power. They can be made by modifying standard electric motors of this class, which will allow us to abandon the use of a screw transmission while maintaining all its advantages. To transfer force to the shaft, it is best to use toothed belts.
When using homemade carriages to move the working tool, you can use parts from large printers. One of the improvised designs of a similar type.
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Making a CNC router on your own
This machine in its design resembles samples of industrial units. Its basis is a low beam of rectangular section, directly fixed on the rails. This allows you to get the desired rigidity of the structure and minimize welding work when creating a router.
The metal is taken as the base. square pipe with a side of 75-85 mm. For fastening to the guides, it is necessary to use soles of a rectangular type 65 x 25 mm. This eliminates the need for welding this stage work and will help with fine-tuning the router. This is also necessary for the correct setting of angles of 90 degrees. The main beam and the sole are connected using 4 M6 screws, which must be tightened to the stop in order to obtain the desired rigidity. This will eliminate the backlash, although deflection of the guides under heavy load and malfunctions in the plain bearings are possible (you can use any suitable ones, even Chinese ones).
The vertical lifting of the working tool is carried out using a screw gear, and a toothed belt is used to return rotation to the lead screw. This makes it possible to avoid beats, lower the center of gravity of the unit and save space. The vertical axis itself is made of aluminum plate. It must be processed on a milling machine according to the dimensions needed for a home-made machine. If there is a muffle furnace in the home workshop, then it can be cast from aluminum.
Two stepper motors must be installed behind the axis: the first one rotates the lead screw vertical offset, and the second provides horizontal movement. Rotation is transmitted by belts. Some parts must be ordered from a turner if you do not have your own lathe.
After the manufacture of all elements and assembly, it is necessary to check the CNC router in operation, using manual control. After that, you need to deal with stepper motor controllers and software. If there is no relevant knowledge, then you can contact a company that has good programmers on staff.
You may also need a metal frame or artificial stone, which is better to order according to the desired size.
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What stepper motors can a homemade CNC have?
These are the most important elements of the future router.
In order to get such electric motors, it is necessary to disassemble old dot matrix printers (for example, Epson). Inside such machines there are two stepper motors and good hardened steel rods. To build a router, you need to have 3 electric motors, so you have to disassemble 2 printers.
In order to simplify the production of operations on a homemade machine, it is best to use motors with 5-6 control wires: they have good torque and are easy to work with. For the correct software setting, you need to know the number of their degrees per step, the operating voltage and winding resistance.
To drive to homemade CNC usually a nut and a stud are used. To secure the shaft stepper motor usually a piece of thick-walled rubber cable is used, with its help the electric motor is attached to the stud. Self-made bushings with a screw are used as clamps. They are made of nylon, using a drill and a file.
This is my first handmade CNC machine. available materials. The cost of the machine is about $170.
I dreamed of assembling a CNC machine for a long time. Basically, I need it for cutting plywood and plastic, cutting some details for modeling, homemade and other machines. My hands itched to assemble the machine for almost two years, during which time I collected parts, electronics and knowledge.
The machine is budget, its cost is minimal. In what follows, I will use words that ordinary person may seem very scary and it can scare away from self-built machine, but in fact it's all very simple and easy to master in a few days.
Electronics assembled on Arduino + GRBL firmware
The mechanics are the simplest, plywood frame 10mm + screws and bolts 8mm, linear guides from a metal corner 25 * 25 * 3 mm + bearings 8 * 7 * 22 mm. The Z axis runs on an M8 stud and the X and Y axes on T2.5 belts.
Spindle for CNC homemade, assembled from a brushless motor and collet clamp+ toothed belt drive. It should be noted that the spindle motor is powered by a 24 volt main power supply. IN technical specifications it is indicated that the motor is 80 amps, but in reality it consumes 4 amps under serious load. I can’t explain why this is happening, but the motor works fine and does its job.
Initially, the Z axis was on self-made linear guides from angles and bearings, later I redid it, pictures and description below.
The working space is about 45 cm in X and 33 cm in Y, 4 cm in Z. Given the first experience, I will make the next machine with large dimensions and I will put two motors on the X axis, one from each side. This is due to the large shoulder and the load on it when work is carried out at the maximum distance along the Y axis. Now there is one motor and this leads to distortion of the parts, the circle turns out to be a little elliptical due to the resulting deflection of the carriage along X.
The native bearings of the motor quickly loosened up, because they were not designed for lateral load, but it is serious here. Therefore, above and below on the axis I installed two large bearing with a diameter of 8 mm, this should have been done immediately, now there is vibration because of this.
Here in the photo you can see that the Z-axis is already on other linear guides, the description will be below.
The guides themselves are very simple design, I somehow accidentally found it on Youtube. Then this design seemed to me ideal from all sides, a minimum of effort, a minimum of details, simple assembly. But as practice has shown, these guides do not work for long. The photo shows what kind of groove formed on the Z axis after a week of my test runs of the CNC machine.
I replaced the homemade z-axis rails with furniture ones that cost less than a dollar for two. I shortened them, left a stroke of 8 cm. There are still old guides on the X and Y axes, I won’t change them yet, I plan to cut parts for a new machine on this machine, then I’ll just disassemble this one.
A few words about cutters. I have never worked with CNC and have very little experience in milling. I bought several cutters in China, all have 3 and 4 grooves, later I realized that these cutters are good for metal, other cutters are needed for milling plywood. While new cutters cover the distance from China to Belarus, I am trying to work with what I have.
The photo shows how a 4 mm cutter burned on 10 mm birch plywood, I still didn’t understand why, the plywood was clean, and on the cutter there was soot similar to pine resin.
Further on the photo there is a 2 mm four-start cutter after an attempt to mill plastic. This piece of molten plastic was then very poorly removed, biting off a little bit with wire cutters. Even at low speeds, the cutter still gets stuck, 4 grooves are clearly for metal :)
The other day my uncle had a birthday, on this occasion I decided to make a gift on my toy :)
As a gift, he made a full house of plywood. First of all, I tried to mill on foam plastic in order to check the program and not spoil the plywood.
Due to backlashes and deflections, the horseshoe was cut out only from the seventh time.
In total, this full house (in its pure form) was milled for about 5 hours + a lot of time for what was spoiled.
Somehow I published an article about the key holder, below in the photo is the same key holder, but already cut on a CNC machine. Minimum effort, maximum accuracy. Due to the backlash, the accuracy is certainly not the maximum, but I will make the second machine more rigid.
And I also cut gears out of plywood on a CNC machine, it's much more convenient and faster than cutting with a jigsaw with my own hands.
Later I also cut out square gears from plywood, they actually spin :)
The results are positive. Now I will develop a new machine, I will cut parts already on this machine, manual labor practically comes down to assembly.
You need to master the cutting of plastic, because work on a homemade robot vacuum cleaner got up. Actually, the robot also pushed me to create my own CNC. For the robot, I will cut gears and other parts from plastic.
Update: Now I buy straight cutters with two edges (3.175*2.0*12 mm), they cut without severe scuffing on both sides of the plywood.
