This technique comes from one of the users of this site (Robert L). He has come up with a brilliant clamping idea. I get many emails asking, "how do you clamp your workpiece." I would often reply with the screw and wood scrap idea, but when I saw the method below, I knew this was the one to seriously consider. The historic reference is icing on the cake. When he talks about the moving to various positions, he is making reference to g-code. He specifies, assuming that you have zeroed out the correct position of the origin, that you move to x0 y0... and so on. You would read on...

CNC Machine v1.2 Kit Assembly Videos Released

If you enjoy the antics of the family chaotically trying to assembly the CNC Machine, or you just want to know how to do the assembly, watch the videos. My wife tries to do it, but I think she better at filming the process. :)

There have been a few requests for a demonstration of the new CNC Router Kit Ver. 1.2. Since I have been hard at work cutting out a bunch of CNC parts for shipping, I dusted off the camera and shot a bit of the CNC in action. The beginning of the video shows actual speed. The video is sped up so a majority of the cutting can be shown. Enjoy the video and as always, give me some feedback.

CNC Kit Ver 1.2 Update and Video

Update:
I've added a video to give a first look at the version 1.2 kit. I would like to thank all those that purchased the CNC kit during the development phase of the new expandable CNC router kit. Your patience is greatly appreciated and you will find that as I state below, the price you are paying is well worth the wait. Below, you will see a video of the progress of the machine. It is nearly completed and I can start on the next phase: production. Errata to the video: I state that the smaller kit has a routing area of 24" x 48" and the correction is that the x-axis actually has a longer routing area than 48" (approximately 51") due to the modular pieces being used.

After understanding the amount of work that goes into creating this CNC machine, the price points will be higher than previously stated. Read on...

So, what does a woodpecker do? It pecks, and the pecking is to bore a hole. It would be very difficult for a woodpecker to bore a hole in a tree with just one thrust into the tree. The same goes with machining various materials. I previously mentioned pecking in a previous page, but I think it's important to mention it with an example. Read on with video...

New CNC Router Kit Ver 1.2

No, my son didn't build it, as much as he wanted to. That drill he is holding will soon be in a very deep hiding place. Thank goodness cordless drills are cheap! The new expandable CNC Router Machine is in the final phase of development and everything is fitting perfectly and sliding smoothly. In the image above, you will notice a few pieces to the CNC machine. I'm only showing about half of the pieces necessary to assemble the complete CNC. All of these parts are machined so the alignments will be to acceptable tolerances. You will also notice that the CNC machine's structure is beefed up. This machine is built like a house. Read on...

The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) finally arrived in the mail today. I can't believe it took so long, but I'm excited regardless. I spent about 4 days non-stop... Driving my wife and kids crazy designing this thing. It was so bad that when I got up from the continual sitting position, my back had some serious hurtin'. I fit 3 axes in an extremely small footprint. Not that I really had to work in such a confined space... I mean, I could have just purchased the Eagle license to work with a larger board area, right? The board is about half the size of a slice of bread. Yep, that's why it took me four days, and the signal routing was especially fun?!? Read on...

Expandable CNC Router!

I have devised a CNC Router that is actually expandable, in a modular way. Does one even exist in this world? At this time, I'm offering pre-sales introductory prices for these units. The standard CNC router kit will also take on these same design features and they are offered also. Introductory prices will be $750 for the expandable CNC router that will have a routing area of 2'x4' expandable to a whopping 4'x8'. Yes, I said it right, routing area! The non-expandable CNC router with an actual routing area of 2'x4' has an introductory pre-sale price of $405.00. These prices are only available during this design phase to implementation (a price break for the expanded lead time, if you will). Once the kits are available, new purchasers will have to pay the regular price of $1050 (expandable) and $550 (non-expandable) respectively. See the kit in the sales page.

Hamburger? Not! ... Tasty? Absolutely not! ... Fulfilling and enjoyable? YES! Well, if your a fabricator junkie like me. This is the budget kit that replaces the MDF pieces with cut sheets and plans. These are my hand picked components and hardware for the perfect leap into this CNC process. You will also get the cut sheets and plans for cutting the necessary MDF pieces (including my easier and improved design). This is the perfect kit if you don't want the expense of shipping all of the MDF with the original kit read on...

CNC Structure Kit Ready

It's the new year and the kit is ready to go! Check out that beautiful dust collector and vacuum attachment. When I turned this on and started cutting, my alergenic wife, in total shock, said "there's no dust!" I was confidently standing beside her in the "I told you so" mode.

The size of this kit, if purchased as standard, will travel 40" in the x direction, 20" in the y direction and 5" in the z direction. Other table sizes are possible upon request. The lead time for this kit is 7 to 10 days and read on...

Happy New Year!! Although the CNC structure kit is available, I'm still in prototype stage with the electronics. The driver design has changed slightly to take advantage of more power to enable a wider variety of stepper motors. The electronics will now be based on the L297 and L6304 combo and will drive bi-polar stepping motors up to a whopping 4 amps per phase. The driver circuit will be designed to drive three axes without the need for a breakout board. That is to say, you will only need one driver board that the parallel port will connect read on...

CNC Kit in Development

Wow, it's that time of year again and Christmas is right around the corner. This means that I have my vacation and during this time I will produce a CNC kit, of course. While on my vacation, I'm developing the electronics and a CNC structure kit. The kit will include all of the necessary components to either construct the CNC structure, motor drivers (electronics that connect to the computer and the motors), or both. Read on...

Happy thanksgiving for those that live in the United States. This is my first post in the Research and Development section of this website. You are probably wondering why I am adding the pipe CNC machine in such an illusive section. I want visitors of this website to know that this machine is a work in progress and all of the bugs and concepts are not fully known yet. Anyway, this enables me to share some of the ideas that run through my head.

I am starting with the first video of the pipe CNC. I am going to first demonstrate the concept of how the aluminum angle of the linear slide fits in and connects to the pipe assembly. Then I will construct Read on...

New R & D (Research and Development) Section

I have added a new section to the website to show my work in progress. I'm starting the new section out with the first video of the pipe CNC. I would like to get feedback on the R & D idea and the content within. My hope is for collaboration, design ideas, suggestions, and comments to be engendered through this section. I would like this research and development section to be very broad, touching on ideas of linear motion, backlash removal/mitigation, frugal assembly concepts and resources for design and research.

With the introduction of the pipe CNC (sneak peek), I have already gotten many ideas to come my way. I encourage more ideas and I will post them all, with a bit of evaluation and collaboration with you. For now, enjoy the new section.

I've added the electronics to the BOM (Bill of Materials) page. It is a skeleton list and I intend to improve the list with numerous options, and pictures of what each item looks like.

Sneak Peek: A Totally New CNC Machine (In Pipe!)

I'm back and I have a treat for you. I have been doing a lot of tinkering lately (yup, that's why!). I cannot get the mechanical aspect of CNCs out of my system, so until then, enjoy the crazy concoctions.

Today, I'm offering a sneak peek to what I've been working on for the past two weeks. It is possible to build this CNC within a weekend, if you have all of the correct parts. In addition, manual cutting and power tools are at a minimum. So far, the only major tool that I've used is a hack saw to cut-off some threaded rod (very simple). With the vast selection of pipe sizes, the scalability for this CNC machine is great. I have also been recording the build on video... again. Read on...

Happy Halloween! At this point, you should have the control software that is described in Software Part 1 or Software Part 2. Software part 1 shows the process to install Mach3 and Software Part 2 shows the process to install a Linux control software application called EMC2. If you're still unsure what I'm talking about, then here is my detailed explanation of the entire workflow. Later posts will go ito greater detail and tutorial on each program.

The entire link from the design all the way to the motors and motion goes like this: First you need to design something. Lets say you want to cut out a square piece of wood that is 3/4" thick, 2" in length and 2" in width. You will first design the square in a Read on...

Maker Faire Experience

You know that feeling when you're just a little person arriving to Disney? My Maker Faire experience was better, even going through a serious illness. Indulge me for a moment while I have a flashback. I find myself continually browsing the internet, pulling up my feeds, printing the latest posts and reading the information like my wife would admire platinum on her finger. And all focused on technology, building, hacking, modding, robotics, mechatronics, mechanics and electronics. This faire is that and more! If you have a chance to travel the world and see something, see the Maker Faire, and if you're a frequent visitor to this website, I'm sure you wouldn't regret it.

Apparently, the Maker Faire will exhibit twice a year, first at San Mateo, California (near my stomping grounds at Berkeley) in the Spring, and second in Austin Texas in the Fall. Austin is nice and sunny that part of year, and San Mateo is nice all year-round which is located in the Bay Area, near San Francisco and Berkeley. Read on...

Dave C. is building his CNC Router with patience and method. He is equipped with some nice tools to make sure the form and mechanics are perfect. When he first told me he was working with these power tools, I was very jealous and I wanted some fancy power tools for myself.

Dave's CNC machine is another alteration in the works. The bed of the CNC machine is stiffened by steel. He is using cross dowels for all of the connections. The rails are mechanically fastened to the rail support pieces. And he is using some Read More...

CNC Demonstration 1: Routing the P.COC Logo

You've got to be asking yourself, what is a P.COC logo? First of all, P.COC stands for Project for Complete Open CNC, and it also sounds like Peacock (the bird with beautiful feathers that open up, get it??). The graphical part of the logo uses a screw as the body of the bird and nuts to symbolize the feathers. My wife thinks it looks like the sun and I should lose the screw. The logo symbolizes the philosophy behind all that I do here, volunteer my time to show how to build a completely open source CNC routing machine. I have also designed a logo to be cut out on the CNC Router, and how cool would it be to initiate my demonstrations with that logo. Read More...

Before I get farther in the software toolchain for the Windows operating system, I will cover the primary software for Linux. If you are partial to Linux, or you think Linux is some kind of animal and don't know what the heck I'm talking about, this alternative software toolchain may interest you. This tutorial would not be complete without covering the open source side of CNC computer controls. You may find that using EMC2 (the CNC control that runs under Linux) may be a bit more problematic than Mach3 since there is limited CAD (design software) out there for the Linux operating system. Read More...

Builder's Spotlight: Lucan's CNC Router

I was doing my usual research around the net, you know... to pass some time very late at night, and I came across a member of cnczone.com building one of Joe's CNC machines, and to my surprise, he was using the design from this site. I was very proud to say the least. This CNC router is setup very nicely, with a vacuum attachment and a few other interesting modifications. Lucan has also been cutting out an enormous amount of parts on this machine. He is in real production.

Since Lucan has had a bit of experience on this design and build, I asked him to give me some feedback as to any possible limitations of the machine, and all that he has learned. I also wanted to know Read More...

To further my efforts in this arena and help support this everything CNC project, I am adding the Mach3 and LazyCAM to my stuff for sales repertoire. Many viewers write me and ask which software package I would recommend. I can tell you that this is a totally non-biased answer because I was a die-hard EMC2 user until I started to play with Mach3. Don't get me wrong, I still like EMC2, but Mach3 saves me so much time, especially with LazyCAM. Read more...

Jacob R.'s CNC Router Machine AutoCAD Drawing File

Thanks to Jacob R. we have an AutoCAD drawing file that contains the measurements and elements that he used on his machine. The link to the file is on his page here.

When I started this website, I though maybe I would get a few people building this machine, and to the tee. My intention was to make it so that they can provide their own alterations and sizes. With Jacob's machine, the intent lives up to it's promise. Jacob did enhancements to the bed of the machine, reinforcing it so it would not sag, but he did not stop there. This guy is a true modder. He salvaged a component from his router to serve as a clamp. He also enhanced the lead screw nut adapting a flange to secure to the transfer piece. He has also selflessly provided an AutoCAD file to share with this community (with Read More...