Scratch Build – In Progress My Now finished mean Computer Numerical Control machine build

X axis

Next is the X axis so I dismantled the machine so it would be easier to work on the X axis.

I mounted the motor mount on the angle iron to find that it was making the lead screw / lead nut far to high the top of the lead nut needed to be level with the bearing blocks and it was 7 mm too high

couldn't make the lead nut that much smaller so the only thing to do was to take 5mm off the 10mm angle iron with the mill



Brilliant machine



next I removed 2mm from the lead screw nut and milled the opposite corners and drilled and threaded them



put it all back together and it fitted perfect

 

You need a flycutter. They're brilliant for that kind of work.

 

True certainly something I should get tbh I wasn't expecting to have to do that but needs must

This build is now at the stage of making it up as I go, pretty much all the parts I have will need to be modded to work

Wasn't you getting mill ?

Edit just ordered a set of flycutters

 

Christmas eve the power feed I had ordered with the mill finally arrived so xmas day I fitted it



Seriously good bit of kit

Right so back to the X axis next was the support bearing for the leadscrew at the opposite end from the motor only way was to weld a bracket to the end of the angle iron



then lathed the leadscrew to 10mm and put a circlip groove in and installed it to the X axis







That pretty much completes the X axis next will be the Z axis

 

And to think this started out as a Shapeoko....

 

A year from now it will be a Haas.

 

A year from now, this thing will go Skynet, become self aware, and either destroy us all or start cranking out it's own awesome PC mods / cases / everything else!

 

Nice man!! Coming along great, well I see you got the bf25 clone mill! My RF45 clone the grizzly G0755 just shipped today! Im super excited to use it to beef up my cnc router. Im eventually going to CNC kit the 0755 for my metal working needs and beef up the cncrouter enough to do aluminum easily. Also going to be picking up a lathe next month which im super excited for! Im probably scrapping my new cnc design for this year and collecting and cncing other machines and coming back with a new cnc router like next year maybe. Keep it up man!Looking good!

 

"I need your tools, your metals and your PC hardware"

 

Lemme know when it starts self replicating, I'll take one off your hands.

 

Well, the Troll dolls have started replicating already, so why not the mill?

 

This thing on it's own is becoming a piece of art

 

lol yeah it all started from a small Shapeoko bh there's nothing wrong with the shapeoko design it's just not designed for thicker materials

Although with the upgrades I did and I have some other bits it could certainly do 3mm aluminium

 

The next one will be lol

once it's done I'll start using it to make rockets to get it in space

 

Nice sounds like you're going to have a great workshop I was talking to a mate about what is the most useful machine out of them, the more I think about it you really need them all, with a mill and a lathe and a welder and of course a decent angle grinder you can build practically anything.

Hope you plan to do a log would be good to have a few CNC build logs I reckon it would be a great help to others planning to build their own

 

I'll put them in the post for you lol

Key ring size CNC machines

well he is a little devil

 

Strange you say that the Tate gallery phoned me the other day

 

Z axis

Z axis next after looking at the different metals like flat plate and angle iron I noticed the cast shapes was far better then the flat plate and bent and welded types it was truer and much more consistent, so I decided to buy some channel opposed to flat.

by machining most of the sides off leaving about 15mm there it would retain the rigidness of the channel



as you can see the mill was the neatest way of doing it, the problem was that once one side was gone it would be almost impossible to clamp it down for the other side.

So I milled one side down leaving about 3mm still to go and then turned it around and milled the next side off completely then I put it in a vice and cut the rest of the other side with the angle grinder



Just needs a clean up and will be far superior to the flat plate

 

Mills are awesome.

I was, but I keep spending money on more bits and pieces for the lathe (Glance cutting tools: pricey but SO worth it!) --and it's not just the cost of the mill... it's clamping tool sets, several vices, rotary table with chuck and tailstock, fly cutter... it all adds up.

 

True and since I've got the powerfeed on it it's so much easier on the arms

Yea the mill was almost double the price of the lathe the clamp set was pretty expensive too mind the flycutters was cheap though had to buy a collet for them the powerfeed was £270

I'm sure you will get one eventually mate