It is hard for me to determine if this project is a success or failure. I’ve settled on success, but not because it is used. It is a success, because it worked. While it had some issues, it does what is supposed to do…I figured out after building it, it wasn’t a good tool for the problem I wanted to solve.
The problem I wanted to solve was to build a wood carving machine. Not just some V-cuts for signs and outlines, but 2.5D shape cutting. As anybody with a 3D printer would now know, you are talking hours of cutting…hours of a screaming router. Nope, not a good idea. One I should have realized before I started. But, at the time, I figured I would use it for other things, like cutting out patterns or panels. But, in over 10 years, there hasn’t been a real need (I think that will change, but not for awhile).
The design and build approach was straight out of Build Your Own CNC Machine written by James Floyd Kelly (Author) and Patrick Hood-Daniel (Author). And, for something published in 2009, I think it was a good design. Compared to 2023 (time of this note), no, there are much better ways to manage movement. There are linear rails galore, at all price points and sizes. Building in particle board was both good and bad. It was approachable and forgiving, but that forgiveness came with precise construction challenges, at least for me.
Main issues I had with the CNC – all caused from my build:
- Too much slop in the Z-Axis.
- A bit of slop in the Y-Axis, but weight minimized most problems.
I used an old Windows XP machine running Mach3 to control the CNC via the parallel port. A modern build would probably use a Raspberry PI and GRBL.
I never created any long lasting project. I wrote out hello world. I tried to create one carving, but realized about a third of the way through that it wasn’t going to be a practical solution.
I did look into quieter spindles, but it never really made a lot of sense and I was short of project ideas that would have used it.