Here is some information on the different types of materials and components you will need to understand, in order to choose the proper components to retrofit or build your own CNC machine. This is a hardware picture index page with a brief description and a link to another page. Clicking on the pictures will take you to more info and links on that type of component. |
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When I first started thinking about building my own CNC mill I though that the hard part would be making the electronics to control the motors, this turned out to be wrong. The hard part was getting all of the mechanical parts working right without slop and yet not binding or flexing under cutting forces. Many of the problems I encountered could have been avoided by buying off the shelf hardware but this approach is not cheap. |
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If you drive the table using either a gear or pulley, mounted directly to the motor, try and find one that has a low RPM and lots of torque. A motor turning at 1000 RPM with a 1” pitch diameter drive pulley would move the table at over 3000 inches per minute. |
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Linear guide rails can make building a CNC machine as easy as cutting a couple of slots in flat piece of metal and drilling a few holes. Sounds easy enough but getting everything perfectly square can be kind of tricky. |
Bearings |
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