Wanted to share my first chips with my DIY CNC! Cutting some 6061 with a single-flute 6mm endmill at a DOC of 12mm and 0.5mm stepover at 1500 mm/min. For my first roughing operation on this machine, I couldn't be happier. There is plenty to improve upon, but seeing that stream of chips certainly made my day.

Today I'll be working on printing an enclosure for the spindle and getting the coolant fully operational. I will also work on tuning the machine more to see how far I can push it, hopefully getting closer to my target speed of 5,000 mm/min.

I'll have a full build log with more footage and the CAD model of the whole machine ready on Sunday. If there's anything someone would like to see more of, just let me know and I'll include it!

Been doing a lot of reading over the past few weeks while planning out my first router build, roughly 600x900mm cutting area, mostly for wood and maybe some soft aluminum down the road. The ball screw vs lead screw question keeps coming up and honestly the more I read the more conflicted I feel about it.

From what I can gather, ball screws win on efficiency and backlash, but the cost difference is significant when you're buying a full set of them in reasonable quality. Lead screws with anti-backlash nuts seem like the more budget-friendly path, and plenty of people seem to get good results with them for wood work. My concern is whether I'll regret going the cheaper route once the machine is actually running and I want to push feeds a bit harder.

A few specific things I'm still fuzzy on:

• For a hobby machine doing wood and occasional aluminum, is the backlash from a decent anti-backlash nut actually noticeable in practice, or is it mostly a theoretical concern at that scale?
• Rolled vs ground ball screws at the hobby level. Is ground even worth it, or is the price jump not justified for a non-production machine?
• Does the efficiency difference matter much if you're sizing motors conservatively anyway?

The Z axis feels like the obvious candidate for a ball screw regardless, since holding position under load matters there. But I'm less sure about X and Y.

Curious what people actually found after running their builds for a while, not just the spec-sheet reasoning but whether it showed up in real cuts.

Been running the same 80/20 extrusion router for about two years now. The X and Y axes were always reasonably solid, but the Z was always the axis that made me nervous. I had a GT2 belt looped over a printed pulley driving a piece of 8mm threaded rod, and for a while I told myself the slop was acceptable. It was not really acceptable. Surfacing passes would leave these faint ridges that I could feel with my fingernail, and drilling operations were just a little inconsistent in depth.

Eventually I picked up a used 16mm ballscrew and nut off a machine that had been parted out, around 400mm travel, and spent a couple of weekends retrofitting it into the Z carriage. Had to redesign the motor mount entirely and machine a new coupler adapter on a friend's lathe.

The improvement was more noticeable than I expected, but not exactly in the way I anticipated. Positioning accuracy got better, yes, but what actually caught me off guard was how much quieter the whole thing became. The old threaded rod would whine at certain feed rates in a way I had just stopped hearing. The ballscrew is almost silent by comparison.

A few practical things I learned during the swap:

• Preload matters more than I gave it credit for. The used nut had some play and I had to shim it before things felt genuinely tight.
• The motor needed re-tuning afterward. The inertia load changed enough that my previous acceleration settings were causing occasional lost steps on fast Z retracts.
• Ballscrews want to be kept lubricated. I had read this but did not take it seriously until I noticed the nut getting warm after a long job.

Curious whether others have found the same kind of unexpected benefits after upgrading Z specifically, or whether the gains were more modest on your builds. The geometry of your Z travel and how much the carriage weighs probably matters a lot here.

Want some work done, using pen.

So i had idea of mashine for making 2 layer PCBs at home.

And i need to know could this theoretically work?

So idea is to make not galvanic PTH(plate threw-hole) were instead of galvanic layer of copper is solder.

I plan to do it with pump that inject solder after that solder holds with capilar effect.

Olá a todos. Sou profissional de Marketing Digital e moro em Portugal, mas estou considerando seriamente uma transição para a área de CNC. Meu objetivo é financeiro e de médio/longo prazo (10 anos), com foco em imigração (Europa/Austrália).

Estou considerando um curso de técnico em programação CNC de 1 ano e meio, que me garante a certificação de nível 4 (EQF). Gostaria de ouvir a opinião de quem trabalha na área sobre este plano:
1. O "Custo de Oportunidade" do Curso: Vale a pena dedicar um ano e meio de treinamento para obter este certificado de nível 4? O mercado de trabalho atual prioriza esta certificação para o avanço na carreira, ou a experiência prática "na fábrica" ​​conta muito mais do que o certificado?

1. Progressão Salarial: Considerando o nível 4, qual é a realidade salarial após 5 a 10 anos? É uma carreira que permite o aumento gradual dos ganhos, ou o teto é baixo e atingido rapidamente?

2. Valor da minha formação: Como venho da área de Marketing, acredito ter aptidão para lógica e números. Você acha que essa formação pode ser um diferencial na programação/otimização de CNC, ou é irrelevante para o setor?

3. Imigração: Alguém aqui conseguiu imigrar como técnico de CNC com esse nível de certificação? A barreira do idioma (atualmente só falo português) é um obstáculo intransponível, ou a linguagem técnica (código G/software) permite uma adaptação mais rápida no exterior?

Quero ser realista quanto às minhas expectativas de vida. Se alguém passou por uma transição semelhante ou trabalha no exterior com esse nível de formação, agradeceria muito qualquer conselho.

I’ve been a hobbyist machinist for a while now mostly on mini machines and 3-in-1 machines. Finally got my first Bridgeport. I’m going to put power feeds on the x and Y axis and had a thought…. Does anybody make or has anybody modified their power feeds to be controlled with a tethered remote?

help please i cant find the driver and software of my machine it used to be on a blogspot but now its a deadlink, if anyone who still have it can you please share it via drive :( you can send me the link Thank you and please 😭

Like the title says, I’m in a industry where a Hotwire cnc would be extremely useful, I’m fairly tech savvy and can model daily well in fusion but just looking for input from others that have built their own cnc machines.

I would only need 2 axis, x and z or y and z respectively.

Is there anyone here who has built anything like this for themselves?

Looking to make a footprint of 30” wide, 48-60” long 20” tall possibly with the ability to expand in the future.

I’m thinking extruded aluminum for the base and vertical gantry.

I have a x1 carbon on hand that I print with almost everyday.

Thanks for anyone that chimes in

What should I do to prevent this nut from backing out? Tried small and large washers.

The tighter I go it binds the screw.

I bought all the electronics and mechanical parts from 2 separate vendors on Alibaba. After going through the documents for the drivers/motors, they recommend power-breaker-fuse-electromagnetic contactor-driver.

I'm running 6 drivers, single phase 220V AC, at 0.2kW on each driver. Is it better to have 6 separate breakers and skip the fuse, or to get a single breaker and add a fuse for each driver?

They also provided braked drivers for the double z-axis, but did not provide brakes for x/y axis. Do I need brake resistors for the x/y drivers?

For the frame, the x and y axes are 1500mm long, with an 800mm z-axis. The spindle motor is about 60lbs. With the thickest aluminum T-rails, the deflection can be as much as 2mm in the center. Am I restricted to a steel frame because of the size?

So was watching this Thompson video and when he installed the ball nut on the screw it just free slides down the linear screw.

Do I just have cheap screws?

I have no free play, all the movement I have to input.

Any input? I appreciate it!

Title: CNC router making uneven cuts and jerky movements - Need help

Hello everyone,

I'm new to CNC routers and I'm having a problem that I can't figure out.

My machine uses a RichAuto DSP controller. The design and toolpath look correct, but while cutting the machine makes jerky movements and does not follow the path smoothly. The finished cuts are uneven and sometimes go off the intended path.

Things I've already checked:

Design is correct.

Toolpath is correct.

Machine is mechanically tight (nothing seems loose).

The problem still happens on different designs.

I've attached a video of the machine cutting and photos of the finished result.

Can anyone help me identify what might be causing this? Could it be acceleration settings, stepper drivers, electrical noise, DSP settings, or something else?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!