For his final project in the course How To Make (almost) Anything, David Carr designed and built this
3-axis CNC milling machine. It’s probably not the most precise or powerful device, but it costs less than $90 to build, and can mill PCBs, wood, and even light steel. Drawings and schematics are available on his website.
10 thoughts on “Build a 3 axis milling machine for under $100”
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I’m thinking a real stepper driver might be safer on your parallel port. Any more details how you plan to keep your PC isolated from damage would be nice.
Impressive results! This kind of makes me wonder how well mine would machine PCBs/steel. Well… now I’m going to have to try it :-) Kudos to David for his economical design!
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at building a *cheap* CNC machine for quite a while. This looks perfect (apart from the lack of build explanation and/or detailed docs).
However, I’ve looked at the parts list but I can’t figure out the supplier codes. Anyone have an idea what these refer to?
VXB
SDP-SI
McM
Including the part numbers was a nice touch!
Good job, David!
Hmm, I know SDP-SI is stock drive products (https://sdp-si.com/eStore/), I bought my toothed belts and pulleys from them.
VXB appears to be a skateboard bearing company (http://www.vxb.com/), I know I was originally looking at rollerblade ABEC bearings for some of my parts, they’re very reasonably priced.
And I’m guessing McM is McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/), which is pretty much the best site ever ( I <3 ).
Hope that helps!
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