how can i create my own 3-axes CNC milling machine?

Question

Tell me procedure, things used for creating machine, and other information.

Answer 1

I can share my experience. Many people elect to adapt a standard mill to CNC. Instead, I purchased a "CNC-ready" mill from TAIG (http://www.taigtools.com/) and a Xylotex drive box (http://www.xylotex.com/). As I'm sure you're aware, stepper motors drive the mill's lead screws and control the motion of the mill. I use a standard Windows machine running ArtSoft's Mach3 (http://www.machsupport.com/) to control the mill.

To actually do anything useful, you'll also need CAD software to design the parts you want to build and CAM software to generate tool paths from the parts you've designed. CAM software is frequently over looked by people new to CNC and can be far more expensive than CAD software. Common CAM packages are MasterCAM and BobCAD. I suggest searching around for a package you can afford.

If you go a route similar to mine, expect to spend about $2000 on the mill, drive box, motors, and accessories. In addition you'll need a workstation to control the mill, software to control the mill, software to design your parts, and software to generate tool paths from the parts. I use mine principally for making parts for robots and it's been great.

Good luck!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I doubt you'll be able to build one in your garage. They are complicated and precisely crafted machines.

You would need the structural portions of the machine, the arms, and stand.
You would need actuators for moving these parts, a power supply for the actuators.
You would need to be able to track the location of both the part and the machine components very precisely.
You would need a computer to control and monitor everything, plus software to make it do what you want.
You need to securely and consistently hold the part you're milling.

There is a reason these machines are expensive.

Answer 4

hey, know what? i was thinking bout the same think as u as well, i've operated old skool cnc machine before, it use manual control and still precise. my idea was to move the specimen tht i want to cut instead of moving its arm. so, i think this might solve the arm and hydraulics all tht stuff problems. i think it might work if u have one heavy Z-axis moving arm attached to the arm, and the holder for specimen must be able to move in other 2 axis, so, u can control X and Y axis by using manual bolt+shaft (2 of them for each axis) and for the scaling, u need to put markings on specimens or ur holder so that when u rotate the bolt to move the shaft and speciment holder, u know how much u need to rotate to move 1 mm or 0.001 mm :p