poor person's CNC

Well, I have another project now. Something I have been wanting to tinker around with for some time. A co-worker gave me a mini 3 axis CNC mill made out of common hardware store parts. Kinda cool but with a few small problems.

One: it doesn't work. Ok.. it DID work at one point in history but never very well I am told.

Two: It needs a lot of electrical work. A fair amount of the soldering work needs to be redone and some of the wiring fixed.

Three: I need software. This will probably be the least of my problems but it is also another obstacle.

So, there are obstacles to overcome but hey, that is why I got the thing. I like messing around with this sort of thing and I think it will be a fun project. I am still thinking about getting another 'real' CNC mill at some point but for now I have a new toy :)


This is the "ACK!" (well that is what I am calling it now because that was the noise that came out of my mouth when I saw it the first time) pile of wiring that I get to fix up. almost everything is there but I have a shopping list of supplies I need to obtain from the local electrical supply shop before I can tackle it.

Basically the 'hardware' side of the mill consists of hardware store aluminum rails with all-thread lead screws (20 TPI it looks like) and 3 DC stepper motors for X,Y, and Z axis. The spindle uses any sort of Dremel-like rotary tool. The electronic side of things is a controller box (shown in less than box-ey form above) and connected by parallel port to a computer. I just got it today so I haven't had time to study the design thoroughly but I am sure I will become well acquainted with it soon.