For those of you not following on the mailing list, this was the first live cutting done by our CNC mill conversion a couple of weeks back. Now we just need to complete the automation of the Z-axis, which is in progress.
4 thoughts on “First CNC-controlled cuts on the mill”
Very interesting – thanks for posting the video Tom. It would be good if you could put up some more information about how you set this up and what CNC software you used.
Very interesting. I just got a CMD10 and as soon as i ordered it my thoughts started to wander to motorizing it.
How did you attach to the existing shafts ?
I also have a dilemma as to what the fine feed control does as on my machine it does nothing.
Video of it cutting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOjWJWxnwTs
Very interesting – thanks for posting the video Tom. It would be good if you could put up some more information about how you set this up and what CNC software you used.
Hi John,
The mill is a Clarke CMD10:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cmd10-micro-milling-drilling-machine/path/metal-lathes-milldrills
We took the NEMA 17 stepper motors and driver boards from a broken and disused 3D printer, and bodged together our own mounts and couplings.
The software is EMC 2.3, using their Ubuntu 8.04 based distribution:
http://www.linuxcnc.org/content/view/21/4/lang,en/
Since this was posted we’ve finished the Z axis and started cutting more things.
Very interesting. I just got a CMD10 and as soon as i ordered it my thoughts started to wander to motorizing it.
How did you attach to the existing shafts ?
I also have a dilemma as to what the fine feed control does as on my machine it does nothing.