ThrAxis – Our Scratch-Built CNC Mill #CNC #3DxEngineering

Eric Wiemers shared with us a post documenting the building of ThrAxis – Scratch-Built CNC Mill:

As it turns out, you CAN make a CNC machine on a shoestring budget! It just takes a lot of time, reading, effort, and… time.

The ThrAxis (Three-Axis) is a vertical milling machine made mostly from materials from hardware stores. The spindle is a Harbor Freight rotary tool and the motors and controllers are surplus and eBay finds. We made it during lots of late evenings using mostly handheld power tools and “garage precision”. It was a fun project for me to work on with my wife and it’s become a handy tool. I’ve found that it has accelerated my ability to realize my project ideas and has made it much easier to make things with the personal touch. We’ve made toys, art, and mechanisms and we have plans for much much more.

Why would you make a CNC machine in your shop? It seems like such a daunting job and what the heck would you do with it when you got it? These are the questions I heard when I brought up the ThrAxis to most people. They were right to question because it’s not an easy job. Since working on projects is what I do for fun, the doing and the why were a given for me, but I found it hard to explain. CNC machining allows you to make amazing things; things more precise, rapidly, numerous, and intricate than a person could make by hand. Of course you’re limited by a spinning tool and how far your machine can move, but it’s way more capable than a handsaw and a Dremel tool. My first inspiration was bloodying my fingers forever bending little 1/2″ long wires for RadioShack prototype circuit boards, then chemical etching circuit boards by hand (having only about a 10% success rate), and then spending $100+ on professionally-made circuit boards made me realize that there has to be a better way to get my ideas from breadboard to circuit….

Read about the whole process and a few thoughts about what you can try for your build here at the project page.

Pasted Image 7 21 14 1 54 AM

DIYCNCmillExample


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.