BEST DIY CNC Machine

what's up youtube dave here at the action box and today we're showing you how you can build your own cnc machine from scratch in a home garage we've always wanted a professional-grade cnc machine but they're just so expensive so we decided to build our own with a budget of fifteen thousand dollars building this machine took just four weeks but i did spend six months designing the machine and sourcing parts from overseas we then purchased all the raw steel that we needed and begun to process it on a cnc machine that we previously built that being said you can easily copy everything we did here on a manual milling machine found in any machine shop after processing all the raw metal we washed it off with isopropyl alcohol gave it a good wipe and then painted all the pieces with a decorative rust preventative with all our custom components manufactured we were able to then begin and the build was quite simple all it required was aligning the pieces bolting them together and then adding the spines now these spines are used to transfer all vibrations from the steel frame to the epoxy base which we'll get to in a minute but here's how we made them we took some threaded rods cut them in half and added nuts to the top to act as anchors so at this point i decided to share how we mounted the linear rails using a dial indicator to ensure that they're perfectly parallel to one another but to keep the video short and entertaining we cut the explanation and the two rails are going to be perfectly parallel to one another continuing on with the frame we attached some final pieces and spines that would be used to connect the column to the base of the machine next we assembled the frame for the x and y axis of the cnc table and installed all required parts of course we tested the construction midway and continue to install the ball screw mechanism as well as the steel plate which will then be t-slotted to become our milling table after lunch we place the steel frame inside of some melamine molds that we made we're now going to fill these molds up with epoxy granite to give us the strong and heavy machine base that we want in order to make these molds we actually spent a week building a cnc router if you want to see how you can quickly build your own watch our cnc router video the link is in the description below oh and now we get into the fun part 40 gallons of epoxy we mixed it all together with some black dye and once it was properly blended we poured it into the molds then we added a bunch of rocks and mixed that all together as well all right so now while we wait for the epoxy to dry let me take just a quick minute and explain to you why we're using epoxy mixed with rocks over a steel frame precision machines are meant to be as rigid as possible and their absolute worst nightmare are vibrations usually these machines are made of cast iron which is almost as strong as steel but dampens vibrations far better it is however more expensive and has to be settled for several years after production which means that by the time the machine is sold the design is several years old doing what we did here allows us to benefit from the added strength of steel while damping vibrations far better with the epoxy relative to the cast iron our design is also cured and ready to be employed in just days lastly we add rocks because one they are a cheap filler which saves us even more money by using less epoxy and two they add mass to the machine base and mass is a great way to also dampen vibrations if you think about it this is why most machines are built to weigh several tons all right enough of that our epoxy has cured after 24 hours so we brought the pieces inside i quickly added the rails for the counterweight mechanism while it was easy to do so and we took apart the molds to reveal a beautiful epoxy granite casting a quick coat of paint for no reason was our final step before adding the linear rails and ball screws for precision robotic movement we also took this opportunity to add the final pieces of the counterweight mechanism which will take the stress off of the servo motor that has to lift the 200 kilogram z-axis assembly speaking of which to make our z-axis assembly colored yellow in our cad designs here we took our raw steel to the water jet cutter but you can get similar results on a more easily accessible plasma cutter and once the pieces were complete we assembled them like a puzzle and welded the structure into a single component now don't you forget that spray paint next we surfaced the critical face to make it parallel to the back and it was now ready to accommodate the spindle block which we had also finished machining and threading finally we slid the spindle into the block aligned the holes tighten the screws and the assembly was ready to be mounted onto the column of course we can't forget the primary focus of this experiment the epoxy granite to help dampen vibrations in the spindle as it cuts away and there you have it folks our base and column were finally completed now on to the hard part lifting a 1.2 ton assembly and mounting it accurately i'm just going to give my dad a quick shout out here for always helping us when we need an extra brain and pair of hands you're the best dad all right the two parts are now one next we need to add the x and y axes which we built earlier luckily this was just a matter of placing down the assembly and then screwing in the bolts into the rails the pneumatic and hydraulic pistons used for changing the tools were now installed this leaves us with the final step in the z-axis assembly which is mounting the 8 horsepower servo motor used to run the spindle and hallelujah the mechanical aspect is all done now on to the electrical and electronics we laid all the pieces inside of a box that we found in a scrap yard and after making the necessary connections we used my fiber laser to have some fun and engrave our logo why you may ask for no reason at all now that the electrical was done we moved on to the electronics and control box a few final connections followed by cable management and the machine was finally alive and here it is the finished operational machine from now on everything we're adding are nice to have features such as the weight covers on all axes we also used our trusty router again to create a cage that would enhance the coolant and all particles that fly off the machine we also used it to cut out some custom sliding doors which were pretty cool we also used the machine itself to surface and t-slot the milling table and then we did some final testing for the counterweight assembly before concluding the build and here's the final machine it's beautiful weighing in at over three tons it features an eight horsepower spindle servo motors on all axes and my favorite part an automatic tool changer we've got this massive metal block that we're going to be turning into molds for a local company so let's get started [Music] after 11 hours the first operation was done and the machine will now change tools and continue to work for another 9 hours to smooth out the molds and here's the machine in its final minutes after a 20-hour job the last step for a finished product was to sandblast the surface and there you have it our finished product made on a machine we built all on our own feel free to like and share this video and we'll see you next time

Channel: Action BOX

Views: 171,029

Keywords: DIY, CNC, Machine, plastic injection, build your own, tool changer, milling machine, lathe, hobby, home shop, anodizing, router, rapid prototyping, science, physics, mechanical engineering, engineering

Id: FkGdJMVJ1Fc

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Viktor_Bout]

You're like 80% of the way to making a machine manufacturing company. If it's so good and cheap it should make you a millionaire. That's how HAAS got started.

[u/Katsuking84]

Super cool idea love it, the only question I have is how long do you think the epoxy will last with the vibrations before cracking or wearing around the rods?

[u/s_0_s_z]

Waiting to watch this tonight. Interested in seeing how this was done and how well it works.

[u/3deltapapa]

So you got the rails parallel with a dial indicator, but I don't see where you ensured they are co-planar? Bolting pieces of flat bar together won't keep them flat to each other, did I miss a part where you surfaced each axis together after pouring the epoxy rocks mixture?

[u/F_D_P]

Very nice work!

[u/throwitaway-engineer]

Congratulations!

You’ve made a great machine! This is coming from someone that works for a CNC machine tool builder that makes machines that can sell between 300k to 2M USD, depending on the model.

[u/tc107]

Do you have a rough estimate on the cost of the machine?

[u/crzycav86]

I love your channel. I subbed the last time this was posted and I really liked your spot welder build from yesterday. Very creative. What are your backgrounds?