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After you have made all the decisions and answered all the questions it is time to start designing your machine. Now, not everybody is ready to design a CNC machine from scratch. In this case you can base your design on some well-known and well-documented build, or you can use one of CNC machine plans that are available on the internet (some of them are free, some are very reasonably priced). Now, while committing yourself to a particular design or buying a set of plans for a CNC machine it is very important to consider what tools and machines do you have at hand. Almost all plans that I browsed through required some sort of precision machining (cutting, drilling, turning or milling). This means that if your parts will not meet the precision needed, your CNC machine may turn out not that precise either!

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Once, browsing through the internet, I came across a great site devoted to all machinists. You have probably heard of it: www.cnczone.com. This is where I started to gather small bits of information about how to retrofit a manual machine, or even how to build the CNC machine myself. Why anybody would attempt such an experiment with his or her time and money? Well, there are several reasons:

This site is a place where you will find useful and important information about building your CNC machine out of aluminum extrusion.

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I am not kidding and not trying to cheat you. I have built my CNC machine using literally several common tools. I had a cheap set of tools from IKEA that had a screwdriver with common bits, a wrench, pliers and a hammer in it. I also had a set of imperial hex keys and some three or four clamps. The only special tools I had to buy were calipers and a dial test indicator. Keep in mind that these special tools are necessary if you plan to do serious machining work later (and you probably do, otherwise why in the world would you build a CNC machine). How did I manage to do that? You can read it on the How to build a CNC machine page.

I must admit, DIY CNC machine is not the cheapest project in the world. In fact, it can be one of the most expensive projects one will ever undertake. There must be a serious reason behind the decision of buying or building the CNC machine. Often there is one or several of such reasons. I do not know about your particular case, but I always wanted to be able to fab one-off parts (also called prototypes) without having to pay unholy amount of money. I am sorry, mister “big manufacturer”, but it is not my fault that I do not need production runs; I am not interested in hundreds and thousands of useless parts lying around; dumping them at e-bay for almost nothing is not something I would like to do regularly too.

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Imagine, though, that you can build a CNC machine without all those expensive special tools and machines, having only a set of regular screwdrivers and hex wrenches – all those common tools that you can find in almost every garage? Sounds too good to be true? Then I will tell you how to...

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Another thing to consider is the working area of the machine. Would you like to fab only small aluminum parts (say, 10” x 8” x 5”), or you need a large cabinet router that has 3’ x 4’ working area? The first machine is a good candidate for incorporating moving table design. The second one is probably better designed with a moving gantry though. One more thing to consider is what router you are going to use. For woodcutting, there are a lot of high speed router motors (up to 25000-30000 rpm). For metals, however, you will need lower speed (or rather thin mills). Thus, you need to find a spindle that has a speed range that will suite your needs, or find a way of modifying existing router to make it rotate slower (this will void your warranty though).

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Please note, however, that this is not applicable to those big 100k$ monsters that can cut steel like butter. It is at least unwise to attempt to build that kind of machine yourself without a bunch of engineers sitting around you and a large factory ready to spit out high precision parts for you. What I am talking about is 3k$-7k$ range CNC machines that are often as simple as a steel or aluminum frame with some linear motion components bolted to it, and a router. That is exactly the kind of CNC machine (sometimes it is called hobby CNC machine) that I am aiming at.

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You need to decide what motors to choose: servos or steppers; will your machine use gearing or will it be direct driven; ACME screws or ballscrews; and a dozen more questions of that kind.

Well, you probably have a good reason to build your own CNC machine. However, you should fully understand your needs. For example, if you want to build a PCB drilling and routing machine, you probably will not need it to have a frame as heavy and rigid as a milling machines one. The same is true for plasma cutting machines – there is hardly any load present, so there is no need to enforce the frame. Of course, if you are going to machine soft metals or steel, than you should find out (and calculate) if your frame is rigid enough for such loads.

It is very important to be realistic about your CNC machine. Do not think that it will cut steel or even aluminum, if you have made the frame out of wood or MDF. I mean, it will eventually cut something harder than wood if you insist, but the quality of the cut will be plain unacceptable. Do not think that a long ACME screw will turn faster than approximately 100-150 rpm (exact number depends on the leadscrew diameter and length). You need higher rpm – go buy a ballscrew. Etc, etc… There are many more small (and not that small) things you need to consider before you even run your CAD program for the first time and start designing. And this leads us to another important question:

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Not having a mill or a lathe is a big disadvantage, because you will have to order custom parts somewhere, and prepare to pay considerable premium for that. But what will you do if you have no drill press, cutting saws and other machines? What will you do if you cannot cut and drill material precisely enough? Would you buy expensive tools and machines for a one-off project? I do not know about you, but I personally would not. Because it is cheaper to buy a ready available CNC machine than to buy all those tools required to build a DIY one.