Building small vertical CNC mill

r3292c

Registered
Registered
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
98
Hello,
In this thread I'm going to show details of my new project - vertical CNC mill.
I've just started this project, so nothing is final. There might be some changes on a fly. However there are some practical limitations that put certain constraints on the built:
1. It's a small mill I can built in my garage, having access just to combo-lathe/mill;
2. There's old 12"x18" cast-iron surface plate, that can be used as a rigid base;
3. It's a single-column vertical mill, my surface plate isn't big enough to put the second column to make a router.
4. All the basic components are generally available in on-line stores and on eBay.
5. The mill has to be solid enough to machine aluminum.
6. There's no oiling system integrated - not using dovetails, only rails and slides.
7. Something I'll figure out later.

IMG_20200607_151315253~2.jpg

I started my built from the table. I bought the cast-iron one in LMS, that's the biggest table (400 mm x 145 mm) from the cheapest you can buy.

image001.png

This one has dovetail that has to be removed to install the slides.
Here is Part 1 video on the table re-build
 
My second step was attaching the mount for the vertical column to the surface plate. The mount is a heavy angle I found on eBay.
It took some time to flatten the surfaces of the angle by blueing and scrapping them. The cast-iron plate also needed some massaging.

IMG_20200621_113131881.jpgIMG_20200621_113211087.jpg

Now I'm working on X-Y plate. It's 16" by 10" size, maximum that fits into my machine, 3/4"-thick aluminum.

IMG_20200621_151332362.jpg
 
I love plan #7. My type of guy. I'll follow this build.
 
I've been marking, drilling and tapping about half a googillion holes in a piece of aluminum to make XY plate. That took a couple of days. Now it's done, and X-, Y-rails can be screwed together. There are some ideas on making this plate more solid to bending - will add some ribs later, after I get aluminum. Here is the second short video.
 
Looking forward to this build, your lathe project is pretty darn cool.

It looks like you're building a machine with a similar envelope to mine, what are you planning on for the spindle?

John
 
Hi John,
I'm going to use a mini mill head driven by 400W servo.

mini_mill_head.png
I'm not going to use the gears, I'll put timing belt and pulleys instead. Similar to what I've done on the lathe, just a shorter head casting.

Looking forward to this build, your lathe project is pretty darn cool.

It looks like you're building a machine with a similar envelope to mine, what are you planning on for the spindle?

John
 
Looks good, with the servo you can get slower speeds and maybe even tapping?

I have a Teknomotor motor/spindle with an ER20 collet attached but it gets quite hot if it's running slower than ~5000 rpm, I may have to look into changing it eventually or adding forced air cooling.


John
 
Back
Top