Who hasn’t wanted a CNC mill for a long time?

I saw some equipment on GovDeals that looked close enough and bought it for $260. Transportation was another $250 or so. We had to juggle it down off the truck between two lift gates because of how it was loaded into the truck on the left.

Initially my plan was to disassemble this and convert it, but the retrofit wasn’t going as well as I’d like and I lost interest. I salvaged some really interesting parts though and have used several of them for the actual mill project.

It was about here I lost interest and suddenly needed the extra parking space. I pulled all of the cool bits off and scrapped the rest.

PrintNC

The thing I actually started making chips with is a DIY mill design called PrintNC. It’s open source and the Discord community is very supportive/helpful (as long as you don’t ask something that has already been answered). I sourced the steel from a local shop, purchased the linear motion stage components and spindle, and printed the assembly tools and other structural components.

Frame assembled. Heavy af. 3"x4", 3/8" wall steel.

So satisfying to get this all together. Many of the parts in the electronics enclosure are from the disassembly of the equipment from before. Running a FlexiHAL controller.

Mostly finished here. Rotary axis because one of the main projects I have in mind for this requires it.