instructables
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine
by Trochilidesign
Already when I was little I was thinking of making a
machine which could make things! A machine which
would give me the opportunity to create products for
in and around the house. Years later I stumbled on
the words 'Computer Numerical Control' or more
specifically the CNC milling machine. After I found
out people were able to build one themselves in their
own shed, I knew it!
For three months I tried to find the proper parts (A
dremeltool, drawer slides, pieces of wood, etc.), but I
didn't really know how to build a CNC. The idea fell
into oblivion.
In August 2013 the idea to build a CNC milling
machine captivated me again. I just finished the first
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 1
year of my bachelor in Industrial Design, so I was
confident enough to start a build. The real difference
between now and 5 years ago was, I learned to work
with metal on manual milling machines and lathes
and above all I had the right tools to design a
machine.
This Instructable will show you how I built my CNC
milling machine. I know a lot of CNC dreamers do not
have the knowledge or tools to build a full metal
machine. I still think and hope this Instructable
inspires you to make your own machine. I include all
of the necessary steps I went through in designing
and building this CNC milling machine.
Step 1: The Design and CAD Model
It all started with a proper design, in my case a few
sketches to get a good feeling for the dimensions and
shape. Quickly after the sketching phase came the
CAD model. I created my model in SolidWorks. If you
plan to design your own machine I recommend a
parametric CAD-modeling tool. Your machine will
most likely have a lot of parts which have to fit
together neatly, sometimes with some strange
dimensions (for example pre-ordered parts). After all
the parts were modeled, technical drawings were
made. I used these drawings to machine all of the
custom parts on the manual lathe and milling
Step 2: The Frame
The frame provides the machine a rigid basis, not
only to place it in your workshop but also for working
on. To the frame the gantry will be mounted on sliding
rails and later on a work surface. It also houses the
stepper motor and spindle for the x-axis. I constructed
my frame from 2 Maytec 40x80mm profiles, 2
endplates (both 10 mm thick aluminium), 4 corner
pieces and a square structural piece.
All of the profiles are sawed right-angled and
afterward milled exactly square. With the corner
pieces a heavy (well relatively lightweight; it's all
aluminium) frame was bolted together. The square
frame made from the smaller profiles were mounted
with 4 milled blocks (aluminium) on the inside of the
Maytec profiles.
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 2
machine.
Since I'm a lover of good designed tools, I tried to
make maintenance and the possibility to adjust things
on the machine as easy as possible. Bearings could
have been integrated in the machine, but I chose to
place them in separate bearing blocks (in case it
needs to be replaced in the future). Keeping your
machine clean is very important too, so guiderails are
all accessible (in case of the x-axis by detaching
some cover plates)
Since the frame sits beneath the worksurface dust
could fall down on the guiderails (you want to keep
them clean, more about that in step 5). To prevent
this, dust covers were made and mounted around the
guiderails. A angular profile mounted with brass
milled t-nuts onto the may tech frame and 2mm
aluminium plates mounted in the milled pockets on
the endplates.
On both endplates bearing blocks are mounted for the
spindle. They were hand milled and lathed to the right
tolerances. On the front endplate mounting slots for
the stepper motor were milled
 6 3
4
5

3
2

1 2

1. Milled parts for dust covers 1. Dustcovers mounted

2. Linear guide rails; discussed in step 5
3. Maytech Aluminium 40x80mm extruded profile
4. 40x40mm aluminium profile for a rigid structure
5. 90degree angle pieces
6. Lots of T-slots for T-nuts. Mounting things to the frame is just peanuts
2. Linear guiderails with the runner blocks slided on
3. The square structure assembled and mounted in the
frame

1. Dustcover

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 3

Step 3: The Gantry
The gantry is the bridge between the x-axis guiderails
and supports your milling motor above the workpiece.
The higher you make it, the thicker the workpiece can
be. There is however a disadvantage of high gantries.
They work as levers on the guiderails and on the
other hand the side plates tend to bend more easily
by making them longer.
starting point for the side plates. Since I wanted the
center of an end mill hovering over the center of the
runnigblocks (from the machines side view), the side
plates had to be placed at an angle. Solidworks
helped me to convert all of the measurements into the
final parts. Because of all the complex dimensions I
decided to mill these parts on an industrial CNC mill,
this also gave me the opportunity to round all of the
corners (would have been very hard to mill on a
manual mill).
The part which supports the y-axis guiderails is
1. Sideplates of the gantry; they were CNC milled on an industrial machine.
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 4
Most of the work I planned to do with the CNC
involved milling aluminium parts. An average vise for
the machine would be 60 mm high. Since the thickest
blocks of aluminium easily available for me would be
60 mm high as well, I chose to space between the
work surface and the piece of metal, which could hit
the workpiece first, to be 125 mm. This gave me a
formed out of an 5mm thick U-profile. It is mounted
between the side plate with the help of two simple
mounting blocks. On the inside the U-profile houses
the y-axis spindle. Which is again supported by the
same bearing blocks used for the x-axis. They are
mounted on the outside of the side plates.
Beneath the main frame a plate was mounted on the
underside of the gantry's side plates, giving a
mounting point for the x-axis spindle nut.
Step 4: Last Movement
The last movement is what I call the
Stepermotorhousing for the z-axis (plus the z-axis
itself of course). It is constructed out of a frontplate
mounted on the y-axis linear guiderails, 2
reinforcement plates, a motor mount and a backplate.
On the front plate 2 linear guiderails were mounted for
the z-axis onto which the Mountingplate for the milling
motor was placed with the runner blocks.
The motor mount has the bearing for the z-axis
spindle fitted into it. So I didn't use a bearing block for
this spindle and is only supported on the top. he lower
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 5
end is floating behind the mounting plate for the
milling motor. The spindle nut for the Z-axis was
directly bolted on the mounting plate for the milling
motor.
The backplate provides a spot for the y-axis spindle
nut to be mounted; it is mounted on the inside.
All of the custom mechanics are now ready. The CNC
is assembled with the guiderails, spindles and a lot of
bolts ;-)
Step 5: Guide Rails
Since your endmills need to move in 3 directions, the
machine guides them with its guide rails. The guide
rails provides the machine its rigidity in all directions
except the one it moves in. You want them to let the
machine only move in the preferred direction. Any
backlash in other directions results in inaccuracies in
your workpieces.
On my machine I wanted to use guideways supported
on the full length of the rail, reducing the risk for
deflections on the longer axes.
In my opinion some kitchen drawer slides are
preferred above the hardened steel rods which are
supported on the end (yes! they will deflect). Since
you are constantly fighting the forces from the
endmills against the material of the workpiece, a lot of
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 6
support is recommended.
I chose the most expensive option; profiled linear
guide rails with runner blocks. The are designed to
receive forces in all directions. In the third picture you
can see the looping bearing balls, they are positioned
on both sides of the profile. All with a tangent 45
degree relative to each other, giving it the ability to
handle high loads.
To get all guiderails perpendicular and parallel to
each other they were all aligned with a dial indicator
(with a maximum difference of 0,01 mm). If you spent
your time on this part, the machine will perform very
well in accuracy!
Step 6: Spindles and Pulleys
The spindles translate the rotational movement from
the stepper motors into a linear movement. When
building your machine, you can choose between
three different version; leadscrews or ball screws,
either in metric or Imperial configuration. The main
difference between leadscrews and ball screws is the
accuracy and friction. Leadscrews tend to have a lot
more friction and are less precise than ball screws. If
your looking for a very accurate machine without any
backlash, you should definitely consider ball screws.
However, they are relatively expensive!
I chose to use leadscrews with a special plastic
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 7
drivenut which reduce friction and are approach a
backlash free system. You can order the drive nuts
here: http://www.mixware.de/index.html\
Both the ends of the x- and y-axis have to be turned
to size to fit the bearings, pulleys and clamping nuts.
Since the z-axis spindle is only supported on one and
with a bearing, it is turned on only one side.
The pulleys are drilled to the turned shaft size (in my
case 8 mm) and provided with a M4 setscrew
perpendicular to the shafthole.
Step 7: Worksurface

The work surface is the place you will clamp your
pieces of material on. On a lot of professional
machine a T-slotted bed is used, giving you the
option the use T-nuts and bolts to clamp your
materials or vices. I chose to use a square piece of
18 mm birch-plywood on which a screw the materials
and replace it when needed. An affordable work
surface! You could also use Mdf with anchor nuts and
bolts. Try to avoid screws and nails in Mdf, it doesn't
grip them as good as a plywood board.
The work surface could be milled flat by the machine
itself after you've completed it. Your first project :-)

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 8

Step 8: Electrical System
The main components in the electrical system are:
-Stepper motors
-Stepper drivers
-Powersupply (or 2)
-Breakoutboard
-Computer
-And last but not least: Safety first; a emergency stop
;-)
I chose to buy a complete set on Ebay with 3 Nema
23 stepper motors, 3 suitable drivers, a breakout
board and a 36 V power supply. I use a step down
converter to convert the 36 volt DC into 5 Volt DC.
http://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FHN/J01T/HVS1FHDO/FHNJ01THVS1FHDO.pdf
…
Step 9: The Milling Motor
Since we want to remove material from the piece we
clamp to the work surface, we need something that
drives the cutting bits; i.e. the endmills. The milling
motor will spin the cutters at low or high speeds.
From a simple Dremeltool to a High frequency
Spindle of several kWatts. For our machine size a
Kress spindle is very convenient to start with. If you
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 9
You can of course also put together your own set.
Since I could not wait to sartup the machine I
temporarily mounted all the drivers and power supply
on a open board. The enclosure is in the making.
Since a few years it is also possible to connect a
CNC very easily via USB. The UBS-breakout boards
on the market generally come with their own
software. I chose to use the parallel printer port found
on most older PC's. I do not intend to use a new
computer in a room full of dust, oil and aluminium
chips
Since I had a lot of difficulties in finding a proper
scheme with the needed components, I tried to make
everything clear in the infographic above (you can
also download the PDF and zoom in on the different
parts)
Download
want to improve your machine, a reliable Hf spindle
will please you. It all depents on the amount of money
you can afford to spent on it.
Try to find something with the ability to use different
sized collets.
Step 10: CNC Software

In the topic CNC software I'll discuss not only the professional software offered by my University
program me that controls the machine, but also the
software which produces code the machine will The software that controls the machine is a Gcode
understand. interpreter. When you use a USB-hub, as discussed
in Electrical system), it will have it's own software. If
When we make a workpiece on our computer, either you use the parallel printer port on a older computer,
flat or a 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) model, we you can choose your own. I chose to use Mach3
need to convert it into something the machine will since it it used by most hobbyists. You can find a lot
understand. With CAM (Computer Aided Machining) about it on forums and google. Since Mach3 has
we can read vectors and 3D models and create an many options and functions, I won't explain them.
output suitable (Gcode) for the software which Just play with it and you'll discover its secrets :-)
controls the machine. I'm allowed to use the

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 10

Step 11: It's Alive!!!

Ones connected properly, hookup the power supply,
it just works!! Start with some pieces of wood or foam
and you'll get used to the speeds and properties of
your machine. The work above shows some of the
pieces I'm working on in aluminium. As you can see
the machine is able to work very intricately.
Search for proper parts and take your time. I could
have build the machine in a month, but because I had
to search for parts on Ebay etc., it took me half a
year. This keeps the costs down of course, I was able
to build the machine for less then €1000,-
I hope the story encourages you to build your own
CNC milling machine. Please feel free to contact me
or give a comment if you think something is missing.

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 11

 I need more photos for the cnc project

can i have the cad file?

i need it because i want to finish my project
please send to my personal email jastimmanh@gmail.com
thank you

Guys is better to use steel and welding then aluminium?

From my point of view, welded steel is always harder to deal with on the tweaking and after
fabrication stages. i prefer using aluminium with screws so my final product will be more flexible to
work with like if i need to cut an oversized piece or anything else. so I vote for aluminium but you
can always use the method you prefer.

Moi également, d'autant que l'on trouve de bons profilés sur eBay qui font vraiment bien l'affaire.
Merci pour toutes vos précisions.

I agree with you :)

building isn't difficult..syncros and programming software is all together different.

Just depends on which aspects you're good at ;)

Bonsoir
Vraiment une très belle machine.
Qu'est t'il possible de monter niveau broche, est-ce qu'une KRESS pourrait faire le travat.

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 12

 Merci de votre réponse.

this is all open source and pretty simple

Çok iyi iş, Solidworks & pdf Dosyalarını paylaşabilir misin? erdag_Arif@hotmail.com

Hey grettings from Costa Rica! Nice job it looks very well made, i have a question;
If say you usa a nema 17 2A it will run the axis? or it needs more powerful motors? and also a
comment; if you change the plates to by made of 1/2 inch plywood it will take a lot of weight and
will get a similar estructure quality i guess. Any way thank you for sharing your work

This is a truly impressive project and what I needed for me to take the plunge in making my own!
I'm doing some "reverse engineering" based on your photos and drawing up my own plans. Could
you post more pics? Thanks! mickvaughan@roadrunner.com
mvaughan@archres.com

Hello, You got a great project and i gonna make this project on school to but i can't finde evry
pieces of the project its hard to find.and my question is can i get the full file sended to my
emailaddres. like the soldworksfile. and the full pdf files
email: andries.joris@gmail.com
already tanks and maybe soon you answer me :)

Hi, excellent job and plans!!

Can I have its CAD model?
Thanks

Really like the design. Not going to ask for your plans, but I will ask if there is a difference in those
stepper motors... Do they impact what you can achieve?

Good day
Great guide
Do you have cad drawings of the machine that you could share ?
Many thank you
Geordie

Your design is a standout!

You included a safety switch!
My employer has a Laser Shop with several machines the biggest of which is a 100W cutter. Our
problem is that the operators in our 24/7 shop get sloppy and try to bypass safety devices.
We use dual devices, now, the only challenge being to ensure they wear the goggles!
Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 13
Great post, shows that you are organised in your work.

Thank you so much for your very detailed instructions & taking the time to write/draw up the pdf's
for us to download. I've been looking to build one of these but the other instructables confused me
& I was about to give up (I'm not an idiot, just a noob when it comes to CNC).
I realise this is an old tutorial but it is still helping people.. Thanks again!

wonderful machine ! I am wondering ... what size of guide rails did you use ? mgn12 or something
else ? also i see u mounted only one plate on the rails ... did you notice any flexes ? Isn't it
necessary to use 2 plates on each rail to make it more steardy? Thx in advance for your answer

Step one is that you have to have a degree in mechanical design.

The only degree you needs to build one of these is the degree of comprehension it takes to follow
directions.l
If you can bake a cake, you can build one of these,

lol

And my step one is a degree in Industrial Design Engineering ;). I you have the drive to build one,
you can build one of these

Please let me know what is the hardness of the steel, machine parts

lol

all steel parts are from the mentioned manufacturers, I don't know why you would be
interested....but have a look on the websites.

Hi,
Firstly would just like to say your project is amazing, and the results are so good - that Aston Martin
badge. Wow!
Would you be able to share the 3D model?
Thanks

Of the CNC machine that is ;)

Dobry den. Lze vas kontaktovat? Dekuji. Staci sms na 773244112

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 14

 Hi, very nice!!!
Specially for a person like me who is too new to all this.
I want to contact you through email or whatever.
I am from India.
Plz atleast reply.

Are you able to machine metal parts (steel, iron, etc.) with your machine?

Probably but not much steel, im sure it can do a little aluminum, copper, and brass. Maybe small
cuts in mild steel. I have a cnc router parts pro 4824, I can cut aluminum but its not the greatest. I
have done steel sheets for computer cases but its brutal.

Drawer slides. Drawer slides. Why didn't I ever think of drawer slides. That machine looks
absolutely mean. Compared to flimsy looking three d printers your CNC machine could beat them
up all day. I'm probably going to incorporate your drawer slide design into my ultimate CNC
system. I've been cooking it up for a while and experimenting on little machines, I've decided to go
with over 2 foot of vertical axis so this would make it look so nice in my opinion. Last couple
months I've been sourcing ideas for the frame and I gotta say, the streamlined gantry design is
beautiful. A-plus material. Instruct on!

Good job mr. Thank you for share this. This will help me alot building my first cnc :) how do you
program it?

2 questions. no1 will this work for milling tracks, pads and holes on a circuit board, and will this
work with circuit wizard?

This instructable is very helpful, I would like to build my own cnc machine but I find it difficult to
understand everything about it, I just want to build a machine that can mill 1 inch thick plywood. I
have to order the electronics from ebay because they are very expensive in my country! what
electronics should I buy specifically? I hope to get your help :)

search for cnc kit nema. 2A is more than enough ffor you. it'll depend on speed you'll be working
too.

Hello, thanks for sharing your hard work. Please on what basis did you assume the inclination
angle of the gantry ?

Balance and posicioning.

This is a really clean and concise article. Nice build, and nice authoring. As a new hobbyist, I
would have really liked to learn more about the software side of running these machines. I have
googled much about it, but there seems to be a ton of different options. Regardless, nice work on

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 15

this build.

Hi, Thanks for sharing the story of your great machine. I plan to buy a similar kit with 3x NEMA23
3.5A 3Nm steppers + drivers+ breakout board + 36V source; is this stepper powerful enough for
harder materials? not steel but aluminum or copper; especially for X axis , which is the carrier of
the other 2 axis + the tool head ... what speed do you use mostly ?( soft wood , hard wood, alu ?)
GREAT to hear that you managed to build it under 1000E. this is also my target . :D

i like this one. can you please tell me what is the accuracy?

Hey! your project looks pretty impressive :) Can I have its CAD model? Its really important :/

he already said he doesnt share :.(

Please upload your BOM and all 3d models as well as cad drawings. I want to build this

As mentioned earlier in the comment and in the article, I cannot share them

I do not recall seeing the thickness of the Gantry Plates in the Drawing or in the text of the article.
Did I miss it? If it was not in either spot, can you provide it?
Thanks,
Dean

They have a thickness of 15 mm :)

milled from 6082 aluminium

Building Your Own CNC Router/milling Machine: Page 16