Sienci Mill One: Simplifying Desktop CNC Milling

March 15, 2016

The rotary tool came in the mail today, and so Chris and I printed a mount for it. We did a pretty good job of it because the tool is super snug and there’s absolutely no play. We’re just gonna have to work on wire management, perhaps put an outlet at the top of the Z axis or something.

We haven’t tested out cutting yet except with a bit of acrylic. I suspect we’re gonna have to throw on a router or a spindle to cut metal, so stay tuned in for that!

March 15, 2016

So we’re still waiting on our aluminum shaft couplers and lead screws to come in the mail, so in the meantime, I hooked up a shaft coupler that I made at the machine shop and a 1/4″ threaded rod to the Z axis to see how things are working.

Things look pretty good! Since I didn’t do a very good job in making the coupler straight, the threaded rod is bent, and I need to tighten the v-wheels a bit more, there’s a lot of wobble in the Z axis. Once the lead screws come in however, I’m expecting way better linear movement on this thing.

March 14, 2016

So I started fiddling around again with the CNC control board again, and dropped down the acceleration speed of the motors, which stopped the motors from studdering. I haven’t tested out any microstepping yet (I don’t have any jumpers on hand for the control board), but at single step control, we got the x axis to move pretty well.

I noticed however, that there are some issues in stalling in the motor, so we’ll be trying out some different power supply voltages, adjusting current, and just seeing what works best overall.

March 11, 2016

We just finished printing all the parts for the X,Y, and Z axis, so we put everything together.

All that’s left to do is some wiring and put in the lead screw for our Z axis. The bearings are in the mail and we should see them on Monday.

Stay tuned for more updates!

March 11, 2016

Hey guys, we’ve had a bunch of hitches with parts coming up late and 3D printing issues, but we’re back on schedule and have finished building our X and Y axis.

As I write this, we have our second Y axis gantry on the 3D printer.

Once we know everything works, we can start looking for quotes on injection molding or looking for other mass production methods.