Tag Archives: cnc

I finally found time to try out the home-modified 1610Pro desktop cnc. And here is the result: routed from 4mm thick cast Perspex with a 1mm deep letter ‘h’, all edges machined. The routed rectangular base is 27mm tall (as I remember) and is accurate to better than 100μm. The only error was 200μm in the total length of the ...

With lovely spare time over Easter, there was an opportunity to finish the little cnc project, and (give or take) that happened (right). Index to CNC-related Engineer in Wonderland blogs It started life as a ‘1610Pro’ cnc (left), bought to learn about cnc cutting, which revealed its slack and flexibility as soon as it was assembled. Not that it wasn’t ...

Adding linear rails to a length of aluminium extrusion is a common way to make a fairly rigid guiding structure, and I have been doing just that in the workshop. But things were not working quite right, and (very) eventually a subtle misalignment was discovered. An earlier version of this blog contained an error – see ‘False start’ below This ...

Back in 2021 I bought a little 1610Pro CNC machine (right) just to see how they work – it was just over £120 as I remember. It was great fun to play with, and a complete bargain, but let down by considerable slop and flex in its components, which must be much worse in the larger more popular 3018 version ...

Medium-sized cnc machines, which I am defining as those using NEMA 23 and 24 motors, need about 5A per stepper, usually mandating separate driver modules alongside a control board. However, 3d printer parts maker BigTree Tech, also known as Biqu (Shenzhen Biqu Technology), has recently released a 3d printer control board that includes four 8A 24-60V drivers – integrated right ...

There is a volunteer community behind the open-source Voron 3d printer series, which has produced several high-performance – literally world-class – desktop 3d printers, and now it looks like another community is trying to do the same for open-source desktop milling machines. It is the Millenium Machines project which: “started life out as a mod for the OpenBuilds mini mill, ...

An idea in an earlier blog is to make a pwm interface that can accept 5, 12 and 24V pulse streams. That one uses a bunch of resistors and has three separate inputs. Below that, wise commenter DB suggested a different approach, using a constant current sink: Update: In a previous version of this blog, I made a mess of ...

In adding an alternative cutter drive motor (‘spindle’) to an existing cnc machine, an electrically isolated pwm to analogue converter is needed. The machine uses a ‘grbl’ controller, which has an Arduino-based circuit that includes multiple outputs, including a powerful 24V pwm signal that is generally used to drive a 60-80W spindle motor. Update: See a constant current approach to ...

apr24 Finally tried out the modified 1610Pro cnc, and it works delightfully mar24 Hard won fact about linear rails and V-slot aluminium extrusions mar24 Progress on the 1610Pro CNC upgrade (right) ???23 An isolated PWM-to-voltage converter for grbl-on-Arduino and 0-5V spindle motors aug23 My first CNC’ed object – it was a successful weekend aug23 That long-awaited Raspbrerry Pi Pico CNC ...

Finally, after a lot of false turns, I have both designed and CNC-ed an object. It is a 18x1mm counter-bored 16mm hole for a flanged bearing, in a pleasantly-shaped piece of 4mm acrylic. After seven minutes of cutting, including the shaped perimeter, it came out just right, with the bearing a firm push fit (until I played with it too ...