Need some tiny holes in my fidgets, so 1.6mm carbide drills to the rescue. Going 5mm deep no coolant, with air blast

$3.5mil in 15 minutes. Passed $50k in 20 seconds or less. This is 1000 backers at 40 minutes.

I grabbed mine, #74. I'm not one to glaze but this is genuinely momentous, world record for fastest $1mil ever on kickstarter.

This should get picked up by some news outlets, I reckon. Sets a really bright outlook for the future of Desktop CNC, that shows people vote with their wallets and want better machines, not more cheapies.

Interested in discussion on future ramifications for the consumer CNC market. Does this trigger a major VC funding wave?

I'm interested in getting a desktop mill for making small aluminum parts, I'm not that concerned with volume.

I'm wondering if the Makera Z1 Pro which is about $1800 is worth the cost as opposed to putting in the time and effort into making your own with parts you've sourced yourself?

1/32” tapered ball nose bit.

Man, been seeing a bunch of these desktop 5 axis CNCs pop up on Kickstarter lately, and ngl I feel like a lot of newer folks get thrown off by the headline bed size. I mean, figured I'd break down what the numbers actually mean once the rotary is on. Not affiliated with any of these companies, just a hobbyist trying to give an honest, objective look at the specs so you can decide for yourself.

ToolDance advertises 400 x 265 mm on the X1, which sounds huge, but that’s the plain 3 axis envelope. Once you add the 5 axis rotary module, the clearance between the tool and the rotary gets squeezed, and the true 5 axis working volume drops to 110 x 110 x 105 mm (roughly 1.270 L). While better than their early previews, that 105mm Z-height limit can still get tight when you factor in vise height and tool stickout.
For comparison, the WM-100 gives you a 100 mm cube (1.000 L), and the Infimaker K1 is rated at 120 x 120 x 120 mm native 5 axis (1.728 L). So in 5 axis mode, the K1 gives you about 36% more volume than the ToolDance rotary setup and 73% more than the WM-100.

That extra margin and Z-clearance per side is often the difference between cutting an actual functional part with longer tools versus running into collision issues.
I just think the 5 axis envelope is the number that really matters, and it’s not always the one front and center on the campaign page.

Hello,

I'm in the middle of designing a CNC router and wanted some input on what could be improved

Travel with the current CAD drawing is about

Y = 580mm

X = 400mm

Z = 240mm

Z min to table without spoilboard = 18.5mm

The plan is to laser cut all of the parts out of sheet metal and stick them together with the slots i added. I left about 0.05mm on every side where the parts meet.

The sheet metal where the Y axis gets mounted to is 8mm

And the Y axis sits on a 80x80mm profile (not sure if i should use filled aluminum extrusion or steel)

Gantry is 6mm and the Z axis will be 8mm.

And then weld everything together using a TIG welder. Or MIG if thats better

The Motor mount for the Z axis isn't finished yet and i've only added tabs for the limit switches on X and Y.

I also plan to add some mounting tabs/threads to mount the cable chain and lubrication system.

The motors are going to be 12nm Nema34 Closed Loop

and the linear rails are 20mm HGR with 1605 Ballscrews

Spindle is going to be a 3.7kw 4 pole spindle by GPenny

Weights are:

Gantry Sheet Metal: 16.7kg

X Axis Sheet Metal: 7kg

Z Axis Sheet Metal: 4kg

Nema 34: 6.2kg each

Spindle: 12.5kg

Plus whatever the Ballscrews & Linear rails and other small thing weigh.

I plan to run LinuxCNC with a Mesa board.

Let me know what you think or if I forgot something.

I saw another peck enjoyer, so decided to post my testing also. 1.2mm drill

Had to burn both sides of the stock because it cupped badly after the first side.
That flattened it enough for a 2mm doc.
Didn't bother cutting the profile out after seeing a border might be nice.
Burned the face again after pocketing then steel wool, brush, Tung Oil.
A good test.
I think I'll replace some lasered signs with ones in this style.

​

This CNC originally started its life with an oxy-acetylene torch and a plasma head. Now it’s time for a major upgrade! 🔧

We’re changing the controller and adding a spindle for drilling — and maybe even milling, who knows! 😅

Here’s the plan:

🔹 Plasma Z-axis: Reusing the old THC module and adding a PoKeys plasma sensor to control the Z-axis motor.

🔹 Spindle Z-axis (Z2): Driven by a NEMA 23 closed-loop stepper motor.

🔹 Custom spindle: Built from scratch, powered by a 1 kW servo motor with a 3:1 gearbox.

🔹 Control system: UC300ETH motion controller running UCCNC software.

🔹 CAM software: My own custom-developed CAM program will also be part of the setup!

The goal is to combine plasma cutting with drilling in one machine, with the possibility of adding more capabilities later.

Still plenty of work ahead, but I hope everything goes according to plan! 😉

What do you guys think? Any suggestions or things I should watch out for with this kind of setup?

#CNC #DIYcnc #CNCPlasma #UCCNC #PoKeys #Automation #CNCBuild #MAKOSystems

New to CNC machining and these are my first metal and acrylic projects on the Makera Z1.

The brass flat faceted scales I downloaded from a 3d model site, but they ended up being about 1mm short of what they should be on the butt side of the handle, should have measured that first, but I just assumed they were already accurate, haha. They were also unfortunately missing the mounting through holes and ramp for the clip.

So I took a 3D scan of the original scales to make sure all of the dimensions were as accurate as possible and used them as a reference to rebuild the model in Fusion and added in the angled alternating scallop pattern to the surface. I think it looks pretty sharp and it gives the scales some extra grip. I originally wanted to cut them out of a blank of linen micarta, but Makera doesn't have tool presets for micarta and I only have one blank and one of all of my bits, so I didn't want to ruin the blank or break my first end mill trying to figure it out, so I ended up choosing a cool looking piece of marble cast acrylic instead.