Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Even More Mills
will be a little over $1,000 for a fully assem-
bled and ready-to-use machine.
This chapter was originally published in
Since then there have been several new
desktop CNCs and DIY linear motion systems
released at a low price point.
It should also be noted that there
are many different types of sub-
tractive manufacturing in addition
to milling, including laser cutters,
vinyl cutters, and various CNC drag
knife attachments.
Shapeoko is an open source CNC milling ma-
chine kit designed by Edward Ford that can
be built in a weekend, depending on your
level of expertise. It is available from Invent-
ables as a Mechanical Kit ($299) or a Full Kit
($649 for 110V / $685.00 for 220V).
The Shapeoko lives up to its open source
billing and provides full documentation for
all of the machine parts, including the CAD
files. It also uses the MakerSlide system dis-
cussed earlier in this chapter. The machine is
driven by an open source hardware stack
and currently uses grbl as the G-code inter-
preter and G-code sender (Windows) or gctrl
on Mac and Linux. Materials for milling in-
clude plastics, woods, and nonferrous metals
like aluminum and brass. However, it should
be noted that Shapeoko strongly recom-
mends a spindle upgrade (instead of using a
rotary tool) if you plan to machine metals.
Othermill
The Othermill is a small-scale, high-precision
CNC mill from Otherfab that evolved from
the MTM Snap project (Machines That Make)
created by Jonathan Ward at the
MIT Center
of Bits and Atoms
. Jonathan now works for
Otherfab.
This machine has a working area of
5.5"x4.5"x1.4” and is optimized for milling
circuit boards out of FR-1 copper-clad PCB
stock using a quiet, high-speed spindle. It
can also machine soft woods, machinable
wax, plastics and nonferrous metals. Unlike
CNCs made from plywood, MDF, and other
materials that are prone to warping, the Oth-
ermill is made from chemical resistant and
moisture-proof HDPE.
Linear Motion Systems
In addition to the complete and kit CNC mill-
ing options already mentioned, there are
several companies providing open source
aluminum extrusion combined with linear
motion systems which make it easy to build
your own custom CNC; MakerSlide, Open-
Beam and OpenBuilds.
In addition, the team at Othermill has taken
on the task of both simplifying and beauti-
fying the CAM process for milling by creating
their own custom CAM package for the Oth-
ermill, which at the time of this writing is still
in development. The cost of the Othermill
