My build has finally begun and in this post I will take you on the building journey. Make sure you have read part 1 here , part 2 here , part 3 here

Lifting it up in the shed

It’s been some time since my last update. The machine is complete, but it’s worth noting that I had to construct a shed specifically to accommodate it; the machine proved too large for the existing brick structure.

I bought a garage “engine block” crane to lift the approximately 350kg structure in the shed. You really notice that using the right tools in a situation likes this makes huge amount of difference.

Replication method at work

After moving and leveling the machine I had to make the surface of the aluminium extrusion flat in order to mount the rails to it.

It is a bit of a messy situation but hey! it works.

After making the surface flat I cut out the slot with a hot-knife in order to mount my rails to it.

Adjusting the gantry level

I used the metal epoxy “gap filling” method to level the gantry vs the Y1 and Y2 gantry rails:

I used Mirror glaze wax release on the gantry to make sure it just fills the gap and does not stick to the gantry extrusion itself. Not this works REALLY well!

After making sure it is level, I let it cure.

in a Dan Gilbart video I recently learned to make figure 8 motions when doing this. I tried it out and noticed it worked well. I did not actually check it on the surface plate but you notice that the surface is quite flat. Within >=0.0x mm I would estimate. Good enough for this part.

Mirror Glaze

Mirror Glaze Wax release; 16$

Aliexpress.com

Fixing the electronics

I decided to rewire the electronics from scratch. It worked out quite well I must say!

After I wired most of it on the desk I hung it on the wall and started connecting it to the CNC.

Finishing the mechanics

I kinda dropped and messed up the C5 1605 nuts I had on my spindles. As they were already too short anyway I decided to pick up some new ones from Aliexpress:

I was seriously impressed with how riged the DFU version of the ballscrew feels. There is no play at all. I later on measured it on the CNC itself with load and you dont see it budge at all. I can really recommend these C5 1605 DFU screws from Yixindianqi Store on Aliexpress.

So after completing most of the electronics, I went off to mount the spindle and servo motors. Initially, I had put the MAKITA RT0700 router on there; but that died very quickly after a little accident when I crashed it into the toolsetter.

Because the design of my frame is more of an afterthought … I had to add some way to mount the fixture table/wasteboard on the CNC. While it is not ideal to weld on a relatively precise machine frame, it was still the easiest method to do it.

After completing this stage I mounted 36mm of MDF plate to it and went on to the next step

Many small steps in between

So as it goes in a project. you lose focus on documenting a bit and do all kind of small steps. During this time I got probe basic working well on the CNC, tuned the servos and did some final adjustments on the mechanics.

Tramming and aliging the axis

So as in any precision machine build where your mechanics are to perfect, you are going to have to adjust the tram and yaw of the spindle.

I started first with fixing the “nod” of the spindle by putting in a 10mm endmill upside down and using an indicator to make sure the measured distance stayed the same while moving the Z-axis up and down. This was relatively quick to be fixed.

For the trimming (rotation of Z spindle ) I did the following:

So I 3d printed a spacer so I could mount my indicator on the spindle. Turned it round to make sure the distance of the indicated stayed the same. As my z-axis is quite heavy, I found the use of a strap quite useful to slowly get it in the right spot.

Making chips!

After spending some more time with the machine I made another short video where I did some more drilling and milling

Can it mill hardened steel?

So a question that comes up quite a lot is if the Lusintun BT30 ATC spindle can mill steel? The answer is yes, the spindle itself is not the limit. The stiffness of the machine is.

I did some testing on some hardened steel to make sure it could handle normal steel with ease.

Conclusion – Mightymill build Part #4

Since part #3 quite a lot has happened. The machine is together, is working and performing pretty well. As this is the first full CNC build that I have done there are plenty of areas that need improvement. One of the main things is to make the Z-Axis stiffer and make a better connection from the gantry to the ballscrew.

Other than that I’m happy with how it performs!

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Feel free to reach out to me on discord

In the past few months its little brother the PrintNC Mini which extends the PrintNC capabilities further but in a much more compact and cost effective platform.

Features of the PrintNC Mini

The PrintNC mini is the baby that came out of all the findings and learnings of the (opensource) PrintNC project. The main improvements are as follows:

• Dual HGH15 block bearings on the Y axis – Fixes the main stiffness issue which was often one of the first upgrades done for the PrintNC V3.0

• Triple HGH15 bearing block configuration for the X axis – This setup drastically increases the stiffness of the X axis and Z axis assembly

• Re-design of the Z-axis – Allows for a smaller overall package while retaining simplicity to build and overall stiffness

• In-chassis Nema17 stepper motors allow for a much more compact build

PrintNC mini specifications

The standard build has the following dimensions:

• Wasteboard 395 x 500 mm
• Y axis beams: 75×50 mm steel tube
• X axis beam: 50×50 mm steel tube
• Z travel: 110mm
• Y travel: 300mm
• X travel: 300mm

The PrintNC Mini is designed with parametric modelling. You can scale-up and scale-down the design within reason.

What makes the PrintNC so special vs other DIY CNC router offering?

The PrintNC Mini’s design makes use of rectangular steel beams which are interconnected with bolts to keep it DIY friendly.

It avoided all the shortcomings from entry level desktop CNC-routers that are on the market.

Such as the Indymill and Carbide 3D’s Nomad which are far less capable then the PrintNc

To name a few:

• Ballscrews on all axis
• Dual and triple ” Hiwin ” bearing block design
• rigid steel frame
• Supports watercooled 65mm spindle
• 3D-printed parts on the parts you can get away with less tensile strength
• Designed to mill non-ferrous materials

PrintNC Mini current status

The PrintNC mini is still in beta mode. Meaning it is only available to a select few which have purchased the 3D files and get access to the member zone. At this point approximately 2 or 3 completed builds were spotted on the Discord.

It is too early to know the full extents and capabilities of the PrintNC mini. But looking at how it was designed and the already excellent performance of the PrintNC DIY router, I have full confidence in it.

Looking for something completely different?

Have a look at my build the Mightymill :

Conclusion

The PrintNC mini is currently in Beta status and a few builds have shown up on the discord. The design carries many improvements from the PrintNC V3.0 and seems to have addressed the main issues with that design.

It is too early to know the full extents and capabilities of the PrintNC mini due to small amount of builds out there.

I’ll definitely be watching closely at how it performs over the coming few months.

What makes the PrintNC so special vs other offering?

The printNC’s design makes use of rectangular steel beams which are interconnected with bolts to keep it DIY friendly.

It avoided all the shortcomings from entry level desktop CNC-routers that are on the market.

Such as the Indymill which is far less capable then the PrintNc

To name a few:

• ballscrews on all axes
• powerful and heavy duty spindle (2,2kW water cooled spindle options)
• rigid steel frame
• 3D-printed parts on the parts you can get away with less tensile strength
• able to mill non ferrous metals with ease and steel to some extent

To put it briefly, it was the best entry level machine in the price to performance category i ever came across.
The only downside is the extensive time commitment required. You must build the framework for the project and set up everything yourself.

Resources

If you want to know if this is the right machine for you, check out all the available resources.

To name a few:

• Wiki of the printNC
• Discord (Very active, friendly and noob friendly)
• Fusion360 model
• PrintNC building playlist by Christoph Lehner – youtube
• PrintNC building playlist by Projects by Brian – youtube

What is the machine capable of

Fully flexible design

The machine concept is fully parametric. You can customize the build to your needed dimensions.
I mainly do sheets of wood so i wanted to be able to pass a full sheet through the machine. Therefore i increased my X-axis to a work area of over 1250mm.
Due to the size of my workshop the biggest dimensions i could get away with, was a footprint of 1600mm x 1000mm.
There is a calculator on the printNC website to calculate all your machine dimensions based on your work area. It even shows you which profiles, screws and other hardware you should get.

Essential parts

• Metal cutting G-penny CNC spindle kit 2.2KW 80MM – Tested and verified by PrintNC members
• High quality HGR20 / HGW20CC linear guides – HLTC – Verified and tested hundreds of builds
• High quality clean & debris free 16MM 10 C7 ballscrew – machined to length – verified by PrintNC
• G-Penny – Casted 80mm spindle holder PrintNC verified

Conclusion

While it takes some time investment to build a diy cnc router yourself, I must say personally it was worth it!

All in build cost are ~2000 USD and that offers you the most capable open source cnc router currently out there.

Parts list

Below you can find tables with all the parts that I used to build IndyMill. The table is divided into mechanics and electronics if you prefer an excel sheet that you can easily print, export, and open on your computer you can find it here:
Excel sheet – IndyMill Parts

IndyMill build based on this parts list has a working area of about 520x400x115mm. The outside dimensions are 760x660x360mm. Of course by using longer profiles, linear rails and ballscrews you can build it bigger.

Build instruction

The above parts list and files down below is everything that you need to build the IndyMill. It’s open-source so you don’t have to pay anything for the files or design. But I thought that I will make a detailed instruction so that it will be easier for some of you to assemble this project and at the same time support my work. It’s 40 pages long, there are over 60 drawings and a lot of useful information on the assembly process. It’s a PDF file so you can put it on your computer, smartphone, tablet or even print. And it’s only $10. Let me say it again, you don’t need it to build this project, but if you want to simplify the assembly process and support my work at the same time, you can get the instruction here:Buy on

Essential parts

1.5kW 110v/220v CNC spindle set

G-penny Nema 23 cnc stepper motor 1.9Nm

Kande SFU1605 ballscrew C7 with machining

Videos

Here are all the videos that I made about IndyMill (plus updates below). I highly advise watching all of them before starting building one. There is a lot of useful information in each one of them and step by step assembly process showed. Also, you can take a closer look at fails, design process, and some problem-solving 

Built by the community

Below you can find pictures of IndyMill’s built by an awesome community of DIY enthusiasts, machinists, and makers!

IndyMill Created by Nikodem Bartnik in 2019/2020