DIY CNC Plans

I was browsing the internet looking for some kind of information on something and came across a site that had DIY CNC Plans. The website had several videos of finished machines that people had built and I must say they were pretty impressive. About a week later I started doing a little research and decided I wanted to build my own Homemade CNC Router .

I had a hard time deciding what kind of design to build mostly because I had no use for one I just got the fever to build one. I finally found a design I liked ordered the plans and started to begin my build. The plans I bought were from John C Kleinbauer for his Phoenix machine. The plans were very well written and anybody considering building one I would recommend one of his. The challenging part about about doing a build from DIY CNC Plans is there are directions but no parts. The parts are made from material you have to hunt down and buy. Once you buy the material then you have to make the parts. You have to select your stepper or servo motors, controller board, limit switches, power supply and the list goes on. For some people this is the discouraging part for some people this is the challenging part. For me I found it a challenge and my life goal at the time and I obsessed to finish this thing. I have a very strong mechanical and design background so building and setting up the mechanical part of the CNC Machine really wasn't much of a problem. The problems started hooking up the electronics which isn't one of my stronger areas I think I spent 70 percent of the build reading up on how the electronics had to be set up. But after all said and done I got through it. After the CNC Machine was done now came hooking it to my computer and choosing a software program. I chose Mach 3 from Artsoft you can download the program from their website. The program is very user friendly and the web site has video tutorials and other support. I can't explain the feeling I got when the machine fired up and worked, it was incredible it actually worked like it was supposed to. I set up some jobs for the Homemade CNC Router cuting designs in wood and plastic and all and all Its been a great toy to have around the house.

A few things to keep in mind if you or someone you know is thinking of building a DIY CNC Machine.

• You should have mechanical experience and the tools to build the mechanical parts of the machine.
• The ambition to track down material and parts.
• The ability to wire all the electrical parts and understand the circuits.
• The ability to connect it to a computer and set up the interface to work with your machine.
• The patients to do a whole lot of research and reading.
• The ability to troubleshoot and correct problems
  

I don't want to discourage anyone from building their own machine from DIY CNC Plans but these are things you should keep in mind. When you buy plans that is what you get plans the author isn't going to be there for 24 hour tech support and help you build it step by step. Also you have to get the electrical parts to work with the computer interface and both of them to work with the mechanical parts and this can be quite a task. Remember you can always buy a whole machine. To those of you who are up for the challenge of building a DIY CNC Machine from DIY CNC Plans I wish you the best and I hope this article was a help.