Build Your Own CNC Machine

Do you like to build things? Are you ever frustrated at having to compromise your designs to fit whatever parts happen to be available? Would you like to fabricate your own parts? Build Your Own CNC Machine is the book to get you started. CNC expert Patrick Hood-Daniel and best-selling author James Kelly team up to show you how to construct your very own CNC machine. Then they go on to show you how to use it, how to document your designs in Computer-Aided Design programs, and how to output your designs as specifications and tool paths that feed into the CNC machine, controlling it as it builds whatever parts your imagination can dream up.

Don't be intimidated by abbreviations like CNC and terms like Computer-Aided Design. Patrick and James have chosen a CNC-machine design that is simple to fabricate. You need only basic woodworking skills and a budget of perhaps $500 to $1,000 to spend on the wood, a router, and various other parts that you'll need. With some patience and some follow-through, you'll soon be up and running with a really fun machine that'll unleash your creativity and turn your imagination into physical reality.

• The authors go on to show you how to test your machine, including configuring the software.
• Provides links for learning how to design and mill whatever you can dream up
• The perfect parent/child project that is also suitable for scouting groups, clubs, school shop classes, and other organizations that benefit from projects that foster skills development and teamwork
• No unusual tools needed beyond a circular saw and what you likely already have in your home toolbox
• Teaches you to design and mill your very own wooden and aluminum parts, toys, gadgets—whatever you can dream up

What you'll learn

• Build your very own CNC machine
• Learn about linear movement and motion transmission

Who is this book for?

Build Your Own CNC Machine is the perfect book for hobbyists who like to build and create using wood and metal. It's especially for those who have ever been foiled by lack of specific parts to help realize their creative designs. Build Your Own CNC Machine is also an excellent choice for organizations such as scouting and church groups, school shop classes, and so forth, as it provides an educational project of modest cost that all can work on together.

\construct your very own CNC machine. Then they go on to show you how to use it, how to document your designs in Computer-Aided Design programs, and how to output your designs as specifications and tool paths that feed into the CNC machine, controlling it as it builds whatever parts your imagination can dream up

About the Authors

Patrick Hood-Daniel is a hobbyist. In his day-job, he is an urban designer trained in architecture at the University of Miami, School of Architecture and urban design at the University of California at Berkeley. Patrick also serves as a college level instructor for various creative technical fields of mechanical engineering, architectural design, industrial design, civil engineering, materials and manufacturing, urban design and construction management. But in his spare time, Patrick is a hobbyist who puts skills from a previous career as a computer programmer to good use in building and operating computer numerical controlled (CNC) fabrication machines. He is the creative force behind www.buildyourcnc.com and is well known for designing CNC machines that can be built at low cost by normal people, and without any special or expensive tools.

James Floyd Kelly is a freelance writer living in Atlanta, Georgia, with degrees in English and Industrial Engineering. James has written on topics including LEGO robotics, building custom computers and free software. His books include Don't Spend a Dime: The Path to Low-Cost Computing, Ubuntu on a Dime, and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0: The King's Treasure, the sequel to LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT: The Mayan Adventure. He is also the creator and editor-in-chief of the most popular NXT robotics blog with over 45,000 readers visiting each month.