[samualt]

Was just wondering how many people here had finished at least one cnc machine, and how many haven't.

[marvinstov]

Finished one, Modified one, using both, planning a third.

Marv

[starCNC]

my router is almost done.

[trubleshtr]

got the pieces, m/c is "mocked up" and ready to be built, now if i can only find the build time.....

[IJ.]

Don't know if it counts but I'm almost finished my Retrofit !

[balsaman]

Done two from scratch. Maybe a lathe retro next..but that doesn't count cause you didn't ask....

Eric

[ynneb]

Finished, but no limit homing switches. It probably never will het them either.

[bhincke]

Finished one Cranky design & working on a second one that is being created from many different ideas that I have seen at CncZone.

Bob

[High Seas]

Finished 1 then redesigned and made some big changes - so seems like 2!
Next one in progress - a dedicated desktop (smallish) 3 axis digitizer with a moving table - fixed gantry. Using many recycled components.
Am thinking of using all of the controller cards and motors eventually in a 6 axis - this is a slippery slope!
Cheers - Jim

[wjbzone]

Up and running. Plan to upgrade to servo's. Hope I can make it my full time job someday.
Bill

[DR-Motion]

Built at least six at home... plus I worked for years as an automated machine designer for automotive electronics testing and assembly... three maybe four machines per year.

Lots

[yukonho]

One finished, the other will be finished TODAY!!!
co

[bones]

Finished one Hafco AL-50G 9X20 LAthe,
One X3, Nearly one Hafco My-T-Mill,
Doing a 1960 Boring machine.

[Harpye]

When do you think is a selfbuilt machine called finsihed ... Ok mine is ready to produce but I have still so many ideas in backup.....

Hansjoerg

[Al_The_Man]

My biggest challenge was to CNC a 35ft bed - two 30hp spindle head Gray Planer/Mill built 1952. Customer bought it to plane/mill rail switch points. Cost of retrofit $100,000.00 replacement cost $1.5mil.
Al

[gmfoster]

Finished but in a constant state of modification...

Garry

[drawbar]

Building my first one from ideas generated entirely from this site. Cheap as possible for the first try. MDF, drawer slides, threaded rod, etc. Doing the mechanical first, though as electronics will end up being the biggest expense. Having a fun first go at it, though.

[bill south]

Converting a lathemaster mill. Didn' know there so may parts to the conversion. Each one takes time but hopefully, someday it will be finished.
So many things............

[Stevie]

Small lathe finished last yr; it runs every day for at least 3 hours
Midi lathe finished build; just needs computer hooked up; but will be moving to servos; so no hurry on that one
Drill press converted to 4 axis; then changed extensively; still 4 axis but with 2 spindles now 1 up to 16,000 the other 35,000+ Will change to pixies and Copley drives plus MCG servos in the next 2 weeks; runs most weeks for about 20 hours
33" x 14.5" x 12" Gantry amost done; just need a few more parts

I also built a small super highspeed lathe which I learned from; then ripped apart to build the drill press mill from the slides etc
1 other machine planned with P5 servos; this one will take up all the room left in my garage

[pyroplotter]

My first CNC table was built over 7 months in 1994 and was entirely homebuilt from scavenged parts and first design principles. When it was complete it ran under DOS, used Borland Turbo Basic and DesignCAD 2D. I had a small sign business going for a few years. Largest piece was 34" x 44" and a vertical Z axis travel capability of 3". It had a lot of, er, wiggle room since it was made of wood ( gantry, table, etc ) and an accuracy of about 1/8" and a repeatability of about 1/4". This gave results that always looked hand made rather than machine made which I told myself added "charm" to the product.

In 2005 I bought an Applied Robotics Torchmate Kit and adapted it for wood routing. I built a 4ft x 8ft workpiece table whose frame was of wood and was 5ft x 8ft x 12ft. The whole thing weighed 1100 pounds and sat on four sheets of plywood as a footprint in a small tent. Accuracy and repeatability was about 1/8" which was good for the sheets of plywood this worked on and I tried to make signs for folks, their ranches and such. But we had a horse ranch ourselves then and I spent more time taking care of 14 horses and the ranch work than making signs. A few months ago we sold the ranch and I diced up the table with a chain saw but kept the hardware and we moved down from the hill into town.

Just 2 months ago I began building my third table ( I now have a garage ) and this one is going to be fitted with a J48-1 laser. I can already do some pyroplotting using hot points and irons ( an art form I'm interested in ) and will use the laser for that and other marking also. I've made tooling fixtures to handle an electric engraver, am adding a pneumatic scriber, have a dremel drill and am also using it to do art works via metallic ink pens. This table has water and air lines, air extraction, a USB camera, safety interlocks and runs a lot quieter than the 2HP router used to. The table is driven with XP Pro running on a WIFI network so that I can create my artworks upstairs on my big CAD systems. I can even run the table as an E Size plotter.

My wife is a fine artist and has talent, as do both daughters, but I do not so my table is my talent amplifier and with it I can do things that as an artist I could not. This table has an active working area of 36" by 48" and a Z travel of 3". The base is now made of faux wood deck components which are more rigid than 4 x 4's - seems I can't quite get away from wood entirely - and the platform is metal clad wood also. I have a lot of fancy software now, such as Engravelab Laser Pro, AutoCAD 2000, BobCAD and Corel, none of it home brew, and now spend more time doing things than designing code to be able to do things which works for me. Just discovered this forum a few days ago - looks like a great community here - and I thought I'd add my own story.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found it interesting.