This week we are closer than ever to getting the CNC Machine up and running. Currently our plans to finally get this long work in progress CNC Machine to its final design and testing it is moments away. Here are the last few steps we need before we can finally engrave something onto our CNC Machine:

• Cut and adjust Z axis Gantry
• Cut bolts to fit on Z axis Gantry and motor
• Make brackets
• Cut V-slot
• Buy or use existing wooden board
• Assemble, test, and calibrate Z axis
• Assemble the router
• Final overall testing

These are the last steps to getting our project working and we are determined to finally getting it up and running.

The mounts are finally attached to the spindle for our X and Y plane of the CNC Machine. The black box we had before had a defect for the Y axis, which slowed our project down by a week. Due to the issue, we were only able to calibrate the X plane. We finally received our black box this Wednesday and can now test and calibrate the Y axis. This portion will begin after the gantry, spindle, and board is set up. We will possibly be able to test the system soon.

Picture of the base with the spindle and gantry connected to the plate located on the X axis.

3D printed hedges used to stop the plates from falling.

The software used for the CNC Machine, OpenBuild.

These two week our team has been building our base for our project. We had run into issues such as the parts being too short or too long. Other issues include the holes we drilled not being in the right spot that we had hope for. We were also notified that our base may have a defect due to the size we were using. After our team had a talk about it, we finally decided to refit our base. Our next job after fixing the base, is to add the gantry, plates, and spindle onto the base.

Weston adjusting the base for the team’s CNC Machine.

We prepared our table top CNC machine for IEEE Expo. We were able to get our machine working by installing the drivers and running the GBRLController Application.