[tortugaranger]

I thought I'd share some of the work we've been doing for the past few months. It's related to our work in audio in that we've been putting together equipment that will allow us to manufacture our own enclosures. A key part of that will be our CNC router/mill. It's a large format machine capable of handling at least 4' x  4' stock material. While it's not designed to mill steel, it can handle aluminum, plastics and wood. We'll be using this to mill our aluminum enclosure parts. And its been a DIY project from beginning to end.

This first pic is a nice 3D rendering of the overall design.



And as with most major projects you start at the bottom and work your way up. Here we have the bottom of the base shown upside down. Since this beast was going to weigh quite a bit, wheels were a must. And lots of wire brads & glue. More to follow later.

[AluminatiSound]

I'll keep an eye on this 

Matt

[tortugaranger]

I'll keep an eye on this 

Matt

Hi Matt,
I checked out your circle and the chassis you milled out of a solid block of aluminum. Wow wow wow. That's some impressive milling. I recently bought a .75 inch 2x2 ft plate of Al that ran me around $250 to make upgrade parts for our mill. That block you started from must be well north of $750. I wouldn't dream of tackling anything similar with the rig we made. Plus we'd need a waaayy bigger recycle bin. 
Best
Morten

[AluminatiSound]

Hi Matt,
I checked out your circle and the chassis you milled out of a solid block of aluminum. Wow wow wow. That's some impressive milling. I recently bought a .75 inch 2x2 ft plate of Al that ran me around $250 to make upgrade parts for our mill. That block you started from must be well north of $750. I wouldn't dream of tackling anything similar with the rig we made. Plus we'd need a waaayy bigger recycle bin. 
Best
Morten

Hi Morten,

Thanks for the kind words!!

Big blocks or plates of aluminum do not come cheap... but it is well worth it. The machine you are making is very popular, they come in many styles and forms.

Maybe one of these days i'll get an LDR board from you and make a sweet case to show off in my living room

Best,
Matt and Jas

[JohnR]

You're making your own CNC mill?? 

  

[tortugaranger]

You're making your own CNC mill?? 

  

Yeah, I needed something to do in my spare time when I'm not solving climate change, bringing about world peace or otherwise running a small audio company. The phrase "inspired insanity" comes to mind. 

[tortugaranger]

Here's the top of the CNC support bench being put together. This is what the CNC machine will mount on. Again, lots of brads and glue. I wanted a very structurally stiff and flat surface so I went with a torsion box. Fortunately the floor was sufficiently flat so it came out ok.



Here's the torsion box bench top with it's top skin on. After this I sawed off all the overhang on both the top and bottom and finished off the edges with a router. Didn't get a picture of the finished top but you get the idea from this pic. Big slab-o-5x6-footx4inch torsion box.