cnc hacks

910 Articles

Team Hack-A-Day CNC

May 1, 2006 by 19 Comments

team hackaday dxf

The Team Hack-A-Day forum recently started a thread to discuss homebrew CNC. Computer Numerical Control machining is a very popular topic in our community because of the prohibitive cost of buying a machine off-the-shelf. Searching through the archive it seems we’ve only covered one actual CNC machine; since people have been building these things for so long, it’s hard to come up with the definitive CNC project. We’ve also featured the Etch CNC, designed by the AXIS developers to verify their software.

My coworker Will O’Brien, who writes how-tos for Engadget, recently started working on a new CNC mill. You can expect a write-up on that in the future. Also, Lady Ada recommends Drill Bit City for sourcing cheap carbide bits.

If there is enough interest, Team Hack-A-Day might add another forum for CNC projects.

For those who don’t know: Team Hack-A-Day was founded by Hack-A-Day readers to support our Folding@HOME efforts. Through their work we are now the #37 team (and still gaining) having produced nearly 20 million points in the last 8 months.

[thanks Tired2, op for #hackaday on EFnet]

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12″ RC Ornithopter

April 22, 2006 by 7 Comments

rc ornithopter

There was a little interest in Graham’s 3D scanning probe, but this is what he is normally using his tiny CNC machine for: manufacturing components for a tiny RC ornithopter. The scale of this thing is amazing. From the tiny gear train to the 0.5mm carbon spars the frame is constructed from. The rudder control only weighs one gram and the entire device comes in at 17 grams.

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Touch Probe For 3D Scanning

April 19, 2006 by 9 Comments

touch probe

Graham calls this touch probe his first useful milling project. He had already built the CNC mill and once he built this probe on the mill he essentially had a 3D scanner. The central hub is supported by three shafts spaced evenly around its axis. These shafts each rest on a pair of ball bearings to make a complete circuit. If the probe bumps into anything, one of the shafts will lift, breaking the circuit. TurboCNC has a built in routine for scanning with a touch probe. The program generates a point file which Graham pulled into Rhino for modeling. His example application was cloning a model airplane prop that had gone out of production. The TurboCNC routine isn’t very quick since the probe always returns to the same height so he’s coding a faster algorithm. This type of touch based scanning was also employed in agiecco’s LEGO 3D scanner.

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Snake Robots

January 3, 2006 by 13 Comments

snake robot

Dr. Gavin Miller has been investigating snake robots for over ten years. His first models, S1 and S2, use one servo at each joint. S3 used a pair of servos to create a sidewinding motion along with the more common horizontal undulations. S4 was an attempt to power the snake with just one motor, but ran into problems because of high torque in the u-joints. S5 was the first to have all CNC parts, which made for a more compact package. The larger snake did require the use of a second microprocessor. S6 was another attempt at a single motor snake, this time using a complicated gear train. It still had problems. S7 is the most recent prototype and is an attempt at rectilinear motion like that of a python (undulations in the direction of movement).

[thanks joeboy]

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Hack-A-Day Extra

December 21, 2005 by 9 Comments

xbox front

I posted the first part of my Xbox 360 iPod dock build on Engadget yesterday. Unfortunately commenting was still off when it went up due to maintenance so I haven’t gotten any feedback yet. Just three Digg stories that aren’t going anywhere.

The response to my job posting has been pretty incredible. I was only expecting to to get one qualified person but this decision is going to end up being really tough.

Team Hack-A-Day has completed another million points bringing the total up to 7M. We’ve also managed to shake loose our previous overtake threats. Spotted on the forum: [omniboggle]’s vertical rackmount case, [PocketLnt]’s THaD flash intro.

More links after the jump.

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Hackaday Links

July 23, 2005 by 30 Comments

Links

hey there readers. it’s a beautiful saturday so let’s get these links done so we can eat em!

ooh, beforehand I have a request. a challenege even.

on monday, july 25th, david letterman (CBS) is having the all american rejects play on his show. i don’t have cable, or TiVO, or any way of capturing it. This makes me sad. So! If one of you guys can manage to get the show digitally, cut out the entire clip of their performance, and send it to me, then you’ll get hooked up with a hackaday prize pack. courtesy of out of my wallet too mind you.

I <3 you for it. Plus, try getting the show off your Tivo, and onto your computer. That’d be pretty cool wouldn’t it? Yeaaah. Just keep that in mind. You could win some prizes! In fact, it’s 2:30pm almost. Let me go  check my mail. Any envelopes that come today will get stickers!

Power hand washing! Nice idea! [trevor]
Floppy DIY motor. Amazing. I can’t believe it was done. [pat]
Build a cheapy CNC machine for doing projects with. [modul8]
A pretty awesome algorithm used for converting your phone number into words! [imanuel]
mobilize your WRT54g. drive that sucka. [yasha]
what hackaday looked like in the 1980s. we were stylin’. [zelot]

i saw the island last night. it was a great movie despite that the trailer makes it look horrible. go check it out. it’s like brave new world and THX 1138 combined sorta. also up, was the v for vendetta trailer…looks amazing. check it out right now.

2 more links.
#1. for a price, you can hang onto that WD-40 straw.
#2. even better phishing schemes are out now. watchout.

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