Makerbot 3D printers were among the first to hit the market, so it makes sense that old and broken ones now litter the shelves of hackerspaces and home workshops alike. Rather than throw his one out, [Foaly] saw an opportunity to convert it to some sort of CNC machine. Given its lack of inherent rigidity and relatively weak motors, he opted to make a low-impact circuit board engraver which he appropriately calls the MakerbotCNC. We like the thought he put into this project, and it was clearly backed by plenty of experience.

Fortunately, his Makerbot Replicator 2 stemmed from a time when MakerBot was more open, meaning he could control the machine using a simple, open library. A little more open software handled his conversion of Gerber files to G-code. First tests drawing with a pen were successful, so he moved on to the carving head. He opted for an inrunner brushless motor to minimize dust getting into the motor but since these motors have a tendency to heat up he had to add fans to cool it. That still didn’t stop the heat from melting and bending his attempt at a 3D printed PLA carriage, so he switched it to a laser-cut MDF board to fix it. Finding the right collet proved tricky but eventually, he found the perfect fit was a collet clutch normally used to couple flex shafts to RC boat motors.

The result, as you can see was worth it. Using shallow passes, he can even cut carbon fiber parts.

While [Foaly] didn’t opt to replace more parts and go for a more powerful CNC, check out this 3D printer to CNC conversion which can cut wood, acrylic, and even aluminum.