Make a Mini Milling Machine with Minimal Materials

Perhaps you've had your eye on a small CNC router for engraving, making parts like gears, or even manufacturing your own PCBs, but they were a bit out of your price range. As YouTuber Mr Innovative shows, however, it’s entirely possible to construct one yourself with rather basic tools.

The machine's frame is cut out of 12mm (or roughly ½ inch) plywood, clamped, drilled, and screwed together to form its basic structure. A y-axis assembly moves the part back and forth, while an x/z setup rides above to position the spindle.

The spindle used here is a 500W model with an ER11 chuck, and NEMA 17 stepper motors precisely position everything, using lead screws, rods, and linear bearings. Everything runs on an Arduino Uno clone, along with a CNC shield and A4988 drivers. Grbl is utilized as the Arduino firmware, and G-code for control is generated using Autodesk Fusion 360 to be sent over.

The video below shows how the build was pulled off, which looks pretty straightforward. More information, including a parts list and cutout templates are available in the project write-up. With “just a bit” of work, you too can start having your robotic assistant take care of cutting out small parts automatically!