DIY CNC mini mill

[Browser]

Possible strange question but have any of you heard of plans/kits to make a CNC tabletop mill? We'd like one at work for making plant labels, approx 100 x 55mm and out of 304 stainless, and out company are being difficult about buying something capable of doing that so I thought I'd look to see if there were plans or kits for such a tool.
Alternatively can anyone recommend one they've bought/used which will do what we need without costing a kings ransom?

 

[Ali]

What’s the budget if they did buy one?

 

[gaz1]

have a look at the homemade concrete lathe and milling machine

concrete lathe, concrete milling machine and others

ive been around youtube often and have noticed a few builds out there concrete lathe https://www.engineeringforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/multimachine-concrete-lathe-ver-1-10.pdf milling machine...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[Hood]

If it is just text on a label then maybe a diode laser would suit better.

 

[m_c]

What exactly are you wanting to make?

Just engrave the labels, or fully machine them from sheet/plate?

 

[Pilgrim22]

Depending on how many you need to produce, having them made may be more cost effctive.
I tried to use a 3018 cnc from amazon for some engraving but it was a nightmare.

I found SLD could make what I needed. You can design on there website, they deliver the next day and send you a paper invoice a weeK or so later with 14days of credit. First class service in my book.

Signs and Labels Direct - Signs Made Easy, Delivery in 24hrs.

Design your own custom signs in our online web tool. Delivery in 24hrs, Flawless Transcription, Excel-Import and High Quality Materials.

www.sld-ltd.co.uk

 

[fizzy]

Wouldn't a laser cutter/engraver be a better bet?
A nice 20W should suffice.

 

[Browser]

What exactly are you wanting to make?

Just engrave the labels, or fully machine them from sheet/plate?

Just engrave is what we need.

 

[Browser]

What’s the budget if they did buy one?

There isn't one really, as in they don't want to buy one at all, but it would depend on teh spec of the machine we could get for the money. They've bought one for the whole group which we can use, but it's at our nearest other plant in the fleet which is 70-odd miles away, so not just next door.

 

[Browser]

Wouldn't a laser cutter/engraver be a better bet?
A nice 20W should suffice.

I've looked at some online but having never seen the end result from one I wonder about the label's durability, as they get knocked, bashed, scratched and worst of all (depending upon where they are on plant) covered in slightly caustic ash which plays merry hell with most finished.
Also, most places on site have dust in the air, even the offices, and I've seen adverts for air purifiers with some of the units I've looked at and wondered how much of an effect on the end result dust in the air would have?

 

[Hood]

Just engrave is what we need.

Then a Diode laser is what you want. I have a 10w one and it engraves stainless well, some examples below.

 

[fizzy]

Then a Diode laser is what you want. I have a 10w one and it engraves stainless well, some examples below.

View attachment 468537



View attachment 468538


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Did you blacken the surface first? Or did it have a coating?

 

[Hood]

Did you blacken the surface first? Or did it have a coating?

Nope, just direct onto the stainless.
I do now give it a quick polish afterwards with Autosol or similar just to remove the oxides. If using in a normal atmosphere then that would not likely be required but as a lot of the things I etch, like the pic below, are used at sea and get covered in salt water constantly they can start to go brown with rust, the polishing seems to stop that happening.

 

[Ali]

Roland engraver or Metaza impact engraver on re-cut blanks, for ease of use, minimum messing around. Home made engraver would be a nightmare for consistency.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Effective engraving needs a really high speed spindle, so ends up being a self build around a Kress or similar.

From past experience the DIY ones often end up being a nightmare to setup and maintain, resulting in a machine that's less productive than an old school pantograph (which if it's for plant tags or similar are in fact extremely fast once set up the first time, unless you're running off hundreds at once in batches).

Using a cheap and cheerful desktop laser cutter (CO2 tube type) at reduced power to engrave into trilaminate tags would probably be my preference here.

You get a very deep engraving (compared to diode lasers) that will hold up to very poor treatment, and the trilaminate will be very chemically resistant to alkalis too for your application.

 

[Browser]

Roland engraver or Metaza impact engraver on re-cut blanks, for ease of use, minimum messing around. Home made engraver would be a nightmare for consistency.

Thanks for the steer, having a very quick look the MPX-90s looks like it would do what we need.

 

[Browser]

Nope, just direct onto the stainless.
I do now give it a quick polish afterwards with Autosol or similar just to remove the oxides. If using in a normal atmosphere then that would not likely be required but as a lot of the things I etch, like the pic below, are used at sea and get covered in salt water constantly they can start to go brown with rust, the polishing seems to stop that happening.

View attachment 468551

I'm taking it from this that you've experience of how durable these labels would be, as that's been my only concern up until now is how well they'd resist 'enthusiastic' cleaning when covered in incinerator ash and/or remain readable under the same harsh treatment.

 

[Hood]

I'm taking it from this that you've experience of how durable these labels would be, as that's been my only concern up until now is how well they'd resist 'enthusiastic' cleaning when covered in incinerator ash and/or remain readable under the same harsh treatment.

Test done just for you, lasered my logo onto stainless, got some emery cloth and this is what it was like after doing that.
Also I had previously done a few seconds but it jumped out the vice, so pretty resilient I would say

 

[sako243]

Possible strange question but have any of you heard of plans/kits to make a CNC tabletop mill? We'd like one at work for making plant labels, approx 100 x 55mm and out of 304 stainless, and out company are being difficult about buying something capable of doing that so I thought I'd look to see if there were plans or kits for such a tool.
Alternatively can anyone recommend one they've bought/used which will do what we need without costing a kings ransom?

If you're not chasing a production style environment and it's just for doing the "odd" label (i.e. it doesn't matter how quickly it does it) then you can probably get away with a little 3018 style machine from Sainsmart. I've got their 3018-PROVER V2 in the office for cutting out and drilling PCBs. I've also done some cutting out of panels on extruded aluminium boxes with it - it won't cut the material as quickly as a full size milling machine because it's not rigid enough but given it's all CNC then I just set it off and go and do something else. I don't need it to be churning out PCBs or panels as quickly as possible, it's just to save me the time sitting there manually drilling or milling them out.

I've got two spindles for it 10k and 20k rpm as well as a DIY vinyl cutter for cutting out paper templates etc., you can get lasers for it but it's not difficult to make your own stuff since it's just a 45mm (or maybe 52mm) spindle clamp. I think it was only a few hundred quid from Amazon. The GRBL controller is pretty decent too - not had any issues with it and I've ended up writing my own Python library to control it from either the desktop or anything running Linux which means I can run more complicated scripts.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SainSmart-Genmitsu-3018-PROVer-Switches-Emergency-Stop/dp/B07ZFD6SKP/

It comes with everything you need - I just use GrblCandle an OpenSource piece of software for running the Gcode through it or as said my own python scripts to interact directly with the Grbl controller.

 

[Browser]

Test done just for you, lasered my logo onto stainless, got some emery cloth and this is what it was like after doing that.
Also I had previously done a few seconds but it jumped out the vice, so pretty resilient I would say

Thankyou for carrying out that test and videoing it for me, much appreciated sir!

Looks like laser etching will do the trick, I presume it will work on plastics and other materials?