Thanks for letting me join! I am working on building my first CNC.

General CNC CNC Routers
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Thanks for letting me join!

I am working on building my first CNC. I don’t intend it to be very big or powerful (if it can cut foam in this incarnation, I will be happy, but I will be happier if it can cut circuit boards and soft woods). This rig is intended to be my learning tool

My learning rig will be 3-axis controlled by an Arduino with Big Easy Board stepper drivers, and about a square foot working area and some 1.2 Amp stepper motors (I said it wasn’t very powerful). I also plan to use a dremel tool as the cutter. Later versions should be using some “real” hardware, but like I said this one is to learn on.

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It’s good to start small. Learn first, then grow on the equipment in the direction your interests takes you. CNC is just great fun. Welcome to this group.

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Since no one has mentioned it yet, I will suggest you look at something other than a dremel for your spindle. I have heard/read that dremels have/will get excessive runout. This means they would be a poor choice for milling PCBs of any serious tolerance. I have seen it mentioned to try using the flexible shaft, but, I don’t recall seeing anyone say it specifically worked better or at all.