Designing a self-replicating milling machine

Stefan Mileschin · 15th May 2012, 06:30

For his senior design project at Swarthmore College, [Julian] decided to build a metalworking equivalent to the RepRap. [Julian]‘s final project is a self-replicating milling machine, and hopefully giving some serious metalworking power to all the makers with CNC routers and RepRaps out there.

At first glance, [Julian]‘s mill doesn’t look like something you would find in a machine shop. The machine is built around a tetrahedral machine tool frame, giving the machine an amazing amount of stiffness with the added bonus of a degree of self-alignment. The spindle and motor are off-the-shelf units, but the entire bed assembly is made by [Julian] himself.

Right now, [Julian] still considers his project a very early prototype; there’s still a bit of chatter issues he’s working out, and the cost of the finished machine – about $1200, not including many hours of fine tuning – means it isn’t as competitive as other options. Still, [Julian] made a mill from scratch, and that’s nothing to scoff at.

http://hackaday.com/2012/05/14/desig...8Hack+a+Day%29

15th May 2012, 06:30	#1
Stefan Mileschin [M] Reviewer Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Posts: 148,618	Designing a self-replicating milling machine For his senior design project at Swarthmore College, [Julian] decided to build a metalworking equivalent to the RepRap. [Julian]‘s final project is a self-replicating milling machine, and hopefully giving some serious metalworking power to all the makers with CNC routers and RepRaps out there. At first glance, [Julian]‘s mill doesn’t look like something you would find in a machine shop. The machine is built around a tetrahedral machine tool frame, giving the machine an amazing amount of stiffness with the added bonus of a degree of self-alignment. The spindle and motor are off-the-shelf units, but the entire bed assembly is made by [Julian] himself. Right now, [Julian] still considers his project a very early prototype; there’s still a bit of chatter issues he’s working out, and the cost of the finished machine – about $1200, not including many hours of fine tuning – means it isn’t as competitive as other options. Still, [Julian] made a mill from scratch, and that’s nothing to scoff at. http://hackaday.com/2012/05/14/desig...8Hack+a+Day%29

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
AMD Designing Next-Gen Playstation's GPU	Stefan Mileschin	WebNews	0	27th February 2012 07:55
DIY 3-Axis CNC Milling Machine for Under $100	jmke	WebNews	0	21st June 2010 19:44
ASUS Designing Dual-HD 5870 Graphics Accelerator?	jmke	WebNews	0	27th January 2010 06:42
The Quick INQ guide to designing motherboards - Part 2	jmke	WebNews	0	13th July 2006 10:47
The Quick INQ guide to designing motherboards	jmke	WebNews	0	11th July 2006 13:17
The Quick INQ guide to designing chips	jmke	WebNews	0	7th July 2006 12:03
INQ doesn't have X-Ray machine	jmke	WebNews	0	22nd June 2004 11:23
Designing/making own Waterblocks	0rbi	Mad Bargains	1	28th September 2003 22:06