Driven by the need to create many quick iterations of plate designs for various projects out of a variety of materials, I decided to build myself a CNC gantry robot.

I went for quite a high sided gantry design, and after much deliberation opted for heavy duty toothed belts to drive the axis from the motors.

There are many ways to skin the proverbial cat as always, and in this case due to low budget constraints, I went for making my own linear bearings from bright steel strips and roller skate bearings. Low tech, I know..

The spindle was of similarly humble origin, being a traditional router, adapted slightly for it's new role.

‍

What I didn't scrimp on though were the electronics. I opted for fairly expensive motor drives and I really went to town on the controller enclosure and fittings. I figured if I make the controller top notch and as neat and tidy as possible I'd have the best options later on if I decided to upgrade the machine being controlled.

I used a controller board capable of 5 Axis motion, left a space for 4th and 5th axis drive electronics, and pre-installed extra drive and end-stop sockets thinking these would probably be the first things I'd look at upgrading.

After a few test cuts, the first proper thing the machine made was a new part of itself, the vacuum hold down bed.

Once glued together, fixed down and levelled, I plugged a vacuum pump into this new bed and was off to the races.

The vacuum holding force is easily capable of holding down sheets of plastic, wood, and even sheets of Aluminium up to 6mm thick. So with the bed installed, I was able to start cutting thin sheet materials without any need for screws or clamps.