A successful test cut after eliminating an earlier problem that turned out to be an assembly error. There's still a lot more tweaking that can be done, but it's pretty usable at this point.

On February 5 I cut steel on it for the first time. It's reversed because this is meant to be the crusher head for the CanBot, a can-crushing device the robotics team made. The (overly ambitious) idea was that it would stamp the team number into the crushed cans.

On October 22 I started fabbing up a little catch basin. Sheet metal is fun. Here's the folded tray on the bench. I just cut the shape with some metal shears by hand, and spot welded the corners.

The drain needs a conical recess, so I 3D printed a one-off punch and die to make one. This is the design, in cross-section.

I already have a Harbor Freight 20-ton hydraulic press, like everyone has in their garage, but this is only 26 gauge steel, so a clamp or a bolt and nut is plenty.

It worked even better than I expected. Here's the clamp squeezing the printed die into the tray.

And the formed drain: a nice smooth conical recess.

The drain parts are 3D printed too. This is the drain fitting seated in the recess.

From underneath, the drain passes through the table via a printed hex nut fitting, with a clear braided hose attached below.

Here's the finished product (the photo at the top of the page), just waiting for the silicone to cure. I tilted it up ever so slightly so everything runs to the drain. I might need to add some bumpers at the edges to make sure the mill doesn't vibrate the whole thing loose. For obvious reasons I didn't want to fasten the pan down, although I could; a neoprene washer under the screw would probably work fine.

Here's the mill running with the pan in place. Working like a champ.

This is the bench at the end of an evening in late September. Good progress, but lots left in this build. The kit parts are laid out, with the instructions up on the laptop.

And the frame, partly assembled, surrounded by bags of hardware.

A regular socket wouldn't fit into one tight spot, so I ground down the outside wall of a 7 mm deep socket. Having a grinder means never having to say you're sorry.

By October 2 it was probably about two thirds done: you can see the frame, the table, the ballscrews and linear rails, and a stepper motor on top of the Z axis. Yes, it has ballscrews. Fancy, but necessary.

On October 3 the mechanical assembly was complete, so next up was electrical. That's the finished machine at the top of the page.

I chipped away at the electrical work when I had time. Here's the back of the machine with the electronics bay open, showing the controller boards and wiring, with the coolant reservoir on the side. The power-on smoke test didn't reveal any immediate glaring issues.

Next up was installing the software and making it move. The machine also needs a home: I'm planning to use the big CNC at the makerspace to make a rolling cart for it to sit on, with room for the power cables, coolant lines and so on.

On October 10, finally, all three axes working.

I also had to build a coolant basin for it to sit in.