What Can You Do With a $200 CNC

3018 CNC is probably the most inexpensive machine you can buy. Surprisingly with proper settings and materials, you can achieve really nice results! Sure, it's not the fastest CNC machine but definitely a great inexpensive learning tool for beginners.

Feedrate and depth of cut per pass:
Wood engraving: 500mm/min, 1mm
Wooden tray: 500mm/min, 1mm
Plywood: 400mm/min, 1mm
Acrylic engraving: 600mm/min, 1mm
Acrylic contour: 1000mm/min, 0.5mm
PCB: 300mm/min, 0.12mm and 0.6 for the contour

[Homs]

hey im a cabinet maker and hobby musician. listen to this man! wear your safety gear even if u think its not that loud. high pitch noise will kill ur hearing :)

good job nikodem bartnik

[stephengrattage]

Definatly interested in the PCB milling video you mentioned. Hopefully there will be enough people want to see it.

[joneilkimball]

I bought a similar machine just because. It sat un-used for a few months after assembly. When it came time to spray my field in the spring I discovered I didn't winterize the sprayer. The valve manifold was leaking. The rings that hold the o-rings between manifold sections cracked when the water froze. I could not find a part number to order. I drew them in fusion360 and milled them out of delrin they threw away at work. They worked perfectly. Good thing too. A new manifold and valves would cost more than I paid for the sprayer.

[curiouslittledroid]

When routing the edge/profile of the PCB, use a much smaller end mill. I'm using an OpenBuilds Mini Mill, so kinda similar to yours, and I used a 1.5mm bit with two passes (0.9mm per pass). Makes much less dust, which is a good thing because FR4 dust is nasty stuff. On small boards I have FlatCam create two 1.5mm tabs to hold the board in place when routing. The smaller the tabs the less cleanup afterwards. On larger boards, 4 tabs.

[Odrin]

6:20 - as far as I know, "laser plywood" means that there is no knots and holes, even in the inside layers. It makes for a cleaner, more stable cuts. Knots could disperse the laser beam and the cut won't be deep or straight enough.
I once had a case when we tried to cut 2mm aviation plywood (also called aircraft plywood) and no matter the settings, we just could not cut it throught. But same settings were cutting throught 8mm standard plywood without any problems. The glue and finish used on the aviation plywood made it impossible to cut.

[squidcaps]

The way to anchor sheets: Do not use the clamps that came with it, not without adding spacers. You first cut a strip, 15mm width from the plywood. Then you cut that strip to 4 pieces. Stick those under the end of the clamp. Now you will apply pressure from top, not from the sides. If you use the clamps that came with the machine, any material you use has a tendency to buckle.. as can be seen in the video, and this lowers the qualit HELL of a lot as your cuts are never the same depth everywhere. Even better would be spacers that are just a little but thicker than the workpiece, so that the force actually tries to stretch the piece, not push it together.

I 3D print spacers, it is faster that way and i can get the exact kind i need. I also 3D print custom clamps when needed.. Especially with PCBs it is a must.. You have to have perfectly even and flat plates. And it is far easier and you get better quality if you use a flatend mill bits, 0.8mm is strong enough. This makes the designing a bit more difficult but is really not a big problem. You do have to cut some traces with hand but it can do cuts for thruhole chips. I'm sure there is a way to use both, flatend bits for most traces and use carving to touch up places the big bit could not do.

[Xfusionios]

i would really like to see you make this cnc even better with upgrades but still budget
friendly.

[Nickname_]

Definately good enough to stirr my noodles.

[mrfxm]

As a jewelers tool for etching on precious metal it looks delicate and capable. I could find many uses for such a machine.

[dustinfirkins]

That is a cool little mill, for $200 that's actually a very good result

[TobiPHartmann]

The 3018 was my first CNC after learning and loving this Hobby i build the MPCNC PRIMO
Thanks die your video

[rogerwilson]

I did a lot of circuit board on a cnc. I always used a scrap of wood and did a surface cut to get a flat level surface. Adhere the board to this scrap using double sided tape over all the surface. Any hardware fixtures cause the board to bend slightly.

[TheRojecas]

I saw when you tried to cut the acrylic and wonder if you get a better result of use climb milling instead conventional milling. I'm sure that you will get better results.

[PeterPetermann]

every few months i'm considering getting a small cnc machine, then I watch a video like yours, and remember that the noise level doesn't go well with a rental apartment.

[tonyd]

Great going, Niko. Looks like a useful tool there. (Not only for making parts, but to add to your knowledge base). Thank you for making and posting this video.

[marshallguerra]

I am Impressed with your knowledge and the why you communicate. Great job. Keep it up.

[LuLeBe]

I have a 3018 that just has an arduino nano style board on top of the mainboard, which exposes the A5 probe pin nicely.

[e]

When cutting acrylic i would suggest removing the protective film since it will melt and stick to your router bit ruining your result

[praeclarum]

Interesting, my cheap CNC came with a different board that had a header with pins for the probe. Worth shopping around because the probing feature works really well.

[lukewarmwater]

off to the right on my computer screen is an ad for plans to build a cnc for less than 900 dollars.... all I could think was "why?" if I can get one prebuilt for under 200....