Getting a desktop CNC milling machine to the nearly finished stage is no small task, and the maker has handled one of the trickiest parts in a neat way: parts for the machine have been made using the machine itself. Bootstrapping a build like that takes patience, and it suggests the mill is already accurate enough to produce its own components.
The latest run was a test of toolpath settings and of whether the chip control measures work properly. The machine cut a rectangular aluminum piece held in a vise, with the end mill performing circular pocket milling into the stock. Several machined circular recesses and a curved cut were already visible in the aluminum, and after completing a circular contouring path the tool retracted vertically.
Plenty of details stand out. The spindle wears a blue cover with a white emblem of two overlapping outlines, and the small end mill sits in a collet chuck with a multicolored coating. A flexible segmented orange and yellow nozzle with a brass tip points toward the cutter. Inside the see-through enclosure door there are linear guide rails and a vertical drive screw, a cylindrical tool setter is mounted on a bracket to the right, and the bed is a T-slot type.
One open question remains: it is not confirmed whether the chip control measures actually worked properly, even though metal chips were scattered across the vise and bed during cutting. The maker also has not said which frame the machine uses. Those answers will be worth watching for as the build wraps up.