Category: cnc hacks

Press brakes are invaluable tools when working with sheet metal, but along with their almost infinite versatility comes a dizzying number of press brake types. After starting with an old-school, purely mechanical press brake, [Wes] of Watch Wes Work fame had been thinking of upgrading said press brake to a hydraulic configuration, but soured on […]
It’s easy to build big wooden furniture if you have a massive industrial CNC router, but few of us are so lucky. However, you can still build sizable stuff with a smaller router if you know what you’re doing. [Aribabox] shares some useful tricks and techniques for building large workshop cabinets on smaller machines. The […]
Tubes! Not only is the internet a series of them, many projects in the physical world are, too. If you’re building anything from a bicycle to a race cart to and aeroplane, you might find yourself notching and welding metal tubes together. That notching part can be a real time-suck. [Jornt] from HOMEMADE MADNESS (it’s […]
If you have a CNC router, you know you can engrave just about any text with the right tool, but Jointly is a typeface that isn’t meant to be engraved. That would be too easy for [CobyUnger]. His typeface “Jointly” is the first we’ve seen that’s meant to be used as joinery. The idea is […]
If you’re planning to make a metalworking lathe out of a CNC milling machine, you probably don’t expect getting a position sensor to work to be your biggest challenge. Nevertheless, this was [Anthony Zhang]’s experience. Admittedly, the milling machine’s manufacturer sells a conversion kit, which greatly simplifies the more obviously difficult steps, but getting it […]
Do you or a loved one suffer from distorted 3D prints? Does your laser cutter produce parallelograms instead of rectangles? If so, you might be suffering from CNC skew miscalibration, and you could be entitled to significant compensation for your pain and suffering. Or, in the reality-based world, you could simply fix the problem yourself […]
Despite the availability of ready-made displays never being better, there are still some hardy experimenters who take on the challenge of making their own. In [Ben Holmen]’s case the display he built is somewhat unusual and not the most practical, but for us a giant-sized wooden kilopixel display is exactly what the world needs. It’s […]
Over on his YouTube channel the vivacious [Stephen Hawes] tells us that we never need to buy solder stencils again! A big claim! And he is quick to admit that his printed solder paste isn’t presently quite as precise as solder stencils, but he is reporting good success with his technique so far. [Stephen] found […]
Although firmly entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist now, the skateboard wasn’t always a staple of popular culture. It had a pretty rocky start as surfers jankily attached roller skating hardware to wooden planks searching for wave-riding experiences on land. From those rough beginnings it still took decades of innovation until Rodney Mullen adapted the ollie […]
Laser-engraving a cylindrical object usually requires a rotary attachment, which is a motorized holder that rotates a cylindrical object in sync with the engraver. But [Samcraft] shows that engraving all around a mug can be done without a motorized rotary holder. Separating a design into elements thin enough to engrave individually without losing focus is […]