Tim Rastall on Google+ showed me an interesting project today. This is a beta of a combined 3D printer and desktop CNC mill. Future upgrades for a 4 th axis, laser 3D scanner,… are planned.
R.P.M. Rapid Prototyping Mill ( 3D Printer / CNC Mill )
Context
There have been many attempts to mount small Dremel, Proxxon and other hand tools to 3D printers for small milling jobs. Usually these suffer from the low mechanical stability of 3D printers compared to heavy CNC mills, the high runout of the mounted hand tools and the low mechanicalstrength of the axis and axis stepper motors.
Description
This one is different. It uses a water cooled, heavy spindle with a dedicated VFD. Just like a conventional “desktop” CNC mill. The frame looks very sturdy and employs ball screws. It looks more like portal style desktop CNC reshaped into a cube. The Z axis is done RepRap “Darwin” or BitsFromBytes “RepMan” style. On these 3D printers it is overconstrained and introduces the well known “Z wobble” because 4 cheap, threaded rods are employed that are never really parallel or straight. This design uses 4 precision ball screws. So it may work out and allow for the (for a CNC mill) very large Z travel and support the very heavy tool.Analysis and outlook
I am finding a combination of 3D printing (clean, no storage of blanks), CNC milling (very high precision, diverse materials and tools) and resin casting (diverse material properties, easy small-scale production) to be one of the most interesting fields of research In hobby machines.As for myself this could be an ideal tool if it would employ metric parts (for easy repair) and the performance in 3D printing and in medium duty CNC milling was known. My own CNC6040 is very limited in it’s Z travel and very long and wide. This one could be small enough to be transported to Hacker meets and –conferences with a car. (Much too heavy to carry a long in a train. 70lbs=30Kg)
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