1000th DIY CNC Plan Downloaded!

I’m delighted to share that we just had the 1,000th download of our DIY CNC plans! I have such fun with my home-built machine that I wrote-up the plans, documented all the dimensions and assembled it into 72 pages of instructions! If you’re looking to get...

PC Board with Solder Mask

One of the things I like to use my DIY CNC router for is to make PC boards using the isolation routing technique. My latest prototype is Isolation routed PCB with solder mask for an opto isolator board to be used with the HobbyCNC Pro when the user experiences...

The Power of Checklists

I’ve started using checklists. A few nights ago I made a small, careless mistake and wrecked one of my nice 60 degree milling bits (at $14 a pop). My ‘favorite’ mistakes include: restarting LinuxCNC and forgetting to reload my program forgetting to...

Where has all the power gone?

Making sure your stepper motor wiring is robust and secure is critical. Most (all?) stepper motor driver instructions include the warning “do not connect/disconnect motors while power is applied”. Curious why? A brief-yet-incomplete intro to stepper motors...

We all make misteaks

I recently assembled 5 PRO 4-axis boards. I’m pretty careful. I follow directions. I am quite familiar with the boards. Only 60% (three out of five for you non-math types) worked first time! Oh the shame.  Careful(er) visual inspection revealed the problems: One...