I hopped on the mini toolbox train to get my workspace more organized. Wanted to share this endmill tray that maximizes the top draw in the 10" Husky toolbox and may work with the others.

It will hold (21) containers and works standard 1/2" or 13mm wide containers.

Link to file (STEP File is there as well): https://makerworld.com/en/models/3079051-husky-mini-toolbox-endmill-tray#profileId-3467457

Replaced it with a DIY http and touchUI combo server over serial at the unit, host PC no longer required.

Hello, dear CNC community.

I am trying to develop my own CNC milling machine for PCBs. I’m stuck at the stage of choosing linear guides.

Some info about my project.

Working area:

• X: 160mm
• Y: 180mm
• Z: 13mm

FDM printed base (PC-GF, I think), totally not original parts, alu table.

The part on the photo is 240x240mm.

So, my main question is: would MGN9H linear rails be a good choice? This is a small CNC machine with very light loads, so would they be sufficient?

What do you think about these reinforcing ribs?

I have some information to know:

2 months ago I just finished my 4 years high school diploma on cnc machinist with more than 600 hours of internship in two different companies (8 hours a day, 5 days a week)where I worked on 2 axis lathe and 3 axis milling machine with Fanuc, Siemens and Osai control.

After finishing the school I started working as a full time cnc machinist 6 days a week at a company where we make CNC machine. The company name is "GT Trevisan" known as their machine brand name. We create the parts of these machine.

At this company I work on a (3+1) 4 axis cnc milling machine. I setup and do programming on the machine. I'm capable of reading the design doing Fanuc macro programming with G/M codes. Also I'm capable of doing programming on the machine with Siemens language.

I have dream of working in the USA as a skilled machinist. One of the reason is I always studied/ worked with the metric system now I want to have work experience with the imperial/customary system.

1. Is it really possible to come to the USA from Italy to work as a skilled CNC Machinist?

2. Is it possible to live comfortably with the salary of a cnc machinist in USA? ( I'm not luxury loving person)

3. Is it possible to afford houses in the USA as a cnc machinist?

4. What is the minimum capabilities a person need to get selected?

5. How's the demand of a cnc machinist in USA?

Thanks 🙏

Looking to buy a used cnc for hobby purposes- there is a open builds lead 1515 (47x45 work area) that I’m thinking of buying for 800 but I have no idea if this is a good price- worth it?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can make the lines contrast better against the wood color?

Ive made this table top carving for my granddaughter. I want to make the carved lines black, or darker to make it stand out. The carving isn't very deep in places, so I dont really want to surface the piece again after painting it black unless I have to.

I probably should have masked the area first, and sprayed paint after carving, but I haven't been able to get masking tape to stick well and it gets torn up.

Is there any product I can wipe into the grooves and clean off the timber face without staining everything in the process?

Apologies if I've posted in the wrong sub

Cheers from New Zealand

Hi, for a home build, but hopefully sturdy and strong, for machining stainless, would a Heimatec live tool for milling be a terrible choice?

I know it’s a CNC router. And I know it needs a computer and a cad program.

Any Information would be helpful

TIA

Please suggest low cost reducer options with flanged output

Been itching to learn how to set toolpaths for 3d images ever since I got my machine (genmitsu 4040pro max). Pulled this one off and I'm stoked. The line across the thighs is from when I vastly underestimated the time required and had to turn off machine and continue the next day. I didn't set my z height zero properly clearly, but learned a lot from this cut.

Link to stl: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4174522

Hello folks, I welcome you all to Project Silvern! This was done on a Shapeoko 5 Pro but I have stripped out the stock electronics for a custom one since I want a good probing system. This design utilizes a lot of double-sided machining and some parts have more than two.

TImelapse: https://youtu.be/nFZq6mRlkZg?si=VzFpyvjMhtbbZ5kn

I have talked and included more details about the project in the video!

Design feature of case:

-Every single panel is 10mm aluminum panel

-3x Armor distroplate with one having a D5 pump integrated

-Capable of 2x 360mm radiator at the bottom

-Custom cable combs

-Mainly fitted for ATX size Motherboard

-Universal Vertical GPU mount

-Fits full size PSU

Follow-up to my earlier post about the parametric wall designer. A few people

asked how the AI part actually works day to day, so here's the workflow with

screenshots.

**Step 1 — describe it.** Click AI Design, type *"waves at the bottom forming a

bench you can sit on"*. It sets the dimensions, wood colour, relief layers, slat

spacing — and shows you exactly which parameters it touched, as chips (2400 ×

2000 mm, 120 mm depth, oak swatch, wave pattern). Nothing hidden.

**Step 2 — talk to it.** There's a robot button at the bottom right. You say

*"make the relief much deeper"* and it changes ONE thing: depth went 120 → 200

mm. The pattern, spacing, colour, everything else stays identical — see the

side-view before/after. One click undoes it.

As far as I know this is the first parametric wall generator with

conversational editing — happy to be corrected if someone knows another.

The part that matters for this sub: **the LLM never writes G-code.** It only

outputs bounded parameters (a wall can't be 40 m wide, a slat can't be narrower

than your bit). The deterministic engine — radius compensation, tabs, nesting —

generates the actual toolpaths, same as before. And it refuses figurative

requests honestly: ask for a skull and it tells you to use a grayscale

heightmap instead of faking it.

Free to design in the browser; the AI gives one free generation, then it's in

the paid plan ($4.90/mo) — saying it up front. Dev here, ask me anything.

https://btporganizer.tech

Even though this is a paid promotion, and the reviewer seems way too impressed by the gimmicky AI 2D → 3D converter, it's still a look at a working Infimaker K1 which I don't think we've seen before.

Lots of people were saying this wasn't a real machine but it looks like it is. Very interesting for ~5K USD.

Hey all,

I'm trying to short list my best starter options for a hobby cnc. I'm not really sold on the rigidity and gantry span of the various QueenBee style options so I'm sussing out Chinese 6040 machines but typically even if they have decent uprights and gantry the base frame tends to still be fairly small aluminum profile based and it seems you have to step up to the 6090 sized machines to get something more substantial.

Primary use case is wood, foam, tooling board, acrylic. A machine that could do an ok job with aluminum would be nice but obviously can't ask for too much in the entry level range. 6040 is about the ideal size for me as far as the projects I intend to do but I'm trying to keep overall machine size to under 90cm by 120cm. Does anyone have any thoughts on machines that might suit my needs?

I am retrofitting a CNC router. I want to reuse the motors, drivers, VFD, 48V PSU, 5V PSU and housing but add in some additional features and safety. Looking for feedback before I go buying and building.

If you do use a dust collector, any issues going down from a 4" tube to a 1.5"? Thanks

Third project, learned a lot. Went through a lot of steps to even get this model https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:686111 useable in fusion for a relief, made my own depth map generator in blender and used image2surface add-in in fusion, https://github.com/hanskellner/Fusion360Image2Surface, took maybe 6 hours but I definitely did some probably erroneous extra steps.
It’s a softer wood, so my machine was cutting through it like butter still shocked at how much detail it carved out.
Still unfinished but I wanted to share my progress as I won’t be home to work on it for a while. Used blue tape method that worked very well until it came down to actually milling the entire piece out. Blue tape gunked up everything when I finally got through to it. Though nothing a little sanding couldn’t get rid of. After re posting, several attempts to move the cutter down .1 mm realized I could just reset my z0 down off and outside the piece with the same contour pass since I’m still trying to work with just the offline controller.

Hi everyone, I finally finished my first aluminum part on this machine!
Really appreciate all the advice and suggestions from this community on my previous questions. This time I managed to finish it without any crashes or broken tools, and I’m honestly pretty happy with how it turned out.
I’d love to see some of your favorite aluminum projects in the comments! Also, if you have any fun ideas for what I should try making next, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks again for all the help!

Machine settings:
Material: Aluminum block
Machine: 5-axis CNC prototype
Spindle speed: 6400 RPM (roughing) / 15000 RPM (finishing)
Tools: M4 flat end mill, R0.5 ball end mill (smaller cutters are on the way!)
Feed rate: 2000 mm/min (roughing) / 1000 mm/min (finishing)
Depth of cut: 0.2 mm
Stepover: 0.2 mm

I've been building a parametric wall designer for about a year (slat walls, wave
panels, acoustic panels), and I just added something I'd wanted for a long time:
you type what you want and it sets every parameter for you.

Examples that actually work:
- \"soft ocean waves in light oak"**
- \"waves at the bottom forming a bench you can sit on"**
- \"an acoustic panel with thin vertical slats, dark wood"**

It sets dimensions, wood colour, the relief layers and their blending, slat
direction and spacing, and the acoustic perforation. Then there's a copilot mode
that edits the design you're looking at: \"deeper relief"*, *\"thinner slats"*,
*\"move the pattern to the top"** — only the thing you asked for changes, and one
click undoes it.

The part I care about most: **the AI only outputs parameters.*\* The geometry,
the nesting and the G-code are still generated by the deterministic engine that
was already there. Nothing an LLM writes ever reaches your machine file.

**What it can't do, so nobody wastes their time:*\* it composes mathematical
patterns, so it cannot draw a face, a skull, an animal or a logo. I made it say
so out loud instead of faking it — early on it would confidently claim it had
made a skull and produce circular noise, which is worse than useless. For
figurative reliefs you upload a grayscale heightmap instead, which works fine.

Everything else is unchanged: DXF/SVG for the router, STL/OBJ/STEP for 3D, and
direct GRBL/Mach3 G-code with a built-in simulator so you can watch the toolpath
before cutting.

Free, runs in the browser, no install, no account needed to try (5 AI
generations a day without an account). I'm the developer — happy to answer
anything, and genuinely interested in what breaks for you.

https://btporganizer.tech

I'm looking for a random wavy pattern much like the pics attached. Shocked I can't find something similar (or at least how hard it is to find something) that can be shared and easily used in a project.

Also looking if anyone has something similar to a naguri pattern. Also attached. I've seen a jig for doing the Naguri one by hand, but would love to be able to set it to the CNC so i don't have to manually do each pass.

huge thanks!

Hi everyone, I am using an EMCO 2-axis CNC lathe with a SINUMERIK 808D controller.

And hen I used EdgeCam to generate the code, I couldn't really understand this line of return to machine zero: G0 SUPA X0 Z0 D0. and what is the difference between it and between G0 X100 Z100 for example. I am just a student and I dont have a lot of experience, so go easy on me if its a stupid question.