Mule CNC 1.0

#Introduction

Mule CNC is CNC milling machine made with 3D printed parts.

CNC machined parts are very useful to build CNC but they are difficult to get. So I decided to try 3D printed parts. With 3D printer, we can make complex and precise mechanical parts easily.

Currently I built 1st design (Mule CNC 1.0) but found several problems. It can mill MDF board, but feed rate have to be limited slow (around 600mm/min). Improvement is required to solve these problems, but it will take some time. So I decided share current design for reference purpose.

##Design

Mule CNC is belt-driven, 3 axis CNC mill, controlled by TinyG motion controller. It is designed like a RepRap. The structure is combination of 3D printed parts and extruded aluminum frames.

All 3D printed parts are made by Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer with PLA filament. Layer height is 0.3mm and infill is 50% except Y Axis Frames which infill is 25%.

It use 100W brushless DC high speed motor as spindle, 2 NE