As promised, I've took few photos and videos of CNC machine

It's nothing nothing spectacular as per "eye candy", as it is only "planning" some wood... The main interesting thing about it, is that it shows progress in milling precision. Basically, after every major upgrade, I do "planning" of single wood plate, and later, measure - via micrometer - how precise it is, compared to theoretical precision possible using this driver and LinuxCNC software.

As seen on video, theoretical precision is 0.0001 millimeter. Precision in practice, hoever, was more like 0.05 mm. It wasn't very good, for purpose of our project.

Fortunately, thanks to absolutely awesome support of Maemo users, I was able to modify machine with better parts and upgrade design. Especially, I've just got enormous fund injection from Mentalist Traceur - we've made some nice agreement, that concluded in him basically financing purchase of premium quality, linux compatible CNC driver board (made by one awesome CNC DIY engineer) and all parts required to benefit from it's first class specification.

Thanks to this, + awesome people that either pre-ordered or donated (many times amounts, that I would never expect, making me want to work on this even much harder, to properly "exploit" this support ASAP, for project's benefit), I was able to boost actual precision to 0.005 mm now. After arrival and integration of other parts that I've ordered, I expect as good results as 0.001 mm.

This final number is absolutely sufficient precision, for milling thing like body replacement, without risk of defective units - it also allow to properly fight (mentioned earlier) aluminum volume changes due to temperature (via "finishing" passes, that need to be very precise).

Finally, why only wood is milled on those photos? First, it allows to cut costs on material used for tuning tests, second - due to negligible thermal volume change, is one of best materials for measuring and confirming precision (via micrometer). After arrival of other parts and final assembly (+ confirming, on wood, that everything is OK), I'll go back to testing on metal, and finally, to milling prototypes





Videos:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs6...xcnc-diy-cnc-1
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs6...xcnc-diy-cnc-2

Huge thanks again, for every pre-order and any donation!

/Estel