Build one these but using something like micro mirrors [1], esp in microgravity this could be used for mass transfer and sorting of fine powders. The powders could be parked in clumps in an electroacoustic grid potential (ultrasonic phased array).<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_micromirror_device" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_micromirror_device</a>
this is a amazing! I'm working on a flight controller and vertical stability system for a high power model rocket and it's so freaking hard. You have to be an expert fabricator, electrical engineer, controls engineer, and software engineer. You also have to have the drive and dedication to get it done. It makes the webdev I get paid to do seem so trivial.
This article is really cool structurally, beyond the content itself. What I mean is that it's formatted somewhat like a programming tutorial (build X with Y in Z minutes) except that it's perfectly readable to people like me with very little hardware background. Most of the specific implementation details are abstracted out into links. I think that this kind of writing can be very effective for technical people trying to reach a broader but still technical audience.<p>Regarding the content itself, I think it's really cool that the author made a sound-absorbing box for the CNC machine, and I'm surprised that it is safe to totally enclose the machine like that. After spending last summer working at a 3D printing company that makes metal printers, I wonder how a 3D printer would compare to the CNC mill in terms of time to create that many small parts, I imagine it would only take one print-wash-sinter cycle, under 48 hours, about 1/4 of the article's reported machine time. That said the CNC mill used was very small.
Mechanically this seems like something that could also be built out of lego (technic). Instead working with metal it seems like everything needs to be custom machined.<p>Is there a reason there aren't similar kits of metal components with regularly drilled holes and so on that can just be put together in whatever way one chooses?
"I basically ran my Benbox CNC 1310 (almost) nonstop for multiple weeks."<p>Wow. That's some serious dedication. What an excellent multi-disciplinary project, congratulations!
This needs to be an exhibit at the San Fran Exploratorium.<p><a href="https://www.exploratorium.edu/" rel="nofollow">https://www.exploratorium.edu/</a>
Why four servos instead of just three? You could still have a square surface with three, just mount to the glass underneath and maybe have a frame on the glass to provide the triangular mount points. That way each servo is truly independent, right now you only have 3 distinct degrees of freedom anyways so you've essentially made an "overdetermined system".
This is incredibly impressive.<p>My only domain knowledge for this thing is building a 3d printer from scratch, but the design and micro-manufacture of this thing, combined with the software that allows it to do what it does, is jaw dropping. Great work!
Video of the machine and Windows app: <a href="https://youtu.be/lYyAMDYzJQM" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/lYyAMDYzJQM</a>
id be curious to know more about the planetary reducers. did you just need more precision? or torque? seems like servo motors would solve the second issue.