Fabrication and Development of Portable 3-Axis Computer Numerical Control Machine

Machining is a prerequisite fundamental process of manufacturing without which no production can be deemed possible. Conventional machining methods were tedious, costly, timeand space consuming,as well as inefficient. With development of computer and numerical control, modern day machining devices have been developed which have made the process a smooth ride. The machining processes are now controllable with the finest accuracies and save time and cost. CNC machines have been the most useful developments that have contributed to the modern day machining task. Computed Numerical Control has thus been our inspiration. This lead us to conceiving and fabricating a 3-axis CNC machine that is designed as a router but could perform several operations such as drilling, cutting, printing, milling etc. on attachment of different tools.The machine has a main driving mechanical subsystem that drives the tool through lead screws attached to motors that are driven by a microcontroller that is under our control through a computer. Any design can be drawn and fed to the Arduino microcontroller from across the world through a Java applet and the machining proceeds by calculating the coordinates of the three axes and the relative movement between the points whose combination is actually the design. The process is thus very accurate and versatile. The fabrication has been achieved by using simple and cheap materialsand done in the mechanical workshop located inside the campus