#3018CNC
#Fusion360
#DIYCNCMill
#Tutorials
I just bought my first CNC machine from eBay. It’s an used 3018 wood carving machine (small and light duty). The machine came to me per-assembled but I needed to do a lot of tightening. Almost all the bolts were loosed. My first test run with a 2D smiley face using Easel from Inventables as G-code generator was successful. The thing I was most interested about was 3D carving. That’s why I had to use AutoDesk Fusion 360 to generate the tooth-paths and G-code for a simple design of 3D smiley face. Fusion 360 is pretty easy to use and free for hobbyist and definitely has 3D capabilities. The 3D carving test were also successful.
To conclude: this machine did OK job for beginners who wanted to learn CAM but not for heavy duty uses or aluminum milling as advertised. The linear sliding shaft are somewhat flimsy and won’t be able to mill aluminum correctly. But it did a fine job with wood.
My recommendation is that if you had some more money, get a better machine to have a peace of mind about the hardware. This machine needed a lot of work and tweaking.
I’ll us this machine to carve some wooden parts for my next project: building a bigger and more sturdy CNC machine for Aluminum milling
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