Hobbyist CNC Router
In my Mechanical Engineering Design (MIE243) class, my team was instructed to research, design, and CAD a hobbyist-level CNC router. This project aimed to challenge our 3D Solidworks skills, creating a design that could potentially function in the real world.
Design
When researching CNC routers on the market, we considered what designs lacked in the setting we were designing for. At a hobbyist level, we expect the router to be in a garage or stored away, but potentially in reach of children or in the way of unforeseen hazards. The user may also need to store the router in a compact space, With this in mind, my candidate design mirrored a foldable table, with height out of reach of young children, and multiple safety features like a kill switch and an inserted key to use.
Final Design
After further analysis on mechanisms for movement and feasibility, our final design consists of more steady legs and rack and pinion movement for XYZ axis motion. I specifically worked on the Y and Z axis motion (gantry and up/down), outsourcing a router and software while combining it with our custom design.
Notes
This project was a new challenge to me. I learned that while it is simple to learn about individual mechanisms and their function, the real challenge is getting multiple systems to work together and having an intuition about how they affect each other. Before this project and the gearbox, my previous work consisted of only Blender, an artistic version of Solidworks with a lot more freedom. Working on this CAD helped me hone new CAD skills that are more applicable to hardware engineering and increased my passion for design as a career.
