IndyMill - Open Source DIY CNC Machine #4 Final Test! 

Thank you very much for following me on this journey! Thanks for the support, all the comments and tips :) I know there will be a lot of questions about things that I did not cover in this video so here you have the answers: 0. Check out my store if you want to buy parts for this project: indystry.cc/store/ 1. Price! An obvious question, how much did it all cost? You can easily build exactly the same machine as mine for less than $1000. It all depends on where you source the parts and most importantly how much you paid for steel plates (more on that in point number 2). Is it a lot? I don’t think so, especially when you compare it to other commercial options available. Something that I also didn’t mention in the video is that you can actually start with a less expensive setup that is easy to upgrade later (you can easily attach Nema 23 or Nema 17 to X and Y axis, there are mounts for both motors combined in every plate except Z axis, if you use Nema17 you can go with GRBL shield and smaller stepper motor drivers, smaller power supply and so on). You can even start with trapezoidal lead screws on each axis and later upgrade to much more expensive ball screws. You can easily save about $200 dollars that way and have a rigid, upgradable machine! 2. IndyMill plates for sale! But not yet. I got my first prototype of those plates, cut out of 6 mm steel with powder coating just a few days ago. I already know that 6 mm is more than strong enough for such CNC, but I have to go through some more testing, experiment with the final color, pricing, shipping, and safe packing. No worries, it is close to being finished and I will let you know once those are ready to buy through the newsletter (you can sign up at indystry.cc) and maybe I will make a video about the small-batch production process. Sounds cool? 3. I ordered more IndyShields and hopefully, you should be able to buy them again on Tindie next week. 4. How about another IndyMill test video? I want to mill some more things and show you what this machine is capable of. And of course, it will be just fun to mill some more things :) Any ideas on what to mill? 5. Working area is about 520x400x115mm That’s it I think. If you have any more questions feel free to ask, I read every single comment. Thanks again for everything, don’t forget to check out indystry.cc and IndyMill build instruction!

Great work! Just a hint: when milling wood, specially pinus, you can greatly reduce the necessity of post processing by simply performing a single last pass on the reverse direction of cut. Just clone your path and set it to cut in the opposite direction. Maybe it may be useful for you.

You're amazing man, please never stop sharing your pasion! I'll start designing my CNC and your project is truly inspiring.

Before I mill acrylic, I put it in the freezer to get it cold. The smaller bit don't clog up so much. Glad to see you're enjoying your cnc.

Stunning machine, and as always, excellent video. I believe the following will improve your aluminium cuts: 1) Use an air blast to clear chips from the cut. The blobs that weld to the end of your cutter are chips from previous cuts that melt during repeated re-cuts. A chip that is no longer there is a chip that cannot melt onto your cutter! A simple fence made from box-cardboard, or thin MDF can stop almost all of the chips from messing up the whole workshop! 2) Use 6061 or similar "free-cutting" grade of aluminium. The hardware store grade alloys are formulated to be extruded through a die, and this also makes them stick to your cutter. 3) If you have to use material that sticks to your cutter, a "fog buster" lube system may be the answer, but it does add more mess, smells, damage, etc to your operation. Can't wait for your next project... thanks so much!

This is so exciting to see. Great job, Nikodem!

You're my hero, I always wanted to create a CNC machine with a decent work volume. May you be generously blessed in life!

When milling aluminum I would highly recommend using cutting oil as well as forced air. You will notice that cutting not only goes a lot easier, but the finish is also so much better!

Wow! When I saw this project and u genuinely share it I find it myself that I'm amaze with what u are going, enjoying journey with your building project, incorporate what's in your head,creating a system, building,had a lot of test for finding what's the best approach to happen the results u wanted 😊😊😊 More power and more amazing project you will MAKE! Happy making!

What an incredible random thing to pop up in my rec feed, subbed.

Your video came up in my news feed for some reason so I pushed play. Proper talent. Nice construction . I’m going to watch all of your previous videos now. Great to see up and coming engineers starting out. You’re definitely going places buddy.

Great work!! Im a CNC Machinist and CNC tool and cutter grinder. One piece of advice is with to use 2 flute endmills for your aluminum work and use drills for entry point into workpiece, also slow way down milling through inside corners. when your mill is engaged on a larger percent of its diameter its gonna bind and break with little torque behind it.

Your mill looks really well made. I have long wanted to get into CNC milling and I am intending to build my own. But seeing this it looks exactly the sort of thing I was intending to build. I just have to find the time now. Thanks for sharing.

Great video! It looks like, in the high speed of aluminum, you were getting a lot of flex in your spindle. If you raise the spindle so the spindle mount is closer to the collet it will increase rigidity. There's a lot of leverage right now between the mount and the tip of the bit. Your smaller bits won't break as easily if you shorten that distance.

Awesome job. I've been watching this project for a while and the results look fantastic. As soon as I can find a space in the workshop I'll be getting one!

gg man very nice job i was waiting for that for a long time i cant wait for the other testing videos.

I follow your videos and projects with great interesting. I like as you explain them and your passion is tangible. Never stop believing!!!

Ten kanał i projekty które robisz to chyba jedna z najlepszych rzeczy jakie znalazłem na RU-vid. Mega szacunek. Studiujesz budowę maszyn/mechatronikę?

Dear Nikodem you have to be proud of your inventive and capability to make such a nice milling machine. :-)

Good job Nikodem! I cant wait until all of ordered parts will come to me and also build one :)! Thank you

You're an Awesome young man! I wish you the best!!!

Hi Nikodem, I really enjoyed your videos. I even bought my own 3d printer and started building my own CNC Dremel machine. When that's finished I am definitely also going to try to create the indymill project. I already ordered your IndyShield boards. I would really be interested in the steal plates as well. Hope you can make a some money by selling these parts. You definitely deserve some payment for al the great work you have been doing. It's also very nice to see you working together with you dad sometimes. He must be so proud of your achievements! Keep up the great work!

CONGRATULATIONS FROM SPAIN!! I have a similar machine like yours and it's incredible :)

Great job big hand from Egypt for you nice work pro hope you get better ideas everyday

kawał dobrej roboty ziomek! sam kiedyś mam zamiar sprawić sobie takie cacko i twoje filmiki się na pewno przydadzą. Poza tym to robisz kawał dobrej roboty jeżeli chodzi o video - serio jest zajebista jakość i montaż jak na taki mały kanał - rób takie filmiki dalej a daleko zajdziesz :D pozdro!

Great work man, I found your channel thanks to this project and it's great to see if finally working! Congrats

Hey Nikodem, I love your CNC vieos and you actually inspired me to build my own dremel CNC. I don´t have a 3d printer, so I built mine from scrapwood after creating a 3d model in fusion and it works great :D I am currently working on making it better by using parts I mill myself from wood and I hope you could do something similar with your machines (just maybe with aluminium). Thank you for giving me this awesome Idea and for all those nice videos and greetings from Germany

This is amazing, you just inspired me to build a CNC machine myself.

WWWOOOOOOOWW! Congratulations, great video, so nice to see a project like this workout. And your milling aluminum too, that's fantastic, thank you.

Can't wait to build this!

You are my role model started my own cnc project because of you :)

Great work. Thanks for sharing files.

Awesome build,,hoping i can build this type of cnc in the future

I really enjoyed your little series on building the Indymill. Keep on making good content. I would have built a bigger z-axis and grbl mega 5x, so that you can add a 4th and even 5th axis.

Respect, well done. Thank you for sharing your amazing design.

Hi Nikodem, It's awesome to finally see everything working together smoothly. How about you mill some double sided PCB? I think that will outline nicely the machine's precision!

brawo Nikodem ! naprawdę ładny projekt !

Great job Niko!💪🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

In your video it looks like, that you put your ER11 collet in to the spindel befor puting it in to the nut. Thats not how you should install an ER collet. You should put your collet in to the Nut befor putting it in the spindel. When you look in to your Nut you schould see an oval, behind that is a shampfer. You press your collet in to your nut. If you tourn your nut upsidedown and your collet dosent fal out. You did it right. After that you can install your tool.

tremendo trabajo, te sigo desde el que hiciste a partir de un 3018 impreso en 3d, mucho tiempo ha pasado, pero culminar con un aparato tan completo como este , le haz invertido mucho de tu vida, mi respeto y saludos desde mexico cdmx.

Awesome work! Thank you.

Nice build. The next tool I'm adding to my shop will be a cnc router. I have been debating building or buying one. I might just build one of these! Good Work!

I Will try to add endstop switches when I build mine soon :) Its really useful when you are using multiple bits

your series is the best diy series in the world ;)

Very nice video, very clear! that provides extra inspiration.

Respect man ... very nice work, nice presentation and I like your talkings ... thumbs up!!!

That's awesome.. well done dude 👏💪

Beautiful job!

Really nice work!!!

You did great work !

Awsome machine. Great to also see it milling metals! I have found that milling metals is a whole other game compaired to woods and plastics.

Wow!!! I love it!!!

This gives me some fantastic ideas.

Really cool project!

Lovely work there. Would love to have seen an upgrade to this project using 4080 C-Beam. I think that would take Indy to the next level of machining and rigidity. Good on you on setting up your store. You have a new sub.

Great job!

great build, im thinking of 3d printing the plates and then upgrading to aluminum parts that the 3d printed version will probably be able to manufacture

Great video man!

Great video, hope 2 see more

hermano muchas gracias!! Saludos desde mexico! You are amazing!

Great work men

Your machine looks amazing. I would like to see your CNC machining other polymers, like nylon for example.

Merci pour vos vidéos de très bonne qualité.Tout paraît si facile avec vous..... même si je ne comprend pas tout car mon Anglais est limité ; je vais toujours au bout car les images suffisent .Merci beaucoup d'épauler nos rêves et d'instruire nos projets.

I'm a mechanical engineering student in Australia and I appreciate your videos, you're an inspiration!

mis sinceras felicitaciones, congratulaitions, is the beginning I wish you success friend Ruben D Gutierrez Miami, Fl

That`s amazing! I really want to do this! Hi from Russia

Works a treat! Gratulacje. :)

Awesome!

Great video, though one tip... the collet. Put it in the ring/nut first (at an angle, then press it straight, it should *click* in there), and then put it in the spindle. If you power the ring/nut on it with brute force sooner or later you're gonna break something....

great work you helped me a lot

Nice cuts on the acrylic. Looks almost as good as laser cut.

Awesome. Look for down cut endmills, they can help with surface engraving. Wood should get less hairy.

Bravo. Super travail. Merci pour le partage.

A máquina ficou linda, parabéns.

I usually dab Castrol stick wax on the cutter while its running, to help keep aluminum from sticking or melting into the flutes, also using air to keep the chips from jamming up the cutter. Wd40 helps in a pinch when doing short runs.

Nice project and channel and remember this u have a bright future on what u doing. + u can make a near holder for the laptop just like big machiens

Parabéns, belo trabalho. Somos do Brasil. Abraço

Well done Nikodem! It's been a fantastic project. End result is very good. I will be looking to make an IndiMill.

Eres un GRANDE!!! Me quito el sombrero.

great job

it's beautiful man

Amazing project

Congratulations for the great project! I've been thinking about making my own 3D printer with a specific goal, that maybe with the IndyMill I might reach. Do you think it is possible to create PCB boards using it? Maybe buying copper-silked boards and using the CNC to drill the copper, leaving in the board only the vias of the final circuit? That would be awesome!

Good job!

I would suggest trying conventional milling when working with wood. I know it's counter-intuitive, because climb milling usually gives better surface finish. But that's when working with metals. With wood it is the opposite.

Great job! You need a dust boot and a box to contain chips and dust.

You are Awesome! The world thanks You!

Very nice work man!!! Just one remark for the video, that trumpet noise is so far I know from Dutch WW2 remembrance day.. ;)

Awesome project, I'm either going to build a Dremel CNC or an IndyMill for sure. It's nice to see you're benefiting from trying different cutters. Watching your earliest Dremel videos I was thinking your machine would benefit a lot from using cutters more suitable for the individual materials. Especially aluminium, which is "sticky", as you found yourself at 9:20 . A bit of oil or WD40 would work wonders.

Szacuneczek!

Oh, very good, Thanks

I saw this guy cut acrylic with an electric saw and cooled it with a bottle of water with a hole in the lid and squirted it on the cut. Still looked superb, well done 🙃

Great series, What modifications do you think would be required to use this for laser engraving also?

When changing collets always fit the collet to the nut first, the way you did it inserting the collet into the machine then the nut afterwards can distort the collet and the bit will not sit right, inserting the collet into the nut first you will feel it clip in when presented about 45 degrees and then straighten it up you will find it seats right and get much less runout in the bit.

That last aluminum cut was impressive, wow. I don't trust my workbee cnc to do it that clean.

Awesome work, Nikodem! Have you considered selling the IndyMill as a kit (or maybe even pre-assembled)? I think lots of makers might want to use an open-source CNC like this in their workshops. Selling the machine could be a way to get some return on the investment (both time and money-wise) you made on developing this project.

Dobra robota Nikodem, naprawdę dobra . Pozdrawiam 👍

Bravo Niko! And thank for sharing your work to the community for free. A lot of work. Congratulations !!

Because you are so kind to share your ideas, here is mine. Make a version of this that is VERTICALLY orientated and can be mounted on a wall (onto a wooden backplate). This has a few benefits: 1. It will save space; 2. It can be larger in size or can be placed on top of a workspace/piece; 3. All dirt produced falls down by law of gravity and can be easily collected and nicer cuts because of clean surface; 4. (Large) plates can be easily mounted vertically; 5. A wall is very solid support structure; 6. You can use a simple curtain to keep away the dirt from spreading into environment when operating. What do you think about this? I think you doesn't have to change much because the head already has a great solid design (wormgear) to be able to go up and down instead of going forward and backwards. Let me know what you think.

Is there a cad file of the cnc that I can work on? I'm looking to implement a few mods before starting to build.