CNC Machine - Foothill Engineering Club
The team designed and built a 3-axis 3ft by 4ft CNC machine
Timeline
Sept 2025 - Feb 2026
Tools & Software
Onshape, Fabrication
Engineering Focus
Mechanical Design & Manufacturing
Project Overview & Objectives
As part of the Foothill Engineering club, I briefly participated in the CNC project team. The main objective was to build a big and functional CNC machine for other clubs and organizations to use on campus.
We had a moving gantry system that allowed for the spindle motor to position itself in the working area. The gantry would travel along the y-axis, while a separate carriage would move along the x-axis, and we also had a separate vertical mechanism to control the z-axis. For the gantry, we used stepper motors to drive the ballscrews, converting rotational motion into linear movement. We had linear guide rails and bearing blocks to support and align the movement. Finally, we had a 2.2kw water cooled spindle motor (that was mounted on the z-axis), which allowed for the material to be removed.
My contributions
One of my contributions to this project was researching and designing the mounts for the igus chain on the z-axis. An igus chain is a plastic chain that ensures the wires going to the spindle motor from the control module won't tangle with all the axis movements. The brackets itself were simple in geometry. The harder part was deciding the optimal position where to mount the chain, so that it sits flush and doesn't have long plastic brackets (short = better).
I was also in charge of modeling varies parts into our Onshape assembly, such as the bearing blocks and pillow blocks. I also checked the accuracy of various parts already in the Onshape assembly, adjusting to the proper dimensions as necessary.
