I have always wanted a CNC machine. My degree is in CAD and also in my day job I’m the lead product designer. So it was a given that I would eventually get a CNC router. I looked at many different options but either it wouldn’t fit my budget or there wasn’t that big of a community involved with the machine. Well that all changed when I found the MPCNC Primo(Mostly Printed CNC). This CNC router is a design from V1 Engineering. Over the next few weeks, I will be writing posts about my MPCNC Primo build.
Printing The Parts
The first step is printing the parts. And let me tell you it’s a lot of printing. I think all in all I have roughly 200 hours in printing. Also, it takes a little over two spools of filament. I made a handy Google Sheet to keep track of my prints. Once I clean it up and get the formulas working ill publish a link here. For now, here is an image to give you an idea. This allowed me to plan out my prints between my lunch breaks and starting prints before I went to bed or leaving the house.
Here is the pile of prints I’ve amassed over the past few weeks. Hopefully, I don’t have to reprint most of these parts and the dimensions are true to the models. That big yellow part that holds the router took over 35 hours to print!
V1 Engineering MPCNC Primo Build Kit
V1 Engineering sells a build kit that includes hardware and electronics. They also sell the printed parts if you don’t have a 3D printer. All in all ill have roughly $500-600 dollars in this machine that includes the V1 Engineering build kit, The metal rails, and 3d printer filament. After pricing everything I came to the decision that it fits my budget perfectly. Here is an image of the kit I received from V1 Engineering. It all came in perfect condition and everything looks of good quality. The hardware bags are even conveniently labeled. As far as I can tell V1 Engineering is a 1 or 2 person show so receiving something of this quality and organization is very impressive.
Just a quick google search can show how well this machine will cut. I mainly want to use it to cut guitar bodies or small projects I could eventually sell. I should be done printing all my parts this week. Then I will be making a quick trip to Home Depot to buy some wood to build a table that the machine will call home. In the next MPCNC Primo build post, I will be documenting my table build so stay tuned!
