Written by Jens Dyvik

Guide to the small CNC milling machines at Fellesverkstedet + parts we designed to improve the machines

• Tiny precise milling machines with a 160mm x 80mm x 15mm work area. Slow and weak, but nice for PCB milling, engraving and 3D milling small projects.
• Commonly called 1810 CNC. Many different variations are sold. We bought ours as kits on Aliexpress

How to make jobs

• V-Carve pro works well. Make sure you use the GRBL post processor when exporting.
• Bark Beetle also works well. Files with auto setting for the 1810 machines here.
• You can use almost any CAM software that can output plain g-code, like Fusion360 etc. Easel by Shapeoko is an online user friendly simple alternative.

How to control and send jobs

• Universal g-code sender works well: https://winder.github.io/ugs_website/
• Alternatively you can use any g-coder sender for GRBL
• We like to set up a macro button that homes the machine and sets the correct offsets after homing. Example in the repo here

How to fixture material

• Double sided tape works well. We like the tape dispenser type from 3M that can be bought at Jernia

Tips

• Max spindle RPM is 9200. Feedrates should be half of what you use with the same bit on a ShopBot (max 18000RPM), and pass depths should be lots shallower.
• The machines are very precise, but very weak. For precision results you almost always need to set up a finishing pass removing the last 0.05-0.1mm.