Moteino controlled CNC mills Stencil8 tooling block!

If you’re wondering why the blog is so inactive lately it’s because there’s lots going on at Low Power Lab, and so not much time for blogging unfortunately.

But among other cool things, I wanted to show a side project that I’ve had implemented with the help of a friend who has a CNC. I wanted to try a tooling block for the Stencil8 system for PCB-stencil alignment and paste application. Having this type of tooling block makes it easy when you get a new stencil.

Instead of just getting myself a tooling block made I got a whole lot more. I never thought a Moteino could run GRBL and actually control the CNC, but it turns out it can!
So the first attempt is a Stencil8 tooling block (really .. just a NxNcm grid of 2.5mm holes with top chamfers), made of MDF. You can get yourself an ALuminumĀ one from here, but I thought I’d try MDF since it should work fine in most conditions. Yeah, I know AL is much more dimensionally stable with temperature/humidity changes, but it’s dry and cool in my shop. Milling ALĀ takes much longer and is messier.
The exciting news is that Moteino is powerful enough to run GRBL and control a CNC:

Check out the video below for some CNC action, milling Low Power Lab in MDF:

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