CNC Circuit Mill/Understand2

Starting the Design with the Right Focus

A detachable module can rotate the milling bit.

Proper software in the electronic control system can interpret the CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) files.

How to precisely hold the thin, rectangular material and how to precisely move the rotation module in 3-dimensional space are the major initial considerations.

Holding the Material

The conventional horizontal holding mechanism involves a series of uniformly spaced holding holes on a plate at the base of the CNC Circuit Mill. At least 2 holes are precisely drilled into the material before the milling process, then the material is precisely held on the base by inserting pins into the material's holes and so into the CNC Circuit Mill's holding holes. These pins prevent the material from moving along the horizontal plane.

But the material also needs to be held down vertically because irregular bends and bulges in the material can reduce the precision of the milling operation. Reducing small vertical abnormalities is especially important for large material dimensions (which are more prone to large bending/bulging) and/or extremely fine milling operations (which require near-zero deflection of the material).

The conventional vertical holding mechanism involves a press-foot, which essentially presses down on the area around the active milling area such that wherever the milling is happening, near-perfect vertical alignment is also happening. The press-foot mechanism is typically attached to the rotation module, powered by a solenoid (converting electrical energy via electromagnetic induction into magnetic force then via a ferrous core into kinetic energy), and dampened by a pneumatic cylinder (air inside a cylinder with an adjustable leak rate acts as a adjustable spring used to slow the movement of the press-foot).