Portable MPCNC

[stevempotter]

@robertbu

I envision that engraving would be one of the main tasks for this portable MPCNC. In my experience, engraving is very sensitive to both the squareness of the machine with respect to the cutting surface, and the flatness of the stock. By cutting out the bottom and using the results on arbitrary surfaces you will reduce the rigidity of the setup, you won’t have a “spoilboard” to surface to compensate for “manufacturing defects,” and you likely will not be dressing the “stock” to assure its flatness.

In addition to my portable MPCNC, I have a lot of experience doing CNC with the Handibot, which can be sat on or screwed down onto any surface (even walls!) to carve them. I used that with tiling in VcarvePro to make some big signs, but as Robert says, any engraving or Vcarving is quite sensitive to variations in height or non-levelness. The Handibot has very good rigidity by using an
aluminum plate in its base, and having a box construction. I added some adjustable feet to my Handibot to help with the leveling.