r/CNC

LA prop maker here. I was working on a rush job last night—just needed to cut out a simple aluminum armature plate for a stop-motion puppet. The actual machining time? 15 minutes. The setup time? Almost 3 hours.

Between fighting with Fusion 360’s CAM module throwing random toolpath errors, trying to get my post-processor to talk to the machine without a USB error, and manually zeroing my workpiece because my probe decided to act up... I nearly lost my mind.

I’m used to my resin and FDM 3D printers where I just hit "slice and print." I know milling is physically more complex, but why is the software side still so archaic? Am I just using the wrong machine/software combo, or is everyone else spending 90% of their time babysitting the setup just to get 10% cutting time?

Honestly considering going back to hand-cutting and a drill press for these rush jobs.

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Retired aerospace machinist here. I'm used to dialing in Haas and Tormach mills, but now I'm looking for a setup for my garage.

For the guys who made the jump from industrial machines to the desktop space: what are the realistic limits? Give it to me straight.

I have the roland MDX 15 and the spindle size is 1/8. After doing research and asking Ai, it seems that an adapter from 1/8 to 1/4 is not recommended for safety. Knowing this, what is a good substitute or something that might work as well for a 1/8 inch shaft?

Hello, someone have a sample program for a workplace tilt hole. Simple but not getting the correct tool path. Does control know when I tell it my B is 60° and my X &Z become in mill mode and it should be programmed as so or should I give it a G-code for that to work?

I have CNC turning and milling machine workshop, bored to doing job work.

Please give me product ideas that I can make and it will get sell direct to customer market.

Hey yall I’ve been spending some time trying to understand the manufacturing / machining industry from the inside.

I don’t come from this space, so instead of guessing, Im looking into how things actually work day-to-day and where the real bottlenecks or inefficiencies tend to show up.

If you work in the industry and have insight into what’s frustrating and time-consuming, or just unnecessarily complicated, I’d really appreciate hearing your perspective.

I’m mainly trying to learn from people with real experience and get a clearer picture of how things actually run.

If you’re open to sharing, feel free to DM me ( would be great to connect)

Does anyone know where I can get backup parameters for an older Toyoda vertical mill.

I reached out to Toyoda and Fanuc and haven’t had any luck.

Need backup and PMC parameters.

I want to design a reliable desktop or a factory scale 3-axis Milling machine suitable for cutting metals. My first thought is knowing the standard parts to consider, such as ball power screws, linear rails (few days ago i didn't know these components exist). The second thought is motor selection and compatibility between the parts. Would be very thankful if you could provide resources such as Books, Tables, Websites, Videos and PDFs are also helpful. TNANKX