CNC Mill Retrofit

I’m working on restoring an old custom CNC mill built by a friend while he was working at Volkswagen over 20 years ago.

I’ve removed the old electronics (except the motor driver, which still works), and installed the PiBot FluidNC ESP32 GRBL Laser CNC Controller V4.96 Pro after I had trouble with a normal ESP32 module.

The new stepper drivers are DM556. I plan to add limit switches and an enclosure for the electronics. I’ve ordered a 48V power supply because the stepper motors are currently struggling with only 24V.

The firmware is FluidNC, a free and open-source software that is popular for DIY CNC machines.

This machine has a very solid build and a high-speed spindle, and I hope to get it running well so that I can do some metal machining.