So, recently my brother and I have decided to build our own CNC machine. A commercial unit can be very expensive, while a home-built unit can be significantly cheaper. I’m going to keep this site up-to-date the best I can with our progress and tons of photos.

Right now we’re looking at building something around 24″ x 36″ for doing wood work and aluminum. I’m in charge of all the electronics on this project, so my first decision was to purchase the well regarded Pro kit from HobbyCNC.com. With this, I got the 3-axis controller board (kit) and 3 305-oz stepper motors, which I felt were sufficient for our project. I ordered this on June 1st, and it arrived June 4th, just 3 days! Dave over at HobbyCNC does a great job, as I’ve heard he’s done for several years now. I’m very pleased so far!

While waiting for the kit to arrive, I went ahead and picked up the 24V 10A transformer required for the power supply (pretty much the only thing not included with the electronics kit).

HobbyCNC lists a couple sources for this. The first option would cost $58! I don’t think so. Luckily, option #2 is from MPJA is about 1/3 the price, which happens to be located just down the road from me. So, I drove up and picked up my transformer for just $18!

EDIT: 2/16/2015 – Wow, talk about inflation… MPJA still has these, but the price is now up to $29.95.

EDIT: 3/23/2016 – Price for those transformers is now $35.95 on MPJA.