Plastic and steel coming together in MPCNC foot assembly.

The Mostly Printed CNC design allows attaching the plastic feet using either screws or glue. I chose glue. The flat surfaces lend themselves to mating parts using Superglue, also known as cyanoacrylate. Superglue works well with PLA plastic.

The picture above shows an upside-down view of the MPCNC frame, getting ready to mount on the work table. Vertical leveling can be achieved by adjusting the EMT conduit up and down within the plastic MPCNC foot assembly, and then tightening.

Each of the foot holders required a bit of light interior sanding to remove any plastic blobs so that the conduit outer diameter matched the plastic part inner diameter. Emery cloth wrapped around my finger did the job. But not too much sanding, you want a snug fit.

Small 6-32 screws are used to do a final tightening to achieve a compression fit around the conduit. At present, these screws are snug but not yet really tight. I will do the final tightening when I get to the end. This gives me a bit of flexibility in the mean time.

MPCNC Foot Assembly – A Great Design

I must say that Ryan Zellars has done an excellent job of sizing all the printed plastic parts. His STL models on Thingiverse are a thing of joy. So is the whole design, at least based on my experience so far. Ryan is a mechanical engineer from California. You can find out more about him on LinkedIn. He started this project in January 2015. “This is my CNC machine, low cost and multipurpose. I have adapted it to use things like drag knives, 3D print head, Dual 3D print heads, and even a plotter. Another person has strapped on a low cost laser and has done several runs. Inexpensive, versatile, and reconfigurable.” Then he won the Boca Bearings 2015 Innovation Competition.