I'm finally getting around to learning how to use the Pocket NC, a 5 axis CNC machine. It's been sitting for nearly three years without use and has gathered quite a bit of dust.
Pocket NC started out as a Kickstarter in 2016 and exceeded its goal after an hour of putting it up. Until now there really weren't any affordable desktop 5 axis machines on the market. 5 Axis CNC machines allow you to machine in 5 different angles, this allows you to create some very complex objects with ease.
Before starting in on the machine I looked up a bunch of tutorials and as much information as I could online. Even Winston Moy made a video on it, though it was their newer model and quite a few things changed.One of the downsides to this machine is you have to manually load in and set the tools, with the new model they have a touch probe to set the height perfectly. With this version, you have to measure how far out the tool comes from the holder and then enter that into an equation to input into the user interface. The good thing about this is if you've got collars on the endmills it makes swapping the tools very easy and uses a numbering system to pick the necessary tooling.
Starting out I'm working on just doing some simple 3+2 axis projects. The difference between the 3+2 vs 5-axis is the former is where the bit comes straight in from one side and mills the operation and then the entire stock rotates for other following operations. Essentially it's just a 3 axis machine that rotates to get different angles. 5-axis milling is where it uses an assortment of angles to achieve different patterns and allows you to make some pretty complex parts.
As you can probably imagine the 5-axis machining is much more complicated and requires a lot more work. So, for the time being, I'm going to focus on 3+2 milling, then move over to simultaneous 5-axis work.
I'm primarily using a tutorial by Xander Luciano on YouTube for the beginning of my learning.