While developing Pacific Northwest Copters, I realized that it would be a necessity to cut carbon fiber sheets to create frames for the quad-copters from my own designs. Looking at the cost of CNC Mills pushed me to build and program my own CNC Mill. 

In order to interpret the G-Code being sent to it and power the stepper, I had to build and program an old desktop computer lying around. There are two power supplies: One for the stepper motors and another for the computer. The controller on the bottom is a Quad H-Bridge motor driver to interpret serial data into motor controls.

To control the movement axis, I used stepper motors for precise movement and easy control. With a combination of 3D printing and chain, I could control the threaded control rods with high accuracy and reliability.

Since the build plate was a sheet of steel I fabricated aluminum L brackets, to hold flat sheets of carbon fiber while they were being cut above the build plate, that had magnets in them so they could be moved and would hold the plate down.

With lots of 3D Printing, I fabricated a strong and highly accurate spindle mount and vertical axis to keep all dimensions in a tolerance of plus or minus one thousandth of an inch.