SheetCNC is a very large 3-axis water-cooled CNC routing/milling machine which cuts full-size plywood, MDF, plastic and foam sheets.

SheetCNC Can Machine Really Big Stuff…

The full-sheet 8′ x 4′ machine has a working area of 1.25m x 2.47m, and offers 240mm of Z-travel. That’s more than big enough for 2.5D work on standard full 8’x4′ sheets of plywood, chipboard, laminates and MDF. SheetCNC will cut these heavyweight materials up to 30mm thickness though it will, of course, require more than one pass to complete a cut-through.

There is also sufficient Z clearance for workpieces up to 100mm thick, but realistically SheetCNC will only usefully cut lightweight materials to that depth, for example rigid foam. The high-speed Z-axis also allows for occasional full 3D machining – though we really wouldn’t recommend SheetCNC if 3D work is your main intention.

 …But SheetCNC Handles The Small Stuff Too

SheetCNC was designed from the outset to be used for the big jobs: furniture cut from inch-thick 8’x4′ sheets; 3D wall plaques carved from solid timber; self-assembly camper-van kits sliced out of laminate boards.

But every big job contains small details – fastener holes, engraved labels, mortise-and-tenon joints – all of which must be cut with considerable accuracy if they are to be useful. So SheetCNC must perform all its work with great precision. To demonstrate just how accurate SheetCNC is, we asked it to make a tiny PCB using a 0.2mm dia cutter.

New: Our Half-Sheet 4′ x 4′ SheetCNC for the Smaller Shed

Our new half-sheet 4′ x 4′ machine has identical capabilities but with a reduced working length of 1265mm (4’1.8″). It requires a floor space of just 1.65m x 1.65m. There’s clearance for a full board to overhang either end and the working length allows index-pegs to be machined at the half-way mark of the board. These features mean that parts over 4′ long can be cut in two operations, if required.

SheetCNC is Hackable

Here at SheetCNC.co.uk we love creative thinking and new ideas, so we positively welcome hackers and modders. Fancy giving your SheetCNC more Z clearance? Easy: just machine the necessary parts and bolt them on. Need a wider bed? Want a fourth or even a fifth axis? No problem: everything on SheetCNC simply bolts together so it’s easy to experiment with hacking the design. And there’s no harm in trying an experimental hack: if your mod doesn’t work out then simply bolt SheetCNC back together the way it was, and go back to the drawing board.

Dust Extraction as Standard

SheetCNC has a dust extraction nozzle built-in to the head, massively reducing the nuisance of dust in the workshop. The new Tornado head is designed to vacuum up the small, fine particles while leaving the larger chippings on the bed.

Invent. Create. Improve.

Having SheetCNC in your shed means that a project can be designed, cut, tested, improved, and redesigned over and over until it is perfected. So ‘back to the drawing board’ no longer means tearing up your whole project and starting from scratch. Instead, each iteration of a project made on SheetCNC builds on the previous iteration of the project.

Installing SheetCNC frees the maker’s mind to focus on how their project is going to work rather than how it is going to be made.

Produce and Sell

When your project is complete and perfected, why stop there? SheetCNC can re-create the same project over and over and over, for minimal effort. Which means that your fun projects can become sale-able products.

Machine Specs

• Working volume – full-sheet: 1250mm x 2470mm x 120mm (4’1.2″ x 8’1.2″ x 4.7″) with 240mm (9.5″) of Z-travel.
• Working volume – half-sheet: 1250mm x 1268mm x 120mm (4’1.2″ x 4’1.8″ x 4.7″) with 240mm (9.5″) of Z-travel
• Rapids: up to 18000mm/min. (12000mm/min recommended max, unless the end-stops are reinforced.)
• Typical cutting speeds in timber sheet material using a budget 6mm carbide 1-flute: 2000mm/min to 6000mm/min at 3mm to 10mm depth-per-pass.
• Acceleration: 3000mm/min feedrate is reached from standstill in 0.16 seconds after 4mm of travel.
• Water-cooled 2.2kW spindle: 1260rpm to 24000rpm. (Spindle not supplied).
• Maximum workpiece weight/load on the bed: 100kg. (Yes, you can stand on it.)
• Maximum cutter dia: we recommend no more than 6mm (1/4″) CEL cutters for pocketing and cutting-out operations. See the note on real-world precision, below. (Larger cutters – up to 25mm dia – can be used for surfacing and reaming operations.)
• Controller theoretical resolution: typically 0.01mm to 0.02mm depending on controller setup. (Controller not supplied.)
• Typical real-world repeatability: 0.15mm. (I.e. making the same cut at the same speed in the same material.)
• Typical real-world precision: better than 0.5mm*. (I.e. compared to the specified cut.)
• Kit structure: 25mm hardwood ply frame and table, steel rails and reinforcing, 25mm MDF components and separators, ball-race runners.
• Motors: 425oz.in X/Y.
• See also: FAQs for more technical details.

*Why is the real-world precision worse than the resolution of the axes? And why are big cutters a problem? Because when a rotary tool is driven through a workpiece by a machine, everything flexes a little bit. The tool bends a little, the machine gives a little, even the workpiece flexes. This is true of all gantry-type 3-axis machines but SheetCNC – being chain-driven – inevitably has more give than an expensive leadscrew-driven or rack-driven machine. The bigger the cutter’s diameter, then the more force is needed to drive the cutter and the more deflection that causes. We find that 6mm CEL cutters hit the sweet spot: they’re long enough (and strong enough) to cut to 30+mm depth, but they’re slender enough that they don’t cause excessive deflection of the X/Y axes.

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