The machine is a Fireballcnc.com machine that I have nicknamed "Red Bull" because of the red paint. It is a moving table machine made from MDF, linear shafting and bearings, and a composite plastic Z axis. Linear movement is done by means of precision 3/8 x 12 ACME threaded rod. Two axis are driven by single stack Nema 23 motors, one being a Kelinginc KL23H51-24-8B, the other a Vexta PK266. I had the Vexta on hand, and is vitually idententical to the Kelinginc. The X axis has a Nema 23 double stack, again another motor I had on hand. If I were to buy all new motors I'd but three of the KL23H51's, they power the machine quite nicely.

Key to the machine is the spindle from Paul Jones at cnconabudget.com. To do fine trace pcb's you need a spindle that has none or an extremely low amount or runout. Dremel tools or similar are frequently used or tried to be used for milling pcb's and will work, but don't expect to acheive precision with them.

The stepper driver is a Halo 3 axis board from PMinMO.com set to quarter step. It is powered by a simple linear power supply running at 40VDC. Spindle control is via a 120 VAC Solid State Relay controled through Halo.

There are no modifications to the machine as delivered from Fireballcnc. I've simply added a piece of 3/8" aluminum tooling plate I bought from EBAY for twenty something dollars, and made an adapter to mate the Paul Jones spindle to the Fireballcnc Z axis.