The 3020 / 6040 CNC mill 1 day upgrade challenge

The 3020, 3040, 6040 and 6090 are low cost no-brand CNC mills that come in various 3 or 4 axis versions, but suffer from underpowered electronics and poor software.  So we’ve created the Super Gerbil controller as a high quality upgrade to the electronics and software tool chain.  For a bit of fun, we’ve challenged ourselves to upgrade one of these generic CNC milling machines in one day, which we’ll document with video and photos.

6040s for sale on eBay

How are we confident enough to go on the record for a sight-unseen one day conversion?  Our original Gerbil controller solved the same problems with the 2 axis K40 CNC laser cutter, so we’ve improved and expanded it, so the Super Gerbil now supports 5 simultaneous axes.  We’ve enhanced the grbl code to go beyond 3 axis, and you can see it at work throughout the Kickstarter video, where it’s currently for sale: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2118335444/automate-anything-with-super-gerbil-cnc-gcode-cont

From our video for Gerbil upgrade instructions

We’ve chosen 17th Nov 2018 as our one-day upgrade for a cheap 3020 4 axis machine as the target… we aim to unbox the original, fit out the Super Gerbil and demonstrate a 4 axis cut, all on the same day !  Stay tuned to see how we go !

Keywords: 3020, 3040, 6040, 6090 CNC, upgrade

 

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