Tabletop CNC Mill

Let's Make Robots Project Ideas
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chess_set_00.jpg
chess_set_00.jpg1600×1200 699 KB

Hey guys. Thanks for your help!

I’d like to prototype and maybe eventually manufacture a chess set similar to the one in this photo. I designed the chess set myself and have the 3d models. What would be an appropriate CNC mill for my goals?

The max piece size is 1.5 inches cubed. I’d like to make them out of wood or hard plastic. For hard plastic, I’d probably ask a manufacturing warehouse to injection mold the sets. But I could mill a few hard plastic prototypes on a CNC mill.

Can someone give me a rough estimate of how much time it takes to mill a chess set, similar to the photo, on a CNC Mill? I need to decide if it’s better to produce this over seas or if I can do it myself in a garage. Thanks for your help!

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Most of those parts don’t look like they need much machining - the pawns are all solid blocks of wood and can be cut from a long length of the right cross-section. The difficult ones seem to be the king, queen, bishop and knight. The knight looks like it can be made from two L-shapes, while the king and queen can be made out of two parts. The bishop looks like a milled cross-section. Time-wise all depends on the machine you use and the precision / finish you want.