Personal User

Many users have the Pocket NC for personal use and projects and are drawn to the Pocket NC for a number of reasons that could include its size, standard power consumption, 5-axis abilities and more. Pocket NC users Nathan and his brother are both mechanical engineers in their day jobs and decided they wanted to purchase a CNC machine to take on their growing list of projects. During school they both had access to machines, but once they moved into industry they no longer had machines available to them so they decided to invest in one of their own.

After shopping around they landed on the Pocket NC V2-10 because of its size, price and compatibility with HSMWorks, which they had previously used. While they had never machined on a 5-axis machine before, they had made plenty of 3-axis projects and found the jump from 3 to 5 wasn’t an issue.

You can tell from the modifications they’ve made to their machine that they are both mechanical engineers and they’ve provided us with some great feedback. Some of their modifications to the Pocket NC V2-10 include adding a fan to the spindle to keep it cooler and deflect chips. They added an air nozzle to assist with part cooling and chip clearing, built a homemade enclosure, and 3D printed shields for the axis rails to prevent chip build up.

They have cut a G5 titanium ring, shown below, that took about 4-5 hours of machining time.  Other projects include watch cases, small parts, wrenches and jewelry.

All photos & video courtesy of Pocket NC user Nathan.

A PDF of this case study can be downloaded here.