Development of Desktop Multipurpose Grinding Machine for Educational Purposes

Given the growing popularity of the maker movement, it is proposed that affordable machine tools may be desirable for both teaching purposes in universities and high schools and use at home by Do It Yourself enthusiasts. For the concept to become a reality, it is necessary that the machine tool can be easily assembled and disassembled by an end-user (e.g. student or hobbyist) and can adapt to changing projects or machining requirements. In this paper the concept and initial development of such a desktop multipurpose machine tool is reported. Through the use of modular robot modules, it is demonstrated that a machine can be converted from an outer diameter grinding to freeform grinding configuration in approximately 15 minutes. The initial prototype machine will be used to demonstrate concepts such as miniaturization, multi-functionality, and re-configurability for machine tools to undergraduate and high school students.