How 5AXISMAKER Came to Be

What a difference two axes can make.

That realization was key to the founding of 5AXISMAKER. In 2011, we started designing and making models and prototypes in London for our own projects, and then began offering a model- and prototype-making service for others.   

But we soon found limitations with existing 3-axis milling and 3D printing machines. Although you could build all kinds of models and prototypes with them, some projects with many angles and corners required time-consuming multiple setups. 

3D printers were just coming into their own at this time and the “maker” environment was just beginning to emerge.

And 5-axis milling machines were huge industrial-grade devices that were out of reach for most projects. In this time period (around 2011 and 2012), the cheapest 5-axis milling machines were around £75,000 – £200,000 (about $90,000 – $250,000 in today’s dollars) – and they often filled a room.

As a result, complicated projects on a limited budget were sometimes completed by hand instead of a machine. Because this was so time-consuming, many established model-making shops in London refused to take on the more difficult projects.

That’s when we decided to build our own.

Our Kickstarter Campaign

We didn’t set out to create a 5-axis machine that we could sell. Our initial intention was to create a tool for ourselves that we could use in our service, in order to differentiate ourselves from the other model-making shops that primarily offered 3-axis milling or printing.

We started designing and building this machine about 2012, and we were able to start using it about a year later. From 2013 to 2015, we offered 5-axis milling to our customers.

Since Maker Bot 3D printing machines had come out in 2009 as kits, customers were beginning to get a sense that do-it-yourself model making and even small manufacturing was possible. Some of them began to ask: where can I get a 5-axis milling and printing machine, like the one we used?

With this interest in a more advanced maker environment, we launched a campaign in September, 2014 on Kickstarter, looking for advance discounted orders on a first-generation 5-axis desktop machine. In about a month, we raised about £57,000 (about $74,000 in today’s money), and took the next year to complete development and ship the first batch of machines. The response from customers was so strong that we decided to make our machine into a product line.

Our 5AXISMAKER machine was – and still is – the only affordable, desktop machine that offers 5-axis milling and printing. While a couple of much smaller 5-axis milling machines have come out since we launched, ours offers the largest volume of production.

Less Cost, More Flexibility

The key reason our machine quickly found a customer base is that those two additional axes make a big difference for the more involved custom models, prototypes, parts or small products.

For instance, one use case was to mill a chair frame that had complex, Japanese-style wood joinery. In a 3-axis setup, creating the necessary joinery would require at least five different setups to get all the angles, and take two to three hours for each chair.

With a 5-axis milling machine, the joinery could be completed with one setup and in about 6 minutes. Until ours came out, that kind of efficiency and mass duplication was only available in the very large, complicated and expensive industrial machines.

Our machine offered more than a dramatic reduction in time and cost. It allowed for a new level of carefulness in getting the project just right in a way that was repeatable, while offering the ability to affordably experiment when needed.

In short, the two additional axes literally created new dimensions for how the maker community envisioned model, part and product making. We couldn’t have asked for more.