Aluminum robotic arm manufactured with NestWorks C500

Robotics

Build Your Robot in Aluminum

Building Precision Robotic Components In-House with C500. NestWorks C500 machined key aluminum robotic arm components, enabling rapid in-house development, assembly validation, and CNC workpiece handling in a compact desktop workflow.

Building a Robotic System Without Relying on External Machining

Robotic development often requires multiple rounds of design changes, component adjustments, and physical validation. Traditional outsourcing workflows can slow down this process by separating design, manufacturing, and testing.

In this project, NestWorks used the C500 desktop CNC to manufacture the main aluminum structural components of a robotic arm in-house. After machining and assembly, the robotic arm was integrated back into the C500 workflow to perform automated loading and unloading tasks, creating a complete desktop manufacturing loop.

Key Specs

650 g

Robot Payload

340 mm

Working Radius

±0.1 mm

Repeatability

6061 Aluminum Alloy

Material

Automation System

NestWorks C500 Machining Multiple Parts to Assemble a Robotic Arm

Robotic arm integrated with C500 automation

Challenges & Solution

Challenges

Maintaining Precision Across Complex Robotic Structures

Unlike a single machined component, a robotic arm consists of multiple interconnected parts that must work together as a complete motion system.

The project required consistent accuracy across different aluminum components, including multi-sided features, mounting surfaces, threaded holes, curved structures, and deep machining areas. Maintaining positional accuracy through multiple setups and ensuring every component could assemble correctly were the key engineering challenges.

Solution

A Complete In-House Manufacturing Workflow for Robotic Development

Using NestWorks C500, the entire manufacturing process was completed internally, from CAM programming and fixture preparation to precision machining and assembly validation.

Different machining strategies were combined according to each component’s geometry, including multi-tool machining, custom fixture positioning, flipping operations, and side feature machining. This approach allowed complex aluminum robotic structures to be manufactured, assembled, and tested within a single desktop CNC workflow.

How We Machined the Robotic Arm Structure

The robotic arm components were manufactured from aluminum blanks using NestWorks C500. Because each structural part required different machining operations, the process combined rough machining, precision finishing, curved surface machining, and thread manufacturing.

One Tooling Strategy for Complex Robotic Structures

D6 Flat End Mill: Rough material removal
D4 / D3 / D2 End Mills: Detail contours and small features
R1 / R1.5 Ball Nose Mills: Curved surface finishing
Chamfer Tool: Edge finishing
M3 / M5 Thread Mills: Assembly thread machining

Reduce the Gap Between Design Changes and Functional Testing

By bringing precision machining closer to the development environment, engineers can shorten the cycle between design updates, manufacturing, assembly, and validation.