electrical engineer retiring in a couple of months

[rob davies]

Just to hi all, I am an electrical engineer who is retiring in a couple of months and love working with wood, I developed a small wood workshop over the years and decided to build a CNC router, the electrics, electronics and IT stuff is no problem for me but where I need information is the complex fabrication and have read many of your posts with great interest, you do have some clever people on here, although I may not post straight away as my construction is some months away I will probably need to ask questions up until then.

Regards

Rob:eagerness:

[njhussey]

Welcome to the forum Rob, there's lots of useful information and people on here. Have a look through the builds, decide what you want to cut, how big you actually need it (we'd all like to cut 8' x 4' sheets) and then post up a design for all to look at and comment on. Most importantly don't buy anything, especially electronics, until your design is finished. Good luck...

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[Neale]

Rob, you are starting from a good place. Many people on this forum build great mechanical bits, but struggle with the electrickery - there are a lot of intricate little details that have to be right, software properly configured, etc. I reckon it's easier to pick up the mechanical skills than the other way around. There's plenty of help on all aspects here, but it's easier if you start with an insight into the wiggly amps! Good luck.

[njhussey]

Rob, you are starting from a good place. Many people on this forum build great mechanical bits, but struggle with the electrickery - there are a lot of intricate little details that have to be right, software properly configured, etc. I reckon it's easier to pick up the mechanical skills than the other way around. There's plenty of help on all aspects here, but it's easier if you start with an insight into the wiggly amps! Good luck.
Amen to that....give me a spanner over a screwdriver anyday....😁

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[Colin Barron]

Work out how much space you wish to use and look at old machines of that size, then find one which needs a rebuild. A rebuild is much easier than starting from scratch and more likely to give a usefiul accurate machine.

[Neale]

That might well be true with vertical mills, but is it also true with routers? My impression is that commercially there is a big jump from the cheap Chinese machines to the much larger/heavier commercial machines, so not as much choice for the home user. On the other hand, there is a bigger turnover of ex-industrial/college/school mills ripe for conversion. Not saying you're wrong, just curious.

[Colin Barron]

What you say is true of milling machines and lathes. Small light machines are expensive compared to larger better quality machines. The downside of the school machines is they can only make small parts. There are some small industrial machines but as you say few and far between. Have a look on Gumtree and machinery auctions/ dealers. The electrical retrofit gear from China is as cheap as chips but read through the forum at other peoples posts to find out what is good.

[Colin Barron]

Machines on this forum. http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/classifieds/view_ad.asp?ad=13119