New Member Introduction

[Hulksmash]

Hi everyone.

I'm in my forties, ex comparative strongman and now retired (injury)

Im totally new to cnc but have been researching for a good while and now started to design something on fusion360. (Self taught)

I work full time etc so this is purely a hobby and I have limited funds.

I am interested mainly in metal work, woodwork and anything mechanical really, but also enjoy cooking, especially meat curing, drying etc. I even make my own salami from time to time.

I dont have any mills or lathes yet, just a bandsaw and a pillar drill. Mainly I have welding equipment and every hand tool imaginable, haha

My weakness is electronics.... so hoping for some help in that area when I get round to it :-)

Anyway thats about it...

Hope to speak soon

Mike

[Clive S]

Hi Mike and welcome to the forum. I have read your other post and see you are looking to build a machine.
The usual advice is to say not to buy anything until you have a design done in cad fusion360 is good for this and free for hobby use. It does take some time to learn it but it has cam built in as well.

Have a read through some of the build logs to get ideas and don't worry about copying other people's designs.

When you are ready start a build log to keep all the questions in one place. Good luck with the build.

[Hulksmash]

Thanks Clive.

I use fusion360 but I'm really new to it. I have a design in process using some of the aluminium extrusion however after reading and looking at some of the other machines I think I am gonna have to change the design and go linear rail instead instead of the v slot type wheels, and maybe use steal box section over aluminium...

Decisions decisions...

Regards

Mike

[RobC]

Welcome Mike, I built my machine without doing any drawings just rough sketches. I used a pillar drill and a set of calipers, it was fairly accurate but not totally(current tollerance of under 0.5mm). Avoid steel plate where you can and indeed linear rail or hiwin rail if you can afford them! Aluminium plate and extrusion will be your friend, trust me I've rebuilt a lot of mine from steel plate.

Rob

[Hulksmash]

Welcome Mike, I built my machine without doing any drawings just rough sketches. I used a pillar drill and a set of calipers, it was fairly accurate but not totally(current tollerance of under 0.5mm). Avoid steel plate where you can and indeed linear rail or hiwin rail if you can afford them! Aluminium plate and extrusion will be your friend, trust me I've rebuilt a lot of mine from steel plate.

Rob

Thanks Rob.

Do you suggest I avoid steel plate completely ? What about steel box section ?

Or just stick with aluminium plate and extrusion. ?

Mike

[Neale]

Aluminum or steel box - your choice! My machine is all steel box section, welded, including the gantry (which is relatively uncommon). I also used a fair bit of 20mm aluminum plate for brackets, mounting plates, etc. I wrote it up - have a look at "AVOR (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/11617-AVOR-–-a-steel-framed-medium-size-router?highlight=Avor)". However, many excellent machines have been built from aluminum extrusion. My choice was influenced by having a MIG welder and small angle grinder. The thing that would have helped was a decent saw for accurate cutting; a hand-held angle grinder is not really good enough. Same goes for using extrusion, which arguably needs even more accurate cutting - an angle grinder and welder can create and recover from a surprising number of small errors (don't ask me how I know...)

[Hulksmash]

Aluminum or steel box - your choice! My machine is all steel box section, welded, including the gantry (which is relatively uncommon). I also used a fair bit of 20mm aluminum plate for brackets, mounting plates, etc. I wrote it up - have a look at "AVOR (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/11617-AVOR-–-a-steel-framed-medium-size-router?highlight=Avor)". However, many excellent machines have been built from aluminum extrusion. My choice was influenced by having a MIG welder and small angle grinder. The thing that would have helped was a decent saw for accurate cutting; a hand-held angle grinder is not really good enough. Same goes for using extrusion, which arguably needs even more accurate cutting - an angle grinder and welder can create and recover from a surprising number of small errors (don't ask me how I know...)

Thanks Neale,

That has definitely convinced me to use steel as I too weld.

Your design is great too, do you have the measurements or the cad file for the final design, its just I would like to know what the distance was from tool tip / bottom of z Axis to work piece. Also the sizes of the Z and various other sizes on your design.

I could always make a list of questions :0)

I have limited space, I have to have the gantry 1200mm and both rails or Y axis 800mm. This is due to the location in my garage.

any help appreciated

Many thanks

Mike