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View Full Version : Which part of *your* build leaked the most money?



CNCBlug
08-03-2010, 03:35 PM
Well i have been planning, reading, posting, phoning and adding up all the bits in my cnc birth-plan. As with all plans I have tried to think of everything, but I just *know* that i have "unknowns".
I would love to hear from you guys, first timers and seasoned, what the most unplanned expenses were spent on. And if you could give a rough estimate (percentage) of how much you thought it was going to be VS actual spending.

Swarfing
08-03-2010, 07:15 PM
Most worry about building the machine first before the furnishings (steppers, drivers, bearings). Wood, steel and aluminium is cheap in comparison to the trinkets.....Biggest cost i would say is leadscrews and bearings if you want to do it right. But you can always save on these things by lowering your expectations of what you want......Ying/Yang??????????

ptjw7uk
08-03-2010, 07:48 PM
I would say that there wasnt one single great expense rather a lot of little unknowns plus lots of tools to do the so called simple things.
Then theres the exorbitant postage on metal for bearing housings plus all the bearings I got wrong mainly by not understanding what I was doing.
Still its a hobby after all and when compared to how much the car looses in value each year its cheap!

Peter

HankMcSpank
08-03-2010, 07:59 PM
Well, if you place any financial value on your own tiime, I'd say I wasted the most money on leadscrews - being a cheapskate (who was inspired by the easy cnc mill seen on youtube), I went with threaded rod - then I upgraded to different pitch threaded rod before upgrading again - beforefinally getting some proper leadscrews off Ivan on here - man, what a difference. Threaded rod sucks (in the main it's got some warpage gojng down, the pitch is too small - just nasty stuff bering in mind it's the heart of your CNC). If I could offer one bit of advice to someone starting out on this journey - don't buy threaded rod!

Oh yeah...& anthing 'pucka' required for mounting your rod/rails will cost an unjustifiable arm & a leg - so if on a budget us SK type mounts (eg SK12, SK16, SK20 - whatever he diameter of your rods/bearing s are .... look 'em up on Ebay to get a flavour) - they're relatively cheap & will save you a lot of time/heartache on a budget.