Where are all the newcommers ???

[John S]

Every day when I sign on here and look up the new posts I see loads of people joining from all over but then no posts ?

[blackburn mark]

hahaha!!! im with you there john,,,, its doing my head in! i want colour photos, vids and drawings of new and exciting adventures into engineering... sh*t... id settle for a papermache cnc build with an electric tooth brush for a spindle!

[Wobblybootie]

From my point of view, I don't reply to posts I cannot contribute anything useful to ... but I know what you mean ... a hardcore of active members supplying all the info (you are appreciated though) However I would not want to trawl through hundreds of posts full of sod all or worse every day!!

[Lee Roberts]

From my point of view, I don't reply to posts I cannot contribute anything useful to ... but I know what you mean ... a hardcore of active members supplying all the info (you are appreciated though) However I would not want to trawl through hundreds of posts full of sod all or worse every day!!

Indeed, I think most of them are still reading up and viewing the contents. We changed the way new members use the site now, so now they have to introduce themselves before they get access to the good stuff. In about 4 weeks we’ve only had 1 spam post to deal with and you guys never even got to see it :), I grant them access every other day, so recently that has meant 6-7 new Threads pop up as "new members" all at once.

My build is coming along nicely at the moment, I’m waiting till I’ve got all the plates made before I start a build log for it though. Two plates left to go and some small bits I need to buy then its go go go and live for you all to see.

I’ve been secretly working on a new front end for the site and that is gong to be ready soon to, I’m really pleased with it and can’t wait to show it off. This is another reason I have been a bit absent in posting on the forums, so much to do and never enough time to do it all.

I am here though, keeping an eye on things. :)

Lee

[Dopy]

Ok, so I’m new here and I can’t claim to have made a machine of papermache “with an electric tooth brush for a spindle!” But I have been building mine for the last 3 years just to see if I could, well today I got my first result, it has successfully carved out a PCB with nice smooth edges, a result I calibrated with a cup of tea, the Z drive motor at the moment is running off an old car battery charger till I get the power supply built, which should be a 30volt 20amp unit, should be enough to work things I think, my current unit is running flat out at 19volts just to keep the 5v steppers from skipping steps, the stepper motor control unit I built from Tom McWires Instructables report, the rest is Qcad & Kcam, the Z drive I built using a model boat motor and turned the bearing housing to hold the home made chuck which is just a piece of hex bar with a 1/8in hole and three 6BA screw to hold the milling cutter, which in this case is a 1/8in center drill with a 25thou drill end, the rest is in the picture which I think I posted somewhere (I hope) along with todays result

Mark

[blackburn mark]

nice one Dopy, sounds well posh!!! :) cant find the photo though ????
shame its not made out of papermache... that would have well cheered me up
your further along than i am, mine is all here but still mostly in bits
it should be making a noise before christmas

[Dopy]

I bet I put it the wrong place, I'll try again sorry, Oh and not posh lol

[irving2008]

Indeed, I think most of them are still reading up and viewing the contents. We changed the way new members use the site now, so now they have to introduce themselves before they get access to the good stuff. In about 4 weeks we’ve only had 1 spam post to deal with and you guys never even got to see it :), I grant them access every other day, so recently that has meant 6-7 new Threads pop up as "new members" all at once.

My build is coming along nicely at the moment, I’m waiting till I’ve got all the plates made before I start a build log for it though. Two plates left to go and some small bits I need to buy then its go go go and live for you all to see.

I’ve been secretly working on a new front end for the site and that is gong to be ready soon to, I’m really pleased with it and can’t wait to show it off. This is another reason I have been a bit absent in posting on the forums, so much to do and never enough time to do it all.

I am here though, keeping an eye on things. :)

Lee
Hi Lee,

Just arrived in SF, having been off the air for a couple of weeks - there being no working wifi or broadband in the hotel in Yosemite National Park, and anyway been out hiking :)

You're right about the spam. In the 10 weeks since we made the change I have only had 2 new users I havent approved who were clearly attempting to post commercial ads and no true spam. Its made my life easier.

Having said that, I have noticed that new users are reticent to post asking questions. either that means they are getting the answers they need from the forum without posting, or they are afraid to post for various reasons. Maybe we should canvas new users to get their input?

I'll be back next week and normal moderation will resume, so you can get on with the new front end (I've seen it and I can tell you its going to be great!).

cheers (from a very wet n windy SF)
Irving...

[TheChunk]

As a new user I'll give my thoughts, other's mileage may vary.

Personally I'm interested in converting a mini mill so the bits I'm interested in are the software and hardware for the stepper drives, beyond that anything about the bed/gantry type machines are not that relevant for me and that's what the main focus of the forum is.

I also think a lot of people sign up as they like the idea of having a CNC machine but when it comes down to it don't have the time/money/motivation to actually do it.

[RichKuzmack]

John,

I am one of those new members, and only just now received my account approval, so I haven't had much of a chance to post :) . . . but, as Wobblybootie put it above, "I don't reply to posts I cannot contribute anything useful . . ." That accounts for long periods of silence from me, although you may recall some extensive discussions you and I, with others, engaged in a while back on the HSM forum. I have almost always found your posts to be informative or at least interesting, and I appreciate the time and effort you devote to them.

Most recently I note your participation with Gearotic, a great new automation tool! Although my own CNC capability is only now gestating, I will be demo-ing the program to our local hobby CNC group in a few days and will be pointing to your postings from the recent show as evidence of what it can do. I expect that will generate some new Gearotic users around here.

Rich

[markc]

Also being one of the new members, thought I would post here as well. My main interest is in making model gliders which I usually do from carbon and fiberglass, this involves making moulds for the fuselages but have up until now cut out wing cores from foam and laminated them in a vacuum bag. Have made a cnc foam hotwire cutter to get better foam cores but still not happy with the leading edges and want more elliptical shaped wing tips for improved performance, so next step is to make moulds for the wings. A popular way to do this is to mill mdf patterns for the top and bottom surface of the wing moulds, flood with epoxy, sand smooth and polish before laying up the mould halves. I will probably make a couple of new moulds a year and am looking into the viability of making a cnc router for this purpose. I have no skills or machinery to work metal but good with hand and powered carpentry tools, (carpenter by trade) so this points towards a mdf build. The machine needs to be fairly long in x axis to at least make a 2m wing in two halves though have a corner of the workshop that would take up to 1.52m overall, so would like to keep my options open for larger wings. The y axis is not so important, at least for making wings, and would be happy with around 500-600mm cutting capacity. Because of the long x axis presume supported rails are the only way to go and costing it all out am beginning to wonder if I want to go down this route, as it seems the machine building could take over from the hobby I want it for, both in costs and time. This is about as far as my research has got to by looking up the basic stuff and getting some idea of what I need but do have a couple of questions:
Could anyone give me a rough idea of costs to get mdf wing panels machined from supplied stl files, lets say four parts 1m long and 220mm average width as I am undecided on if I actually need my own machine or not. The other thing that I am not really understanding is the effectiveness of skate bearings for linear slides, seen lots of plans for small machines using them to keep costs down and like the idea of using them on my machine to start with, but would they work well enough for accurate 3d cutting of my mdf wing panels?

Mark

[AdieR]

Have to agree with TheChunk - many people will have an interest in CNC, but lack of time / ££ / motivation / space restricts building and using these machines. For me anyway, lack of space is a problem; no garage, shed or loft means any machine would have to go in living quarters / bedroom. Being in an upstairs flat doesn't help either...

Other posts relating to "being able to contribute something useful" is also true. I personally come on occasionally mostly to see what's new on the site.

FWIW, and as a new-ish member my interest in CNC comes from previous employment in the engineering industry (trained as fitter / toolmaker, and trained in manual milling / turning), and I'll admit my interest is largely in "commercial" machinery (which is generally too big and clumsy for an average home user) and engineering in general.

[m_c]

It's been that long since I've been on here, I could almost pass a newcommer :-/

My harrison mill is still where it was about 18months ago, but I'm back on here, because after a chance meeting at the weekend, I'm going to collect a new toy this weekend, which means I should have some functional CNC capability sooner rather than later!

[Kai]

well I'm new in fact so new to all this I bought 2 machines from a very nice man in Wales and build my garage into a workshop with the sizes given for the machines and never knew they came with the control boxes lol so now have to rebuild tha garage to fit them as well. So for now I have a cnc lathe and milling machine that I can not use lol now that is frustrating but with a little help from my friends I will get there.