Joining the "ship"

Hello all,

I'm pleased to have been invited to join this UK based site for CNC.
I have been interested in CNC equipment for a number of years and own a couple of Step Four professionally built pieces of machinery. It was after purchasing these that I realised that home built CNC machines were within the realms of possibility for a moderately equipped home engineer. This has led me to collecting all sorts of items with a view to building my own machines and I am now in progress with the second gantry type router.
Unfortunately my day job takes me away from home for weeks on end so there are big gaps between building periods but this does, at least, allow me to hone the design with cad on the laptop whilst I'm at work!
My main strengths, I believe, lie in in material selection, mechanical design and machining. I am not as sure footed with electronics and look for plug and play solutions where possible. I am hoping that this forum can provide a snapshot of the home CNC status in the UK and will lead to shared experiences and ideas to develop the "hobby" further.

Ali Kat (Nick)

Welcome to the forums Nick, the forums seem to be getting biggr and bigger everyday and things look good for the future.

If you can find the time post up some of your build logs and pics of your current jobs, if you could give any comments or suggestions for the material forums please do.

Speak to you again.

Hi Nick!

One thing the home build community needs is people that know their way around the materials side of things, knowing where to go to buy components seems like a big unknown at the moment. The UK isn't really set up for the growing hobbyest scene... :(

YET! 8-)