Beastie

[EddyCurrent]

. . .my only concern is the cost of all the 20mm plate.
Regards
Mike

I think it should be built as a strong skeleton structure that is later plated in with thinner steel sheet to make it look nice. To prevent the thinner material vibrating it should be lined with something like the stuff used in cars; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-VAN-VE...-/220638134673

[vargai]

Say a kick starter campaign and 50 people buy it.

Regarding to the quantity and the goal it is a general principle to think in modular elements.
I do not know if it is applicable to a CNC design but definitely useful.
The problem is if one use two building blocks to make a bigger one it can decrease the accuracy.
But anyway as general principle does not seem bad.

[Gotty101]

This is a real cool project. I would love to help but im very much a newbie to this at the moment, but i will be watching with interest.

Trev

[bikepete]

I think it should be built as a strong skeleton structure that is later plated in with thinner steel sheet to make it look nice. To prevent the thinner material vibrating it should be lined with something like the stuff used in cars; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-VAN-VE...-/220638134673

I was thinking, looking at the initial designs, that it would be a great idea to have all of the sections closed, so that the user could just fill them with dry sand after shipping...

EDIT "And one main idea is also the gantry and sides and base to be epoxy fill ready, sand fill ready." Doh! teach me to look at the pics and not read the text properly before posting... as you were...

[EddyCurrent]

I was thinking, looking at the initial designs, that it would be a great idea to have all of the sections closed, so that the user could just fill them with dry sand after shipping...

EDIT "And one main idea is also the gantry and sides and base to be epoxy fill ready, sand fill ready." Doh! teach me to look at the pics and not read the text properly before posting... as you were...

Other
Now,here is the deal. the electronics will be below the machine or in the gantry or at both places. And one main idea is also the gantry and sides and base to be epoxy fill ready, sand fill ready. So i will spend a lot of thought here. One thing is clear. The electronics will be inside somehow.

There's a slight contradiction/anomaly, in that the electronics also have to fit inside the gantry or base. That's why I was thinking about a skeleton that itself could be sand/epoxy filled but the spaces in between where the electronics go could be sheeted in.

[Lachlan]

Boyan,
I have not seen any well made smallish cnc machines. This will be the ideal machine after people have played with a chinese machine and realised all the shortcomings that cannot be fixed.

Problems for this idea that need to be overcome include how to break it down for postage and keep rigidity as well as ease of constuction and how to fit all electronics in unit or will it need to come with an additional box? Great idea

[Boyan Silyavski]

Thanks. Actually i have already finished drawings of 3 small machines. This time all in CAD, not Sketchup. I am at the moment at prototype stage, but very busy before new year with some wood working.

Basically 400x600, 600x900 and one fixed gantry. Some secrecy also :-) that's why i still have not shown the drawings. I hope will show the ready machine in a month or 2

What i can say is that i aim to make the best simple machines possible, meaning beautiful and extremely rigid. Will not be cheap cheap, but are aimed for 24h industrial use but without going to tool changers and so that will raise the price. Though a tool changing spindle will be an option.

Cause at the end i believe no point of buying crap that will make your life difficult and will not pay itself fast.

[JAZZCNC]

Basically 400x600, 600x900 and one fixed gantry. Some secrecy also :-) that's why i still have not shown the drawings.

Good job for you then Boyan WE didn't take the same "It's Secret" Attitude in parting with our Designs and Knowledge .!!. .

[Boyan Silyavski]

Good job for you then Boyan WE didn't take the same "It's Secret" Attitude in parting with our Designs and Knowledge .!!. .

Dean,

I don't know why you said that? I am one of the few people that you can count on your left hand, that have shared open source drawing of their machines in CAD format publicly.
Especially machine plans worth making. Proven design i mean. More over i constantly give mail and forum support for the said plans. For free. As you well know many people already have based their frame design on the yellow machine. At the same time people sell crappy plans for 50-100 euro at ebay.

When i say "secret", i mean more "surprise" . But its also a secret at the moment until i have no machine to show. More over this is a commercial project of mine,Maybe Kickstarter. So i will sell the machine, maybe sell or make available the plans and sell some parts with it, so whats the big deal? When ready, i will show it and then you could criticize it as much as you want. Or help.

But FYI these machines are not the typical DYI as the basic concept is big aluminum pieces to be made in serie on big CNC, so yeah, i dont want to show the world my idea for production and assembly solutions for now. Other wise they will be implemented in more crappy machines like " Nomad" and more people would be cheated. Or may be even from the bloody Chinese.

PS:
In my country we dont show the babies to other people untill they are at least 6 months old. To keep them from bad luck :-)

[Lee Roberts]

When i say "secret", i mean more "surprise".

I must say that when I read your comment, I did interpret that to mean "I'm not ready to show yet, you'll have to wait and see", given your contributions previously.

I left excited to see what you have come up with, as a solution for a machine :).

.Me