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  1. #1
    I’d first like to get out of the way that I’m not looking to this as a source of income, I’m purely hobbyist and enjoy making stuff I enjoy making...... But, the stuff I enjoy making is not always needed by me!

    I sell some of my projects on Etsy and the likes, merely to get rid of them to make way for and fund new projects. Doubt it will make me rich!

    But I have a capable machine, some time and an interest in making stuff. Anything in fact...... So is there a market for people with designs, prototypes, small batch stuff, where they need people to machine some parts for them? I’m not taking NASA or Boeing, likely someone similar to me but who doesn’t have a cnc.

    Where is this market? Do any of you do this sort of stuff?

    Really after some pocket money. Nice wood isn’t cheap.... money does grow on trees.

  2. #2
    As impoverished retirees (cue voilins) my wife and I are in a similar position. We've basically agreed that all our hobbies need to become self-funding. I have no experience of selling anything I've made to date (bar one single wooden clock) so will be interested to hear other people's experience.

    Kit
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    I’d first like to get out of the way that I’m not looking to this as a source of income, I’m purely hobbyist and enjoy making stuff I enjoy making...... But, the stuff I enjoy making is not always needed by me!

    I sell some of my projects on Etsy and the likes, merely to get rid of them to make way for and fund new projects. Doubt it will make me rich!

    But I have a capable machine, some time and an interest in making stuff. Anything in fact...... So is there a market for people with designs, prototypes, small batch stuff, where they need people to machine some parts for them? I’m not taking NASA or Boeing, likely someone similar to me but who doesn’t have a cnc.

    Where is this market? Do any of you do this sort of stuff?

    Really after some pocket money. Nice wood isn’t cheap.... money does grow on trees.
    Do you just do wood machining? Or also aluminium?
    I represent a small project who receive help from metalworking hobbyists sometimes to help us deliver our project. We are recreating the forward fuselage of an extinct world war 2 aircraft.
    If you do metal milling, perhaps you could help us. We can't generally easily afford commercial rates but we do have funds.

    Please pm me if you could help us and we also help you.

    Thanks, Andy

  4. #4
    Andy. This is exactly the sort of thing I’m after, but I’ll have to come back to you at a later date for your particular requirements. Reason being is at present I machine only wood. My machine is capable of machining aluminium.... would be fairly thin though, a few mm. Not hardcore milling

    Let me get my metal groove on and I’ll contact you to see if I can be of any use.

    Either way, PM sent. Your project sounds amazing.
    Last edited by Pilsbury; 02-04-2021 at 10:26 AM.

  5. #5
    Clive S's Avatar
    Lives in Marple Stockport, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 15 Hours Ago Forum Superstar, has done so much to help others, they deserve a medal. Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 3,333. Received thanks 618 times, giving thanks to others 78 times. Made a monetary donation to the upkeep of the community. Is a beta tester for Machinists Network features.
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    Andy. This is exactly the sort of thing I’m after, but I’ll have to come back to you at a later date for your particular requirements. Reason being is at present I machine only wood. My machine is capable of machining aluminium.... would be fairly thin though, a few mm. Not hardcore milling

    Let me get my metal groove on and I’ll contact you to see if I can be of any use.

    Either way, PM sent. Your project sounds amazing.
    If this is one of Deans machines I am sure it will cut ali just fine
    ..Clive
    The more you know, The better you know, How little you know

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    My machine is capable of machining aluminium.... would be fairly thin though, a few mm. Not hardcore milling
    Mark, your machine is capable of much more than a few mm in Ali but you will need to use different tool paths like adaptive/ trochoidal to get the best from it.
    Also, the bed isn't really suited to cutting Ali because you'll need some kind of lubricant to cut Ali properly which doesn't mix well with an MDF spoil board.

    But these things are easily got around or changed if find you are doing more Ali work than wood.

    All I'll say is Ali and wood don't mix well together on a machine and cutting Ali is very messy.
    -use common sense, if you lack it, there is no software to help that.

    Email: [email protected]

    Web site: www.jazzcnc.co.uk

  7. #7
    m_c's Avatar
    Lives in East Lothian, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 3 Days Ago Forum Superstar, has done so much to help others, they deserve a medal. Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 2,908. Received thanks 360 times, giving thanks to others 8 times.
    The thing you'll come to realise, is making hobby money machining something for somebody else, is likely to bring more headaches than profit.

    I do do occasional jobs for other people, but they're mostly because I either want to help a mate, or just fancy doing something a bit different knowing full well it'll not likely to be profitable.
    The vast majority of stuff I machine is stuff I sell directly myself, and while it is nice being able to load a length of bar into the lathe, hit run, and come back an hour later and retrieve a couple hundred pound worth of parts from amongst the swarf, it is good to exercise the brain cells and do something more involved occasionally.
    Avoiding the rubbish customer service from AluminiumWarehouse since July '13.

  8. #8
    Thanks all.

    Dean. I’m sure my machine is more capable than I think. Aluminium is on the cards but later. I shall take your advice though on my bed and spoil board. I also appreciate the messiness of metal. I have a nice clean little woodshop that gets a good dust and hoover making it spotless. The other day I made myself a small hydraulic press welding some 1” box section together. Bit of grinding and neatening up of my not so pretty welds left me saying never again in my shop. Splatters, grease, black crap everywhere. I need a metal shop. Not told the misses yet.

    M_c. I appreciate your comment. I suppose my naivety leads me to think someone will send me over a perfect file, I create the G code and the parts just roll off my machine..... I can fully imagine it’s not like that. But, I’d have to be choosy about what I take on. My machine is fun, I don’t want to make it a chore.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Pilsbury View Post
    My machine is fun, I don’t want to make it a chore.
    And that there is exactly the difference between hobby and business, cutting for money can very quickly become a chore. We cut run-of-the-mill parts almost every day from steel and aluminum for the machines we build, I can tell you very few of them are fun anymore and just a means to an end, which is the finished machine. So occasionally I deliberately cut something decorative like a 3D model from wood or some other material other than aluminum/steel just to give me the buzz again.

    Keep it fun.!
    -use common sense, if you lack it, there is no software to help that.

    Email: [email protected]

    Web site: www.jazzcnc.co.uk

  10. #10
    I used to spend 42 hours a week in a windowless concrete box to earn the money to pay all the bills and support my hobbies. Now I've retired I will need to put some of the newly available spare time (after all the other new things my wife has found me to do!) into making some items to sell. It's all a compromise, and I know how I'd rather spend my time.

    CNC isn't really about bespoke, one-off items anyway. It takes many hours of thought and designing, experimenting and learning to make a single new widget. Then you make another one in ten minutes and a dozen more by lunchtime.

    Kit
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

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