hello all

[martin54]

Registered with the site about a month ago & just realised I hadn't introduced myself.
I'm Martin & I work part time as a signmaker, I have an engineering background having spent nearly 20 years in the Royal Navy which does come in handy on occasions still. As in any sort of business you are always looking at ways to produce as much as you can in house & one thing I had always fancied was either a cnc router or laser engraver. The high cost of these machines meant that it was not a realistic option for me at my stage of life until I read a series of posts on a signmaking forum I use by one of the regular contributors who had built himself a cnc router for under £600. Phill had bought a book & following the instructions in the book had made an MDF based machine with a table size of 4 foot by 2 foot.

That was all the encouragement I needed so having now purchased the book myself I will hopefully be building my own machine over the coming months. From the research I have done so far it is pretty clear that although you can build a machine that is very usable for the sort of thing I would like to do on a low budget as soon as you look at possible ways to improve things then it can suddenly become very expensive lol

[WandrinAndy]

Welcome to a fellow Leedite. What's the title of the book Martin?

[martin54]

The one by James Kelly, build your own cnc machine. Biggest problem I have at the moment is that for the actual book the shipping was more than the book so I bought the google play version to save money (lived in Scotland to long lol).

Great if I am at my flat but I am building the machine elsewhere & don't have internet connection there so have to take lots of notes lol

[blackburn mark]

it can suddenly become very expensive lol

yea, its a real problem
if your running a small business though its probably worth spending the extra.... im sure it will earn its keep :)

[TrickyCNC]

Hi Martin. welcome to DIYCNC :) I built mine out of MDF, so if you want any pointers, feel free to contact me :) Richard

[martin54]

Richard, thanks for the offer, I know someone who has built the same book build machine & he lives quite close to me so hopefully will get lots of help from him, plus I am sure I will be asking questions on here as well.

Mark, although I wouldn't disagree with you generally I'm not actually sure that it will earn it's keep in my case but you never know. I don't generally get asked for any work that I would need it for or have to go to a trade supplier at the moment & at my stage in life & only working part time it is unlikely I am going to go on a major sales push to promote it as I would have done years ago if I had done it then.

[TrickyCNC]

If you can put a few photo's of this other machine, we can perhaps suggest some improvements or different options. Or, it might be that it doesn't need improving :)

[irving2008]

If you can put a few photo's of this other machine, we can perhaps suggest some improvements or different options. Or, it might be that it doesn't need improving :)

It the one described in this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1430224894



and on the site Build Your Own CNC Router, CNC Machine, or 3D Printer

[TrickyCNC]

It the one described in this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1430224894



and on the site Build Your Own CNC Router, CNC Machine, or 3D Printer

Ah ... there might be a few easy upgrades then :)

best use the 1st built one as an example of what you are and are not happy with about it, and go from there.

[martin54]

Yes that's the book I got & the one I was looking to use to build the machine, already know someone who has built this machine & that it worked so for me it is a good starting point, probably won't meet with some peoples approval but for me at least I know it can be done on a tight budget & it might be all that I ever need at the end of the day. If it isn't at least it will have given me something to keep me busy & should have taught me enough about cnc routers & their construction to have a much better idea what I need to do in order to build a machine that is suitable for anything I might need it for.
Although I won't be able to use all the parts again I should be able to make use of the most expensive parts like the electronics again so the actual wasted money if you want to look at it that way will be reasonably small.