CNC business. Making money

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.

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

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

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.

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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

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.

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

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.

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If this is one of Deans machines I am sure it will cut ali just fine

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

My machine is capable of machining aluminium.... would be fairly thin though, a few mm. Not hardcore milling

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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.

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

My machine is fun, I don’t want to make it a chore.

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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.!

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

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

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

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I think we’re all different here. I’m using my cnc for precisely the one off items at the moment. I can certainly see how repeatability is one of its fortes, but I’m utilising it’s super accuracy and ability to cut precision exactly where I want it. Something that is beyond me and a blunt chisel !

Maybe when I find that winning item, I’ll cut 100 of them

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Originally Posted by Pilsbury

I think we’re all different here. I’m using my cnc for precisely the one off items at the moment. I can certainly see how repeatability is one of its fortes, but I’m utilising it’s super accuracy and ability to cut precision exactly where I want it. Something that is beyond me and a blunt chisel !

Maybe when I find that winning item, I’ll cut 100 of them

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Everything I've made so far has been one-off but the potential is there to make many copies of that winning item as you say. The trick is knowing what that winning item actually is. Anyone want to buy a USB-powered wooden pendulum clock that's as accurate as a quartz watch?

Kit

I’m looking for someone to cut some simple designs for me. I’m wanting to start a small business selling wall hanging art and I can’t afford the machine just yet. I’d also like to test the market with some of my ideas.

I’m getting my head around ‘easel’ as we speak so hoping to be able to create the files for someone like yourself to then cut for me.

Looking at 3 or 4mm plywood as the material (using birch plywood in easel mainly because it’s there as an option).

The designs are different layers of an image that I then glue together and colour etc giving a 3d feel.

I have PM’d you Pilsbury, would love to chat more and see if it’s something you’d be interested in helping with.

The eventual goal if all goes well is to purchase a machine from Dean and produce them myself but that may take a while.

Happy to hear from anyone on here that may be interested to cut for me.

All the best.

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Originally Posted by Luke W

I’m looking for someone to cut some simple designs for me. I’m wanting to start a small business selling wall hanging art and I can’t afford the machine just yet. I’d also like to test the market with some of my ideas.

I’m getting my head around ‘easel’ as we speak so hoping to be able to create the files for someone like yourself to then cut for me.

Looking at 3 or 4mm plywood as the material (using birch plywood in easel mainly because it’s there as an option).

The designs are different layers of an image that I then glue together and colour etc giving a 3d feel.

I have PM’d you Pilsbury, would love to chat more and see if it’s something you’d be interested in helping with.

The eventual goal if all goes well is to purchase a machine from Dean and produce them myself but that may take a while.

Happy to hear from anyone on here that may be interested to cut for me.

All the best.

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For that thickness of ply, I'd look at laser cutting. It'll be quicker, and be less limiting in the shapes you can cut.

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Originally Posted by m_c

For that thickness of ply, I'd look at laser cutting. It'll be quicker, and be less limiting in the shapes you can cut.

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Thanks m_c

Very interesting, I’ve already had a look and seen that an ‘Oculus’ laser cutting system might be what I need so I’ve emailed them for more info. I really appreciate that.

If any of you guys have a laser attachment for your CNC’s (I think I’ve read that’s an option on them?) then I’d still be interested to hear from anyone that may want to help whilst I’m starting up and without a machine.

Thanks again.

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Originally Posted by Kitwn

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

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Bang Wrong there matey!
Your point is valid for any simple things which are reasonably easily made quite cheaply on manual machines, for expensive things which are horribly complex to machine manually, CNC is a very appropriate way to go, and lucrative too.

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Originally Posted by magicniner

Bang Wrong there matey!
Your point is valid for any simple things which are reasonably easily made quite cheaply on manual machines, for expensive things which are horribly complex to machine manually, CNC is a very appropriate way to go, and lucrative too.

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Didn't see this the first time around but I 100% agree, many of the machines I've built have been for prototyping rather than mass production. This is one area where small CNC machines win over large production CNC machines because they are more cost-effective and efficient for one-off or small batch items.

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Originally Posted by magicniner

Bang Wrong there matey!
Your point is valid for any simple things which are reasonably easily made quite cheaply on manual machines, for expensive things which are horribly complex to machine manually, CNC is a very appropriate way to go, and lucrative too.

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Yes, quite right! It's interesting trying to remember the exact mind-set you were in several weeks ago. I wouldn't expect me to have written that.

I'm coming at this from the hobbyist looking to fund his hobby by selling a few things rather than a serious engineer making complex machine parts but even at this level I would not have bothered to make even one wooden clock without my CNC router. The ability to quickly cut a modified pair of gears out of plywood or adjust the frame dimensions for a better placement of the driving coil etc. etc. is game-changing for coming up with a final design that's good enough to sell.

Spammer Reported!

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Originally Posted by magicniner

Spammer Reported!

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Thanks for reporting, all done :)

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Originally Posted by LayneBarrera

Starting a CNC business can indeed be a lucrative venture. It's all about precision and craftsmanship. On another note, if you're into gaming, you might want to explore legit games that pay real money instantly. I stumbled upon an article that discusses this recently, and it's worth checking out. Best of luck with your CNC business and gaming pursuits!

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Nice try at disguising your Scammy Spammy gaming links but I've reported you to admin.
Enjoy! lol