Other Builds - Pandora's Box

[WoodKnot]

Thank you A Camera,

I genuinely and sincerely appreciate your comments.

I believe that i am reasonably astute, have a good all round working knowledge of many things, master of none, jack of all trades sort.

I did feel that i was on the wrong site, joined the wrong forum and thought and believe that there are clearly 2 schools of thought.

One leaning heavily to the industrial build type and the other, like me, the hobby guy.

I had decided to stay, to also stay polite whatever was inferred and follow my path, because that's the type of machine I want to build.

It may have issues, issues i may not be able to address and hence my reason for being here.

I do hope that there is a place for everyone and hence me starting the post.

Why should i have to go to an American site? I was really pleased when i stumbled across this site, a UK site!

People talking metric!

All the main woodworking sites are US based and their workshops are bigger than our houses!

So, as an appeal to all, from me, I need help, with my type of build!

I keep apologising for my type of machine, but for many, its a good build and is what they consider to be an advanced build with the Linear rails and bearing blocks. (Whoo!)

No, it won't do a lot of things and i don't think i will ever get passed the 2.5D stage of milling, but that is all I ever aspired to

I love woodworking, its a hobby, an escape.

I want to make some nice signs etc, I don't have the skills to make these with a handheld router and thought i nice little milling machine is a great addition to my workshop.

But it is only that, an addition.

This CNC machine will still end up being the most expensive single piece of kit and in workshop and i have a lot of kit!

Oh, well besides my solid Ash workbench, which i will post a picture of later on.

It cost me £600 just for the timber, but now it's built, probably worth well over 3K - it is rather lovely!!

WoodKnot

[A_Camera]

WoodKnot, just keep on posting pictures and messages. Don't let people kick you in the butt because they feel you are not fine enough for their standards. Let them ride on their high horses, who cares...? Some of these guys are really helpful AND have both experience and knowledge, so reading their posts and the comments they make for others can also be rewarding, but sadly, some just have their noses up in the clouds, but that's their problem.

Of course you should not go to the US site just because some people said so, but of course, feel free to be there as well. It is not just their workshops which are bigger, but also their site, for better or worse, there are many more members and many more subjects to discuss and the forum is livelier than here. So actually, even that forum can be used to gain knowledge and get help, especially if the "help" here is total silence or a bunch of negative, wrongly biased off topic comments, which happens more than once here.

Regarding Open Builds, many of them are not even aluminium extrusion based, but plywood and MDF and I think those guys also have great fun with their machines. As long as we know the limitations of our machines and capabilities... My own is also a "toy" based on extrusions, cheap ball screws and so on, however, it is definitely the most expensive (last time I checked was about 3-4k USD and heaviest (over 130kg now) machine I ever owned, but I know that it is VERY capable to do everything I made it for plus a lot more. So extrusions, cheap ball screws and your linear rails will indeed make up a nice machine in the end, I am sure of that. But buying cheap is still a bit of a gambling, though most of the time they are of good enough quality today, unlike 5-10 years ago.

So, good luck and continue.