MDF CNC Router plans / parts for home build beginners

**Wobblybootie** · 04-06-2010

Originally Posted by irving2008

However even a beginner would benefit from investing a few quid in a cheap drill press adaptor to get a bit of accuracy! Drilling and tapping hex bar stock wouldn't be that difficult.

Careful ... SWMBO bought me one of those from B&Q... the 43mm euro collar would not grip a 43mm drill with a piece of 240 grit paper wrapped around it and also the casting was 3deg. off centre. It may have been a Friday afternoon special, but Wolf or Draper offer better quality (for a price)

**mel_earp** · 04-06-2010

I understand the points you make Irving. If the target audience is the beginner then surely it is worth taking the views of the beginner - and I am totally a beginner who has made nothing CNC, just read a lot. From my perspective wood is good and metal is difficult (can't think of a suitable rhyme). For others it will be different and they will prefer metal to wood.

The common skate carriage is easily made because in the basic form you saw a bit off, drill four holes and bolt the bits together. As you go more complex then more chance of error or frustration.

And I do have a drill press.

**pjl83** · 04-06-2010

I've been thinking about my own build plans and how I'm going to run the bed. I'm considering the skate method as it's simple and cheap. I then thought about using v-groove bearings and running them directly on top of a piece of angle. My sketch-up skills aren't great but hopefully you get the idea. It would be a moving bed with the top bearings attached to the gantry. It's only an idea I had today so they may be obviously floors that I'd not considered yet but it may be worth experimenting with?

**HiltonSteve** · 07-06-2010

Sorry not replied for a while but I am up to my nuts in other jobs that needs to be done before I get time to play, one of them being fitting a new bathroom... seemed like a good idea at the time..!

Anyway, I should get a few hours at it again later this week so fingers crossed and keep the idea's coming because there are a few good one's in there.

Can anyone put tiles up??? only a couple of hundred.... will keep you fed with tea and hobnobs... Give me some time to do something that I enjoy doing instead.

**Robin Hewitt** · 08-06-2010

Originally Posted by HiltonSteve

seemed like a good idea at the time..

A good idea to you or to her? There is a way out.

I am a disaster at home improvements, paint flies everywhere, she'd never ask me to do tiling.

She used to make me do car repairs in the cold and rain, eventually I put the car together without the head gasket, gritted my teeth and turned the key. Cost me £600 for new valves but she never asked me to do car repairs again. Money well spent.

**irving2008** · 08-06-2010

Originally Posted by Robin Hewitt

...I put the car together without the head gasket, gritted my teeth and turned the key. Cost me £600 for new valves but she never asked me to do car repairs again. Money well spent.

Sorry, I couldnt ever do that to a car... thats sacrilege! Although working on cars in the rain is something I do try to avoid, I do recall changing the gearbox on my 1965 Triumph TR4 in 6" of snow... mad or what?

**Robin Hewitt** · 08-06-2010

Originally Posted by irving2008

Sorry, I couldnt ever do that to a car... thats sacrilege!

But I don't drive bird magnets like you do, this was utilitarian.

I hate driving, bores me to tears

**CraigRK** · 06-05-2012

Originally Posted by HiltonSteve

Sorry not replied for a while but I am up to my nuts in other jobs that needs to be done before I get time to play, one of them being fitting a new bathroom... seemed like a good idea at the time..!

Anyway, I should get a few hours at it again later this week so fingers crossed and keep the idea's coming because there are a few good one's in there.

Can anyone put tiles up??? only a couple of hundred.... will keep you fed with tea and hobnobs... Give me some time to do something that I enjoy doing instead.

So, is that bathroom done yet? has this made any progress?

**irving2008** · 07-06-2010

Off topic - Ah, I take it you've not done one of those before :) there's always a first time... never (in my book at least) a second one... this time i got a couple of nice Polish guys, nicknamed Radish and Leek (thats my nearest pronounciation of their names) who did a blinding job in a week that would have taken me months (plumbing, tiling, electrical - I can do it, just not as quickly) and that included keeping building control happy...