what machine should i get to start my buisness?

[shwan]

hello all! , i am a new member to this site and would love to pick your brains!
i am about to invest in a cnc milling machine to help me start my stopmotion animation company! i need to make ball and socket joints of various sizes as well as other custom pieces for puppets and props!
i have been looking for the past few months and require a super accurate machine that would be capable of small scale precision manufacturing.
i am thinking of getting a wabeco CC-F1410LF for puppet components
and a heiz T-1000 for plastics and wood and foams,,,

does anyone have one of these machines? would anyone recommend them?
also does anyone know of any other machines that are cheaper or better than these
as i am new to this i have found it very difficult to make an informed decision! and i want to make 100% sure before i invest!

any help anyone can give would be absolutely brilliant!

thanks

shwan the welsh stopmo madman

[blackburn mark]

if your going to manufacture joints to sell then im going to be no good to you however if you are a film maker i may be able to save you a shitload of time and money

i used to do a bit of stop motion.... i used to split diffrent size chain and use two of the figure of eights to pinch the balls, countersunk on one side so they dont eat your ball

id buy the brass balls from a fishing tackle outlet and solder them onto the end of the brass rods i was using for bones

sooooo... imagine you have two of the figure of eights from the chain on either side of two of your balls then you wind fishing line into the waist untill you have the type of tension that you are looking for

with a small chain i have made fully articulated five finger hands full set of joints that measure aprox 10mm across the palm, ill stick a picture up next time im home if you are interested (they are well posh)

a small cnc would be invaluable if you are making screw driven articulated heads etc :)

have you any work up on vimeo or youtube ?????

[blackburn mark]

this is one i did a few years ago... it doesnt feature the ball and chain links developments... spiderman is a standard toy and grim is all plasticine, its a shame really because i made a lovley skeleton for him

[luke11cnc]

that is impressive

how long did it take to film it??

James & Luke

[blackburn mark]

that is impressive

how long did it take to film it??

James & Luke

cheers lads,,, the main section took about 10hrs of zen meditation to shoot:heehee:
give it a go, its not rocket science and despite how mind numbing you imagine it would be to take one frame at a time its pretty fascinating bringing inanimate objects to life

i made a quick series of "boris n grim" as a bit of a job interview with a small animation company, unfortunaitly they sank before we could join forces on a posh project :(
i keep meaning to pick it up again just for the hell of it (i love boris n grim)

[Ricardoco]

Now that was cool.... so where is MORE!!!! i need a new mini series to follow.. Sons of Anarchy is Nearly finished...

[blackburn mark]

ha! sod off recardoco :) that was the best one of three, it is a shame to let them go though, i thought boris n grim would have made a buzzin mini series, beavis n butthead style
i did start preping for a more polished production but like i said things didnt work out and its to much work to do a solo

[blackburn mark]

this thread seems to have drifted a bit, sorry shwan....
what materials are you thinking of working with ? if your willing to stick to acetal and a little bit of aluminum now and again a router may cover your needs

id pick one with more Z travel than the heiz T-1000