How about a mycncuk cnc router project?

[wilfy]

MDF, so it's cheap and easy to make.

easy.. maybe, accurate.. depends how much effort you put in. if you are talking about torsion boxes in every place there needs support your talking a lot of effort, is it cheaper maybe.. one sheet of 18mm mdf is £17, 25mm £24 so yes even if you go for 25mm it seems quite cheap. how big are you going to have to make torsion boxes to make sure the strength is there and in turn how much bigger are you going to have to order your screws and rails to achieve the cutting area you want? i plan to make my machine using no more than £100 worth of steel... to me that seems cheap, i havn't even looked at alu but that fact i'm using steel is allowing me to have quite decent amount of cutting area from smallish screws compared to if you made an mdf machine. also there are plenty of designs out there already that use wood/mdf if it was really that good everyones machines in this forum would be made from it, i only know of 2 guys who have made from wood/mdf and one of them ran away from the forum after i presume all the disagreements everytime he mentioned doing something from wood as an alternative

talking of cutting area.. this is what decides the design.. you cant really be universal as everyones needs for cutting area are different.

[Nugget]

Mycncuk project sounds a fine idea. With regards to the of details of a plan and its consequences i.e. not willing to spoon feed and spec might not be suitable for the application. I think the reason why you want a ready design is that the reason for a DIY CNC router/mill is the cost and experimentation with design adds cost. I’m not sure about the worker/freeloader paradigm. As the worker did you generate all the knowledge you use? Are we not all in receipt of the ‘wealth of ages’ from our dead ancestors that we did not earn, pay for or deserve but merely inherited? (sorry for the pomposity).

Design wise I get the impression you either need several categories of machine or perhaps one design that is very scalable. Presumably the design approach is to define your requirements first then define a specification and from that sketch a few designs. Presumably if site users are prepared to define all possible requirements, perhaps from that there are sub groupings. I would like to know myself what the minimum spec for various types of tasks are e.g. what strength of frame/gantry, stepper torque and spindle power/rpm are required for say aluminium sheet cutting (can general rules of thumb be used to simplify the process). My guess at user requirements plus my own are:
Functions:3D recessed shapes, engraving, cutting sheets, etc.
Materials: Copper clad board, aluminium alloy(series? 1000, etc, tempering?), brass, copper, wood(hard wood, software, composite MDF/ply, carbon and glass composites, plastics (acrylic, etc), etc.

[Swarfing]

Nugget i think you need to read the whole thread.....Welcome by the way.

[GEOFFREY]

Nugget i think you need to read the whole thread.....Welcome by the way.

I agree. I would also like to say that the idea was to design a "starter" machine that would encourage "would be cncer's" to take
their first steps into the wonderful world of cnc. G.

[Spedley]

I think the purpose of a starter machine is to:
1) provide a machine which is known to be fully compatible and working.
2) be cost effective
3) require minimal skill level

Suppliers, materials and software need to be specified to guarantee compatibility.
The machine should not be over-specced and all parts should be fully utilised.
Precision parts should be bought off the shelf with the only fabrication requiring basic hand tools where possible.

Like so many people state on here - you need to specify exactly what your goals are before you can hone in on the solution.

[John S]

I don't think it matters what your goals are, there will always be too many of them for a group project.

The thread is 6 months old now and so far has got nowhere and sorry to say this but it never will.

Only way a machine will get built is if one person decides to build what 'he' thinks is right and offers it for sale.
Then all the cheap arsed vultures will gather and pull holes in it and reckon it's too expensive and you could do it cheaper.

However missing the point that they are still weld to the fence, not sat on it.

[GEOFFREY]

I don't think it matters what your goals are, there will always be too many of them for a group project.

The thread is 6 months old now and so far has got nowhere and sorry to say this but it never will.

Only way a machine will get built is if one person decides to build what 'he' thinks is right and offers it for sale.
Then all the cheap arsed vultures will gather and pull holes in it and reckon it's too expensive and you could do it cheaper.

However missing the point that they are still weld to the fence, not sat on it.

John, I agree with most of your sentiments, and the idea was never to try to "design a machine by committee", merely to come up with a set of general parameters for a starter machine and then for one person to "run" with it. There are certainly enough people on this forum that could do that if they wanted to.

Of course there would be critics - does that really matter? This thread has been dormant for the last six months just because
of such comments, and I only reintroduced it because there have been several posts from people asking about about small starter machines/kits etc. G.