3d printing to CNC

[martin54]

A lot of people start off their build log with an outline of what they want the machine to be able to do & materials they want to be able to cut so if you have a look through some of the build logs you should be able to decide which are most relevant to your needs fairly quickly.
Have a read through some of them as there is a lot of useful info which will help when you start to design your own machine.

Best of luck with it.

[Swarfing]

Well it sounds like you want to be milling rather than routing which is a good start. You may want to venture a bit more away from the 3d printing software as well. When you start adding forces (i.e cutters) into the mix then you will want more control of the CAM side of things. Like martin says have a good read through the mill threads..............and watch your budget run away with :-)

[GEOFFREY]

Here comes my "bias" again. For the size and type of material you want I think you should be building a fixed gantry moving table machine. G.

[Philly]

Here comes my "bias" again. For the size and type of material you want I think you should be building a fixed gantry moving table machine. G.

With the sizes he wants would he not be better off converting a mini mill?

[GEOFFREY]

With the sizes he wants would he not be better off converting a mini mill?

The original post indicated that it would be useful to be able to have the option to sometimes cut something a bit larger, so I was thinking of a working area of maybe 300mmx300-400mm - not possible with a minimill. G.

[Swarfing]

Programming Arduinos and community built reprap software my money is on LinuxCNC??????

Maybe build a cnc mill and plan the second 3d printer build and go for a REPSTRAP that can double as a cnc router?

[Ricardoco]

Programming Arduinos and community built reprap software my money is on LinuxCNC??????

Maybe build a cnc mill and plan the second 3d printer build and go for a REPSTRAP that can double as a cnc router?

To be fair i said Mach3 for simplicity, cos the documentation for linux cnc aint great.. i suppose it would be if it were updated as much as the software.. but the chap maybe good at Linux I personaly think its crap IMHO LOL (oh 30 years as software engineer lets me say that) LOL i know Jonathan likes it as well. but when the hardware side of things is sorted he will have a better idea of where he is and then who knows LinuxCNC could be the way for him..

Rick

[AVRnj]

Everyone, thanks much for the replies.

Very helpful!

I am going to spend the day reading the build logs and try to find some good starting info!