Posted on 01/20/2016 8:18:38 PM PST by Utilizer
Anyone interested feel free to PM me in regards to CNCs. Been doing it for 20 years now (geesh) and have made a few of my own.
I learned how structurally sound 3/4 ply can be when I built my son a bunk bed styled after a castle from plans I found on the internet. The real lesson came when my son grew old enough that he no longer wanted it. Tearing it apart gave me a new appreciation for the word “solid”.
I helped build one from a kit. It was used by a high school robotics team I used to coach. This one used a router rather than a Dremel. I think it had a 3-4’ cutting area.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DIY-CNC/info
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO/info
Okay. Maker Shop is not for everyone, but they have the big equipment. My son-in-law probably spent $900 for the time we were there. He's an inventor and needed to test designs. He designed custom electronics enclosures in CAD, then cut the steel on the CNC machine which used high-speed water jets. They have like a 10 foot square table. Place your thick metal slabs on grills atop the water tank, tell it where to start and it cuts all the nooks and holes and outlines of pieces. They rent by the hour of operation. If his designs worked after powder-coating and installing electronics, he would farm out the design to fabricators to do quantity builds.
Would be nice to have your own milling machine, but it is expensive (for store-bought).
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