I finally got the CNC mill running!!!!

Post by **Jacampb2** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:24 pm

Whooooohoooo!

It has been a long drawn out process. I have about a month and a half of all of my free time wrapped up in it. Dragged it home for $500, sunk about another $1500 into it retrofitting it to PC based controls. It made it's first cuts in my shop on Monday. I still have some tuning and work to do on it, but I am just geeked it is up and running!

Here is a short, unimpressive, poor resolution video in .WMV format, 1.2Mb.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/br ... nd_cut.wmv

Later,
Jason

Ahsmo · Post by **Ahsmo** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:16 am

Awesome. Do you have the software to upload cad drawings? We have one here but they are cheap and keep letting the license for the software get out of date.

I had to machine some tension test specimens for a project I am doing and it took forever.

Post by **Bfowler** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:18 am

oooh....this is gonna be good. can't wait to see what comes out of this

Post by **Rold Gold** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:33 am

I'll be if you can mill custom MS sinks you make 3X yer $$ back in no time.

I have some ideas also

..........Like many here will.....

I'm sure we'll be able to keep you busy...

Post by **Jacampb2** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:47 pm

Ahsmo wrote:Do you have the software to upload cad drawings?

Yes and no. The software I am using for a machine controller is called Mach3. It supports importing of .dfx files and will allow you to enter your cutter diameter and feedrates and stuff and will cut one dfx layer at a time, at varying depths if you request.

What you are actually asking about is known as CAM software. I have one program I have not used yet, it will import .dfx and allow a lot more tweaking than what the built in software in the controller does. The CAM software is called CamBam, and it is available as a free, unlimited freeware, no software limits, but it is lacking some features geared toward a professional shop. They sell a "pro" version for a reasonable price if it doesn't meet my needs. There is actually a HUGE variety of CAM packages out there, but they are each tailored to different types of machining. You can spend a lot of money putting together a complete portfolio to allow anything from engraving to full 6d machining. Don't ask about that one, I know there are only 3 dimensions. It is an industry standard name for how many axis' and degrees of freedom per axis that a machine can cut. My controller wont handle 6d, and a CAM package alone that can post the G-code for 6d is in the realm of $50k.

FuzzyHoNutz wrote:I'll be if you can mill custom MS sinks you make 3X yer $$ back in no time.

I have some ideas also ..........Like many here will.....

I'm sure we'll be able to keep you busy...

Bring it on! I think I talked to you about this briefly via PM. Cutting a MS sink out of a solid piece of billet is going to be big money, not necessarily in machine time, but in materials alone. Reasonable sizes could be cast and then machined to finish. I would assume that the original ones are extruded and then machined to finish. Regardless of the method used, I would still need either a good cad drawing, or a junk heat sink from someone to measure.

Funny thing is, I doubt I will make my money back from something like that, because it is most likely that I will try to horse trade my way to more old school PG amps

*edit* BTW, if one of you shoots me the major dimensions (i.e. the size of a block of billet that the sink would have to be machined from) than I will price material, maybe it wont be quite as bad as I am expecting....

Later,
Jason

rlockwood · Post by **rlockwood** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:59 pm

if you have any questions, I make aerospace parts 40hours a week, and have experience with basically every cam package on the market

but it sounds like you're alright.

(i'd recommend an older copy of bobcad)

also, there's no money in car audio, havent you guys figured that out yet...?!