CNC machining for miniatures

[mangozac]

[mangozac]

Bec you and I are going to have to meet up some time and discuss these things in person. Preferably one of those times when it's too hot to cast and the Tequila is out

A good friend and mentor of mine (an old retired engineer) has a pretty good home workshop where he does a lot of hobby engineering and such (like miniature engines and those trains they run around the park in Nambour). Part of that is a large CNC mill (and he's currently converting a lathe to CNC). He's been giving me some pointers and when I get to the implementation stages I'll be able to go use his gear to machine up some of the components.

I bought a z axis linear screw assembly off this guy which will make things easier: . There are some good bargains in there if you know what you're looking for. I've got a lot of the other parts from an old specialised industrial printer, including some great stepper motors and a perfect power supply.

I want to go for a working area of around 12" x 10" x 6".

I'm not so keen on the look of those blacktoe routers you linked to. They seem quite big so I wonder about their precision. I would be doubling up use of my machine for routing out prototype electronic PCBs, which would require very fine precision.

The style of machine I'm planning is similar to the machine.

The next step is to find some time to draw up some plans and actually construct the machine!

[blind pig]

From what they have written on the associated Blog of that Black Toe (stoopid name BTW) machine, they are using it (or the smaller versions of it) for PCB's.

My local machine shop (I love this place) has sent out a catalogue last week with this in it.

http://www.carbatec.com.au/cnc-shark-an ... c8f48f60a0

Bloody expensive, I know, but you get the idea.....

[mangozac]

Wow that one is way too expensive. For that price you could get a CNC Sherline mill!

I was at uni a week ago and had to see one of my lecturers who was in a lab playing with a Sherline CNC mill. It was nice to see in person and it is indeed a quality unit.

[blind pig]

So, anyone found a good CNC mill/router table that can do at least 2'x3' and 6" Z axis that we don't have to sell our souls to buy?

Hows about 3D printers?

[mangozac]

Why such a strange sized working envelope? Usually the Z axis is much smaller than the X and Y axes...

Just found a via . Extremely crude but by using slightly more expensive parts the precision could be improved easily enough.

[blind pig]

The size is just to fit on a desktop, as my garage is getting pretty full with lathes, bandsaws etc.

The largish Z axis is so I can use it for model making larger things like gaming scenery and gun furniture (stocks, bosses, cheek pieces, grips)

[blind pig]

So, anyone found a CNC Router table that is remotely useful?

I've been looking at the various ones talked about above (Blackfoot, Sherline, Probotix), but they take a bit of knowledge with electronics and require some degree of careful construction - both things I'm not blessed with.

eBay have a few for sale, unfortunately the postage on the buggers is often more than the cost of the item.

There is one eBay seller that has just plans for sale, and as I have access to a rather large CNC router (friend of friend in the Brisbane CNC Group) may get these plans (USD$25) and get him to cut them out for me on his router. It'd be the electronics that'd get me. I can soldier, but that is about the limit or my skills in that regard, and as for computers, well.........

Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope!

[mangozac]

Nope at the moment that couldn't be further from my mind (LOTS going on!).

If you have the cash I'd go for one of the kits. Either way I can give you a hand with the electronics side of things - it's right up my alley (*cough*4 months away from being a qualified professional electronic engineer *cough*). I'm pretty handy with mechanical assembly also (but do have a machining expert I can rely on if I get stuck).

[blind pig]

With the AUD just above parity with the USD, it makes one of these almost look reasonable?

http://www.probotix.com/FireBall_v90_cnc_router_kit/

Wonder how you'd do a 4th axis?

[mangozac]

Hmm yes very attractive. What kind of 4th axis are you thinking of?

[blind pig]

[mangozac]

Hahaha fair enough! Well if you wanted to make precision gears and stuff you could have the workpiece rotate about the Z-axis. Alternately if you want to get undercuts and the like you could have the tool rotate about the Y-axis where it mounts to the Z-axis. Make sense?

I'd personally just stick with 3-axis. Programming the 4th axis could be a pain without expensive software....

[mangozac]

Just stumbled across this machine:
Although it's a mill, not a router, it's all ready to go for not a bad price. But probably too small a work area for you. Proxxon tools are quite decent quality IIRC...

[blind pig]

Thanks for that!

I can seriously see myself getting a router of some sort within the new year.

There are some great mill/lathe combos out there for under $5K that I've been looking at. I can also see myself getting into trouble with what you can make with a mill and lathe.

A 3D printer is still a distant dream........