CNC Router
Out of context: Reply #4
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- detritus1
I've made one.
Well, a much more hands-on friend and I have.
Well, he has mostly — I was just the labour monkey :)
I'm the tech person running it, sorting the electronics and then production flow from design and CAD to gcode, etc.
Depending upon how complex you want to operate, I'd *wholly* recommend building your own as you can get a lot more machine for a lot less buck, especialyl at your intended size.
It depends upon how comfortable you are with the underlying principles (eg. I've owned and run a laser cutter for the past 9 years which gave me ample training in the basics, including teh all important material restrictions/possibilities) and your capacity for DIYing it yourself. having seen it done, I'd now feel comfortable building my own, for instance. Indeed, I have plans set out for two very specific machines :)
Also depends upon desired feature set — for instance, automated tool-swapping was beyond our ability, so we went for a manual approach there.
If you can wield CAD/3D to outsource your own components you've won half the battle.
it might be worth getting a small DIY kit on the cheap first (<£500 for something that will actually be functional) to familiarise yourself and project through options. This is the one thing I wish I'd done first.
- • Over-spec the aluminium profiles.
• FULLY COST EVERYTHING (we didn't — cost creep was hilarious, but still cheaper than we'd've ever paid for pre-built)detritus - • DON'T Skimp on the electronics. Go at least for something like.. http://www.geckodriv…detritus
- < that said — I paid for a commercial laser cutter, and likely overpaid by a factor of four on it... but ..*touches wood*.. it's had less than a week downtimedetritus
- NOW I'll make my next machine, but I wouldn't've originally. Depends upon how commercial you want to go and how self-reliant you can be.detritus
- Thanks man! I don't think I know enough at this point to build my own properly, but it's a good thought. Probably have more insight after I take some training.BK
- • Over-spec the aluminium profiles.