committed to the new project....

Dan Noren

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first there was the purchase of the laminate trimmer. next was the ibm laptop for the brains, along with the linux operating system, and controlling software. then the 5 hp shop vac for dust control. then, i ordered the casters from northern tool, now that was an adventure. ordered the 3 1/2" casters (they were out of the 4"). when i opened the box, much to my surprise there were four 3" casters. highly usable, but hardly enough for what i needed. the label with the bar code was for the right size, but placed on the wrong casters. i let them know, and they apologized profusely, and refunded the price, and shipping, and let me keep the casters. i guess that's what happens when prison labor is used (the casters were made in china). then i bought the good 4" casters from hd, with the blue tires. last night (friday), i went to hd and picked up all the lumber, and mdf for the new bench, and dropped it off along with the other stuff at pop's. soon, very soon, when the weather really gets nice (and with the wife's :blah: permission), i will assemble the bench. hopefully after the next few months, i'll have set aside enough for the new machine. to be continued....
 
thanks allen! whole new adventure in woodworking. one of the guys at work has 3 of them, one of which he is converting into a 3d printer. he's already well under way in making a machine that will make the filament for said printer from really tiny pellets. he helped in getting my brain wrapped around the concept of 3d printing. all of the software, from converting the sketchup skp files to gcode (for the cnc), and for operating the cnc was free (i liked that part), and the machine itself will set me back around $700. so far the costs are $25 for the laminate router (we had a coupon for hf), $60 for the bench materials, and another $60 for the casters (got really good ones, rated for 310 lbs like the other benches).
 
Cool, need to get back on my "new" cnc project again and do some minor updates to the old one. What design are you planning to use? Are you using EMC2?

I'd be interest in your method of going from sketchup to gcode as well as how your co-worker is doing the 3d printing head. :wave:
 
the machine itself is in kit form from shapeoko, and i will be getting the longer rails (1000 mm as opposed to 400 mm). from sketchup 7, the file is exported to dxf, then using a free program, convert the dxf to gcode. then the laptop is restarted as a linux machine, and then using a program called linuxcnc to control the machine.

right now my co-worker is putting the finishing touches on the pellets to filament machine. as i understand it, he feeds the pellets (roughly 3 mm square) into a hopper, which empties into an auger, which feeds into the part where they are melted. the liquid is then sent to where it comes out the same diameter as needed for the print head, at the rate of about 8 inches an hour (blazing fast, neh?). if i understood him correctly, he is taking one of the cnc machines (one of the three he bought from where i'm getting mine), and replace the router with the print head (with all due modifications).

the hardware for the cnc machine is what they call open hardware, and the software is open source. i will be getting the full kit 110 v ($599), the optional longer rails ($29), and the dual (gantry) drive upgrade kit ($59). this brings the fun of cnc a little closer to the budget of the ordinary shmoo like me.
 
almost forgot, the laptop was a $119 craigslist special. works like a charm, does everything i need it to do. also, here are pics of the plan for the bench. the top where the cnc will go is 3/4" mdf on the top. the laptop will be located on the small stand on the end.
 

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