Making a few bucks with the CNC

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Rather than have Leo's most valuable information on this topic get lost in another thread, I started this one. So far I have distilled this out of his recent posts:

Leo's YouTubes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2...HOh9PNg/videos and https://www.youtube.com/user/arcticfox46/videos

Place to start with software: F-Cam, CamBam, SheetCam and draftsight are all free. Silo or Hexagon is low cost. Leo is favorable to Vector products and participates on their forum as time affords.

Viable affordable machines include the Instructables machines that Bill and Dan are building, or the homemade machine that Darren built. I am certain there are others. Also look into Shapeoko.

Possible ROI is ~$5000 per year for a parttime business. Usual business skills will apply. Maybe Rob will chime in with some thoughts here.

Leo suggests studying some of the sign experts, like Dan Sawatsky, Sandy Baird, Melissa Jones, and Roger Mann. Goggle as needed. And attend trade shows as are applicable and available.

He also suggests setting up an account at a sign materials supply and trying stuff. All will not be solid wood.

For ideas, begin a drawing journal and a digital photo collection. Also, may I suggest here fiverr.com. For very little money you can have a graphic artist design for you. I had logos and other graphic art done for my retreat ministry. And for a few bucks more, I own the copywrites, as well. And they are in multiple file formats.

Thus far, my start-up budget for the first year is $5000. I broke it down this way: CNC $1000, software $1000 (if we're going to be serious here), cutters $500, accessories $500, marketing budget $1000, business set-up costs $500 and the learning process costs $500. Budget means prepare to spend this much. Adjust in the second year.

The good news is I have all the attendant other tools to make this work; vacuum systems, hand tools, clamps, other portable tools for pre-processing and post-processing, work tables, shelf storage, etc. I also have some experience with this and with being in business.

I do not expect to make money the first year. I do expect to recover my costs in the second year. From the third year on, I expect to be solidly and consistently in the black. Make enough money to go see Toni in Spain!

The motivation is to raise the rest of the money for the house and to have some fun. Love this stuff!

Let the comments and suggestions begin!
 
Some questions to help sort out the software. Am I right in that there are three software considerations; design/drawing software, tool path generation software, and machine milling software? Tell me how the various packages already mentioned fit into this scheme and what else ought we to know. I hand coded my ShopBot after hand measuring a hand made prototype. That was 15 years ago. There has to be an easier way now.

Maybe a family visit to Jason ought to be part of my research.....
 
You're right in the software categories - the industry refers to them as follows:

CAD - Computer Aided Drafting - This is where you model what you want to make. Literally the final dimensions of the parts you want. There are lots of CAD apps out there. Some are strictly just 2D vector-based. Some are 2.5D, some are full 3D.

CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing - This takes CAD drawings (usually vectors) and your cut recipe (cutter, speed, feeds, ramping, plunge methods, etc) and turns them into toolpaths that will achieve the part designed in CAD

Control - This is what takes the toolpaths (usually as gcode) and calculates whatever electronic and mechanical needs your CNC machine requires. In most cases, that's pulses to drive steppers or servos.


What's Free?
CAD - Sketchup, FreeCAD, Blender, Inkscape, DraftSight, and many many more.
CAM - F-engrave (i think this is what leo meant to say, i don't know of F-cam), MakerCAM (http://makercam.com/), SketchUCAM (for sketchup) and i'm sure more
Control - All i know of is EMC2 for linux - i played with it a little bit early on


What Costs?
CAD - AutoCAD, TurboCAD, Bob CAD/CAM, Solidworks, etc
CAM - Vectric's Products, Artcam's products, Bob CAD/CAM, CamBam, etc.
Control - Mach3, Mach4 and a host of proprietary stuff.


As always, sometimes there's crossover in some packages. Vectric's Aspire and vCarve both allow for modelling (CAD) as well as toolpathing (CAM) - and I would almost argue that you can probably do 99% of what you'd want in those apps alone once you got used to them. There are times, for me anyway, where I like to draw things up in SketchUp - full assemblies - then take those parts and cut 'em on the CNC (my Overly Complex Sandpaper Storage project is one of those). When Vectric started directly importing SketchUp files, I was in high heaven because I nearly always model up everything in SKP first, and it was sometimes painful to get it from SKP in into VCP to cut on the CNC. They've made it MUCH easier now.

You can get pretty far with just free stuff - there's a guy Leo and I know, Dan, who built a CNC out of 2x4s and drawer slides and uses lots of free or low-cost software to get his projects cut and he has fantastic results. You're only limited by your ingenuity and Dan's living proof of that. :D

My workflow is as follows:

1. Project Idea comes in (either you think of it, or customer comes along)
2. Assess the operations needed and if you have the capacity (v-carving? pockets? inlays? 3D sculpting?)
3. Assess how you'll get the parts modeled (do you need someone to draw it, can you rely on existing clipart, etc)
4. Reconcile what's needed and how they'll be modeled with the software you have and outsource or acquire as necessary
5. Estimate costs (materials, steps 2, 3 and 4, prep/setup, cutters, finishing, processing/shipping)
6. Present quick sketch mockups/representations along with estimate and Get approval (in writing!)
7. Collect Up-front deposit if applicable (i usually require 1/3 up front if i have to do the modelling)
7. Start modelling.
8. Present final models and get final approval
9. Collect Milestone $$ (I usually get another 3rd here)
10. Source materials (if necessary)
11. Process materials into blanks for machining (break down sheet goods to fit, joint/plane/glue up panels, apply sealer coat, mask, etc)
12. Mount blank and run CNC operations
13. Repeat as needed (11 and 12)
14. Final processing of parts and finish
15. Package and Delivery
16. Collect final 3rd of payment

It's not set in stone, but those are the basic steps usually needed to account for. Sometimes I only do 50% up front and 50% at the end with check-in communications throughout the process. Depending on the size of the job, I may also need to offer samples which I try to avoid because almost all of the work has to be done to make the sample as does the actual part so you have to kinda balance when a sample is worthwhile.

Doing 5k a year in revenue would be easy with even the least little bit of marketing, I've found. My first year after my machine was built, I didn't really advertise, I just goofed around on my own projects and people kinda came out of the woodwork and asked if I could cut something for 'em. Without even trying, I recouped all of my software costs in the first year (about a grand). That's with absolutely no intentional marketing at all. Just talkin' to friends who followed me build my machine. 3 years in, and my machine is still running reliably (tho i need to tune out some backlash I've developed) and it's almost completely paid for (hardware and software) with work it's generated.

I think if you really did put 1k into marketing your first year, you'd likely have no trouble turning a profit the first year. The real hurdle is education - people still think CNC is just a magic robot you push a button and out pops their part - they underestimate the modelling needs and the effort it takes to draw up their parts.

I turn a lot of work away because the prospect thinks in terms of the object alone, not the "ramp up" to get them the object they want. It usually goes something like "Well if you wanted more than one, it would probably be worth it - but for one-off, the time drawing it will far outstrip the time to make it. The first one's always expensive - the ones after that are a mere fraction of the initial one." I've gotten faster at drawing stuff up quickly now, and a lot of that has to do with your tools and is the reason I gladly ponied up for vCarvePro.

I could spend 4 hours trying to get sketchup to do what I want, then juggle it around with free CAM programs and have to run tests and ensure all worked well ... or I could draw it in VCP in 15 minutes, maybe run a test if it's an operation i've never done before, and be ready to go. That can be the difference between getting the job and not, so it was easy math. And I just do this as a hobby - i'm not in business, really. It's still very much my toy and not something I put much demand on most of the time. The projects I take on have to interest me in some way - I have no desire to be pumping out parts constantly.

You're more than welcome to swing by sometime - maybe we could get Brent and Sharon to coast down the hill for a spell, even! :D
 
Oh, i was gonna make one more note about $$$ ... you said $1000 for your machine. Be cautious here because rigidity and reliability come at a price. I haven't been keeping up with the current machines lately but I'm a little dubious about how much machine $1k will get you.

I'm amazed my machine is still holding together and I've got about $1600 in materials into it. It's not quite as rigid as I'd like but so far it's been reliable. My machine has a 28x60 cutting surface and a 3" overhang on one end so i can machine the ends of boards up to 40" long. I wouldn't count my time in building it at 100%, though, because I was also fabricating as I went, too - using my limited capabilities and whatnot. With my current machine making parts, I could easily build a copy of this thing in half the time.

I don't mean to rain on the parade with the financial side of things. But if you're gonna rely on the machine for business, I would look at higher quality machines and I don't believe many are offered at that price point. The quality of the vital components (linear guides, drive system, spindle) are going to directly affect the reliability of the machine. If you want a machine that can do at least 24" square, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a solid performer that's up to the task of running for 6-8 hours a day several days a week and I would urge you to consider at least $2k for your machine if you aren't building it yourself.
 
Budget adjusted for the machine. Now I will try to internalized everything else you said. I really love your list. Thanks for that. I am not interested in building my own machine. I remember watching your build videos and remember thinking this is way beyond my abilities. Not on the mechanical side but on the electronic side.

So anyone with suggestions for $2000 CNC machines? The most useful cutting area for me would be 24"x48" but I am willing to start smaller and upgrade to larger in the future. I have some product ideas that would allow a 12"x24" work area. Might be a good starting point. Space at this point is an issue, but once the house is done, the shop area right now is designed at ~1,000 sf.
 
A couple of points to ponder.

I have evolved in my use of materials. You may notice in some of my videos that I do not just talk about wood - but I reference materials.

The real sign makers rarely use wood. Wood is not a great sign material, for a myriad of reasons. It's GREAT to have a Cherry Plaque for a wall hanging inside the house - but not for outside.

House numbers will sell - don't make them out of wood.

OK - so materials - HDU - High Density Urethane is by far the most popular sign material for dimensional signs. I use it, and I have grown to really appreciate it. It cuts like butter, does NOT absorb water - at all, does not warp, twist bow. It does not shrink or contract. Paint stays on it ant does not peal. It is light weight and easy to handle. It is a GREAT sign material.

HDU will cost $12 - $20 dollars per board foot. So - Get over it - the sooner you get over that the better off you will be.
Sell a sign made out of HDU and you will have some left over. Sell a sign for $350 (easy) and have 3/4 of a sheet left over, plus some profit.

I talk about HDU in my Carousel animals video

There are also substrates - Alubond. There is a thin aluminum on each side with PVC core. It is strong and easy to work with normal woodworking tools. Usually one side is gloss and the other side satin. It's a great material for the base of a sign. Less money than HDU but mode money than wood.

PVC - like the stuff you can get at borg for trim boards. You can buy it in 4x8 sheets. Good durable material particularly to make letters out of. Prime and paint then glue on to a substrate. The PVC sheet can also be a substrate.

LORD adhesives. TRUST ME - this brand makes a difference. I glued a piece of PVC to Alubond. I schffed up the surface and cleaned with DNA. There was no possible way my hands could break the bond. I wedged a screwdriver under with a hammer and pried with a LOT of force and it broke the PVC.

PANTING - Look at Dan Sawatsky's Imagination Corporation - he uses a spray gun for nothing - he brushes everything. There is a LOT of learning for painting. Dan and the Oxenhams have taught me the technique of glazing.

Joe Crumley of Norman Signs in Oklahoma is a MASTER sign artist - he has a lot of great techniques for sign painting. HE does wood signs - but - not on the level I am even going to ever try.


CHINA MACHINES -- YES YES YES - definitely explore that market. I am pretty sure my 48x48 machine will come from China.

BUT - that is all about signs - That is where the money is - and fun to make too.

We can explore, boxes, scrolls, Corbels, Wreaths, Intarsia, Engraving, picture frames, cabinet engravings, Ohhhh there is such to explore.
 
I spend some time on 3Dsign forum, GREAT source of information, great people.

Dan Hammerstrom is a pretty knowledgeable guy when it comes to machine. He bought one from China custom designed to his specs. He has had GREAT customer support and his machine is a great product. Dan has a few machines from China and a few other people on that forum also bought from the same manufacturer.

If you dig through this thread there is a bunch of technical information and some pricing.

Jason and Melissa Jones had a Shop Bot Alpha for several years and they just bought one of the Chinese machines. Melissa said it is a HUGE improvement over the Shop Bot. Melissa Jones of Nice Carvings ( http://www.nicecarvings.com/ ) has created signs all over the world and for the Navy as well as the film industry. They own and operate the 3D sign forum.

http://www.3dsignforum.com/forum/19...-china-cnc-with-long-run-times-its-rock-solid

At the end of 2014 the Chinese company had 2 machines --- 48 x 48 for sale @ $2400. You cannot build one of compatible quality for that price. Of course there is shipping and rigging to contend with (about $1500).

When I go for a 48 x 48 machine I will be budgeting about $5,000. Of course most of the money is already in the bank - from sales. I will have NO cash outlay.

I know several people than bought machines "Sale CNC" in China and they are very happy. Again these people are not first time machine buyers - they are seasoned professionals.

There is a lot of negative hype about Chinese machines and I am sure "some" of it is true. Most bad raps I hear are from people that have never owned a machine at all - but they would "certainly" never buy Chinese. --- OK???

These are the 2 machines I am most knowledgeable about.

My friend Rob in Indiana sells I think Roc-Tech. He also just sold his Shop Bot. I don't know a whole lot about the brand but Rob thinks it is really great.
 
I sold my ShopBot because I was moving in 2004. Now I think they are overpriced. Four years ago I joined Joe's CNC and have watched builds there. He has a new Titan machine he prototyped and is now testing. Don't know yet whether there will be plans, kits, sub-assemblies or what. Not including controllers, likely ~$4K for a machine ready to assemble.

My information gathering matrix is getting well populated! Thanks. Lots of research to do, but keep it coming. I am collecting links, resources, suggestions, opinions in every area that pops up.

Which brings me to the comment you made about signs being the best money-maker. Your thinking? What other markets might pursue? I noted boxes, scrolls, Corbels, Wreaths, Intarsia, Engraving, picture frames, and cabinet engravings.

I want to decide on products and markets before I decide on the machine.
 
Well this is the kind of thread and thing i trully love.

First let me say forgive typing, grammar etc at present, pain killers do not make for great mental companions but i will try contribute my 5 cents worth.

What Carol is talking about is a small business. It dont matter if its one man or 500.
The issue i come across all the time is the same.
These businesses all start from a technical competency point of view.

The problem is that the success of these businesses are not technically dependent to the extent that most small business owners view it.

I start at completely different point.

Who is the client that you intend selling your wares to.?
Can you visualize this person and group of persons. Can you put them in an age or gender category etc.
Are you targeting to sell to other businesses or direct to the consumer.

You will notice nothing above has to do with the tools or technical side of a product or service.

Next is what is the product? What is the current market price for this product? How is yours going to be different or is your product or idea unique. If its not unique how do you see people viewing your product versus what currently exists.

In short what is your target market that you aiming to approach. What do you know about them.
What is the size of the opportunity? How much of that existing opportunity are you planning to serve/ command for yourself. How far do you plan to sell , local, county ,state, national, international? How do you plan on going about this? If via web, then what plans and budget have you allocated for getting yourself noticed on a continous basis on the web.

In short all a matter of good planning under one big heading ....Marketing. Do market research, do competitor review.
Whats the point of 3 guys at the local fleamarket all selling the same stuff. The only beneficiary in a case like this is the consumer as the only differentiation you are offering is price. So he who is prepared to do it for the least/ lowest price gets the business.

When we do something for business we should seperate it from hobby. Sounds obvious but its not what i see happening.

To me if cnc is just a method and process. It speaks to consistency, quality , throughput, reduced labor components, accuracy and machined finish, a degree of manual automation.

Not every product needs it. But of all the machines and tools us hobbiests could buy to have fun using to make a product i would say its the single machine that lends itself to semi automatsd production.

But what gets to me is when you look at how its sold, like things such as low end laser engravers etc the manufacturers sell it based on its mass capabilities such as say carving and hence carving signs or engraving something.
Yet a small business should be looking to try focus on a niche market where creativity, ingenuity can be applied and there is less competition making for better pricing and hence good gross margins.

Next Carol has listed a budget.
My version of a budget causes most small business owners to run for the hills.

My version of a budget seperates two different costs.
Capital costs which get to be placed on balance sheet and depreciated over time versus operating costs.
Now when we look at operating costs we seperate again the costs related to sales ie what it costs to make the product in the form of labor and material and the overhead to operate the business.

Next do a sales budget. Again small business owners run for the hills. But this is where business is made or lost.
My questions are.....
Who you selling what to on a daily weekly monthly quarterly basis.
Ooooh ....Rob you dreaming is what i am told at this stage. Lol

But you need to recognise, you are essentially a startup. You are acting as a venture capitalist.
You are risking money to make money.
Would you rather fool yourself that..someone will come along and buy your product simply because you hung up a shingle and opened a shop and have a product to sell.

Would you like it if the guys running businesses where your 401k is invested ran them on a basis of setup shop and they will come.

So why should your startup be different?

When you do the spreadsheet of a budget properly prior to sinking the cash into it and buying equipment, the easy part everyone enjoys....spending money....lol, you get to do what i call risk management and get to evaluate the likelyhood of success of your venture.
Personally i would sooner do that on paper and burn a little time before is invest that find this out afterwards and then be looking to recover by selling equipment at 50% of nee hoping to get your money back.

What makes the difference between the survivor small business person and the failure is the survivor learns to sell and understand their market. The ones that do the best get a real grip on that market.

So back to the sales budget.
The more you break it down the easier it becomes to see just what actions you need to be taking. Also when you do get going, you have a reference plan to measure yourself against.

Say you said month 1 you set a target to sell 20 widgets.
Well if you sold 15 then you may be below target but at least you got out the gate. You did something correct because you made sales. But it also tells you that you have to put yourself under pressure to find an additional 5 widgets to stay on track for you budgeted profit to work out.

This means exploring strategies, taking actions that are likely to increase sales from avenues you have not previously tried.

But this is NOT what small business does. Instead it hunkers down and "hopes" next month will be different.

This is where i say "Hope is not a strategy"

Now i will throw out some ideas for cnc business that i just observed which is a niche market but exists.

At my hospital the physiotherapy dept had very basic equipment. Man it was almost third world. But that was really an unfair obsrrvation. For their needs as setup by gov. It was just what was needed. Their only goal was (in my case knee replacement) kick start you with a walker, get you bending and moving that leg, knee joint etc.
So they had a round disc of wood (could be mdf for our purpose) the bottom of it had three roller balls.
You place it on the floor, sit on a bench, put your foot on it and start sliding foot back and forth straight out infront of you.
It waz genius. It raised the foot say 2 inches off ground. It was about 1.25 thick wood . i would make it out of 2 pieces of 3/4" mdf. Use cnc to cut like they did a recess for the roller ball to drop in and even pop the drill holes for the roller ball mounting screws

Ok enough of the technicalities. Net is this single hospital does 500 knee replacements per year.
People could do with taking one of these home. Not available and who ever made the ones i used did not even put a scratch name on with a sharpie.

There was another device also appropriate for woodworkers to make and i know of others from my previous encounters.lol.

So why do i mention this as an example?
Well the market demand is there, i can quantify it and if i had a single sample nit difficult to handmake i could hawk it around and see the likelyhood of selling these things.
I can explore channels that would be outlets for the product, could explore influencers to the sale (hospital, doctors even physiotherapists) and again take the risk out and verify there is a serious potential and just what the price would be.
Its a niche product so little competition, it can be made very low cost and suited to cnc mass production. In fact you could be out selling while the machine was cutting blanks for stock.

This in my view is how you should be looking at any small business venture.
More later.if there is interest in this thread.





Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Thanks, Rob. I have just started another matrix on marketing. PM coming at you as well.

I also now see another way to organize my information that will be more helpful to me. I do know about finding my market, finding where to find them, finding out how they find the things they buy, and then finding out what they buy. I do know about researching the competition. Now you have alerted me to completely new products in a market I had not considered that would appear to have little competition.

That said, my budget numbers to this point are just tossed out there to not lose sight of the need to spend money in these areas, but also to adjust them as new information comes in. Already adjusted the machine cost budget and see that inching up rapidly as I research.
 
Talk about spindles. Obviously routers, both 1/4" and 1/2" collet machines. Noisy though. Dremel tools, less robust but maybe quieter? Other? Both of those are relatively inexpensive. What else is out there and what might you use given your druthers?

What about variable speed in terms of spindle RPM's?
 
Talk about spindles. ...

I'm no expert but, when I ordered my Shapeoko kit, I definitely wanted the quiet spindle. I got the 300W unit but one might want a more robust unit for more commercial endeavors. I'll be able to cut sizable stuff with this spindle - it'll just be slower. As the the "quiet" aspect, it's much quieter than any 110VAC router I have seen! The only thing I hear when running a job is the bit in the material.

As to variable speed, I've read opinions all over the place on that. For small bits, you'd want to run full speed all the time anyway. I have a manual speed adjustment on my spindle and have tried different speeds for the heck of it but I don't see that it makes much difference.
 
Last edited:
ABSOLUTELY

Do the due diligence.

Know your market - know your target.

Know the pricing.

Don't worry about competition.

Don't worry about being different.

Like I said - Wendy's is across the street from McDonalds.
For all intents and purpose they are the same.

Personally - I have done my due diligence - spend several years doing it.

I disagree with separating hobby from business.

If it was a full time business to put food on the table and pay the bill yes, but I am not talking about a full time business. I am talking about a hobby business. There is a difference.

Also, I would not recommend a business plan whereas one would outlay $5,000 and in the first month $0, but then increase at any given rate from there. That is a plan for failure, unless the income stream is a known and calculated stream. Any business plan needs to be adaptive and flexible. I never said anything about ROI - Return on Investment. This entire thing is assuming one already has all the necessary tools and equipment and knowledge.

I also would not recommend any money outlay for advertising. Spending $1000 for advertising is a drop in the ocean.

No no - I am suggesting a small small approach.

Who is the target market? Small businesses. I did outline a small town in Wickford Rhode Island. Out of 30 business - maybe I would make one sale. That is cold calling and knocking on doors. It is a real marketing business strategy. In that there is a target market and a business plan. I have also done a lot of research into pricing - Dimensional signs sell for $125 - $250 per square foot - per side. The math is not hard to do.

I am also going to try selling to crafters - they need signs also.

Another target market - people that like to decorate with unique, one of a kind, items from the local artist. Typically those people are professional people with decent incomes and nice houses. We all know those people. We see them in church, we meet them at work, we meet them at lots of social gatherings. They generally don't shop at Walmart for furniture or clothing. All we need to do is have a few pictures with us and spend a little time talking to them. Facebook is a market - but a bit fickle. Having a gallery online is helpful as well as youtube.

To really get serious - join a BNI group. Business Networking International. They are small groups of people that get together to talk about and promote their businesses. This is PURELY a business activity. You can join a local Chamber of commerce. At this level we are not talking about a hobby business any longer.

One of the things in business is to 1) Create a brand, 2) Create a 30 second sales speech describing your business, 3) create a one minute and a 5 minute speech. This is REAL stuff. Have business cards to hand out - and hand them out to every person you meet. Leave Business cards on community boards. Leave a pretty wooden business card display on the counter at the 7-11 of any other community store. Leave them at the hardware store.

At this time - I don't want to ramp up that much. I am in middle of remodeling my house, then I need to do the entire outside of the house and furnace. I will retire in 5-6 years and what I am doing is preparing to be ready for that. This for me will be a retirement business. At that time, I plan on $5-10. I can easily make $3k-5k now, without trying. Last year or 2 I have refused to do it - so I can work on my house.

There is a LOT of Due Diligence for anyone that wants to venture into anything like this. I desperately HOPE, that what I am saying is NOT the foundation for a business plan for anyone else. It is my hope to inspire others to at least consider the possibilities.

I am sorry if I am leading anybody into false hopes - that is not my intent. I just have a lot of excitement for this stuff and it doesn't take too much to get me going on it.
 
OK, let's don't let this thread go off the tracks here. There is too much good information being shared. I was self employed for over 20 years. I have an idea of what it takes to remain in business. I invited Rob's opinion because he is a pro and there may be others lurking and thinking about the same thing as I am. And Rob makes his money doing what he did here for free. I respect his ideas and he can save me or anyone else with less experience at being in business a lot of time and money. So let's leave this aspect untouched from this point forward.

Back to spindles. Bill, tell us more about your spindle. RPM's? Size and type of cutters? Brand? What kind of a spindle are you using, Dan? Are the cutters router bits, special cutters, end mills, what? Darren, aren't you using a Bosch Colt? Leo, is your spindle a router? Jason, you are using a Colt also, aren't you?

Leo, I know you like MSLC as a supplier. I used Onsrud when I had my machine years ago. I also had access to a local machine cutter supplier from whom I bought 2 flute end mills that worked very well, and were less money than router bits. Happily they are still in business and now I am again local to them.

For a spindle I would like something with variable speed, the power of a small router and a lot quieter. My experience was that various different materials had a different optimal cutter RPM.

There are so many different approaches these days. I had my machine when small shops were just getting into CNC - when a now $9k ShopBot could be had for $1500. Lots has happened since then and there are a lot more choices out there. And a more diverse market as Jason and Rob pointed out.

I just re-read this post and am amazed by how many now have a CNC machine. Really kewel!
 
My spindle is currently a milwaukee 5616-24 - 2-1/4hp router. It's awesome - i bought lots of collets for it from Elaire (check 'em out, here: http://www.elairecorp.com/milwaukeeroutercollets.html - they offer several makers). This let me get smaller cutters (1/8) and metric (because i buy cutters as I find the deals, and don't really care what the units are).

I WANT a water cooled spindle. Probably 2kw. Something with an ER20 collet at minimum. I have run my machine for 8 solid hours and I'm sure that's not great on the milwaukee router even though it's a fantastic router. 3D carvings take FOREVER even on fast machines. It's just the nature of 'em. Complete with software controlled variable speed (using a PWM and the pins on my breakout board). I want it because I'd like to get better results machining brass and aluminum with it. My router bottoms out at 10,000RPM and it's real tough to find the feeds/speeds sweet spot with smaller cutters at that speed. Bigger cutters flex less and tend to have a larger butter zone for good surface finish but sometimes I want to get into tight corners.


Someday - a tool changer would be awesome - but I'm a decade away from that, I bet. :)


This is a fine thread! :D
 
I'm using a rotozip tool as my spindle, it was smaller than a full sized router and would take 1/8" or 1/4" bits, so it fit my needs at the time. I'm looking to add a full sized router or one like Jason mentioned. I run my roto zip via a SSR, so it allows some control of the motor speed using PVM, though I'm not sure it's good for the rotozip or the SSR, so usually just run all out.
 
Top