First Thank You in advance for your help. Well....I'm determined but overwhelmed. I am a 41 yr old former Marine, wheelchair bound, 3 kids, wife and a English Bulldog. I love making things..models, resin models, wood art, holiday decorations, add lights and sound to scale models, computers, online gaming..I like it all.
I don't have a normal 9 to 5 job, and I try to fund my various hobbies by making and selling stuff at local craft shows and or on Ebay. I recently took a interest into intarsia, wood art, drop a pattern on wood, cut out parts with a scroll saw, contour parts with a sander, glue em to a back board, and put a finish on em. Well it just struck me that if I could build a CNC machine that could cut out the parts it would streamline the process and allow me to do more.
So I am asking for your collective help in guiding me to what may help. The largest wood yard cutout I do are about 24" x 48" but I am sure as with most hobbies bigger equals more money. I probably wouldn't want to make anything that would be limited to smaller than 24" x 24" but I am just guessing here...maybe 24" and a open ended axis thing is doable so that one axis isn't restricted in product length. Other ideas that came to mind are plaques, tables and such with pictures carved into them.
So not sure which way is best, I would say wood is the number one medium followed by foam and metal...not sure if what i am looking for can be done by one machine or If I pick one make it, let it make enough cash to move on to project number two. I have read a ton on CNC, waterjet, plasma and still am not sure what is the most feasable on a limited budget.
I have a 22' x 28' hobbyshop/garage to work with as far as space goes, and a fair amount of tools i can use to make whatever. Thank you in advance for any direction. And Semper Fi to all you other jarheads floating around inhere.
