I have lots of friends but none of them know anything about machines or machining. Tools? they say :withstupi

The is an old thread...are you still around?

I am also in the Vancouver, WA area. I started my project a year or more ago and got stalled out. I've recently started working on it again. My progress is documented at www.cncwright.com (http://www.cncwright.com).

Welcome to cnczone, I watch from a distance

Hey guys I'm in the Portland Vancouver area too

welcome to the club

I also live in Portland OR but so far I've seen no one to ask about CNC.

Just wondering if any of you folks in Portland have built a machine?
I'm in Newberg and would like to take a look at anything you have...

Thanks,
cpy911

I'm west of Portland, and I have finished a mini-mill conversion. haven't done much with it recently, but anyone wanting to come look at it and discuss, I'll let you hear everything I know about CNC, shouldn't take more than a few minutes...

Rod
cervelorod at gmail dot com

Very new to all this CNC stuff. what's a mini -mill?
Do we have any mentors in the area?

I live in Woodburn, about 30 miles south of Portland. I am building a CNC router. I am very much a CNC newbie even though I have been reading about it for a couple of years.

Jeff Davis from HomeCNC (one of the moderators here) lives near Portland.

Also there a few people in the Portland Model Engineers club that are active in CNC. <www.portlandmodelengineers.org> PME also has a CNC Special Interest SIG within the club.

I currently live in SE portland OR and am also building one for my own. Mine is basically similar to Pracitical CNC or Dyna CNC type of model. It's pretty much slow to build mine though.

I currently live in SE portland OR and am also building one for my own. Mine is basically similar to Pracitical CNC or Dyna CNC type of model. It's pretty much slow to build mine though.

Cool!! I don't feel lonely anymore!

Hi All,
West of McMinnville here. Still setting up my shop after moving so I haven't made a machine yet but I'm just about ready. I Already have bearings, rails, motors, leadscrews, drivers and port interface breakouts, and various aluminum stock. I just have to put my drill mill back together first. Hmmm, maybe I should retrofit it as a first project?

I'm a retired Senior Electronic Technologist from a research and develpoment laboratory. I'm pretty grounded in the electronics area including computers and software programming. Mechanically I do okay with my lathe, drill mill, measuring tools, books and CAD. I think I have a pretty wide knowledge base and understanding of science in general, inherited from my career and work.

I'd like to offer assistance to a CNCzone member(s) that goes beyond the questions answers development of a FAQ sheet. Well that too. I guess maybe I should ask what do you need or want to know?

moonlighttech,

Thank you for responding. I have got my router put together except for wiring the home and limit switches. I have done some jogging with it and hope to have it running shortly. Here is a link to my construction thread. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10425

I would love to get acquainted.

Hi Alan!

I jumped to your construction thread and read your log and viewed the photo's of your journey. WOW!! If you're a newbie I'm Little Bo Peep!! All who have posted here should check it out as well to see what's possible with an idea as it grows. I really enjoyed it, I think it made my hands dirty!

I'm not actually sure what the discussion limits are on this forum and I've seen the dreaded (wrong) icon! I'll post further on your machine construction thread.
------

Hi Guys,

I'm west of Portland, OR.

I'm thinking about doing a CNC retrofit on an old Mill/Drill I have, so I've been just reading and learning for now.

Hi local PDX folks!!
I've been lurking in the background for a while now, and just found this thread today. I live in the Tualatin area (I-5/ I-205 ) .
I've been interested in CNC for years now and have been collecting parts and peices. I'm gonna' do a small "mill" type machine, as opposed to Router. I'm ready to bring it all together now, but don't know diddley about electronics. (Kinda' like riding a bike: you can read about it forever, but you don't know HOW 'till you actually DO it).
I'd love to talk to some local DIY- CNC people & maybe learn something, certianly get some inspiration. ( After 20 years, I've realized that my wife is NOT a good person to bounce my ideas off of.)
Hope to hear from you soon!
Richard.
dadcolisch@yahoo.com (Richard.dadcolisch@yahoo.com)

Hi Kludge and Richard. My specialty is electronics. I'll be glad to answer questions in general or specific and in depth if necessary. I try to limit my answers here to making contact but it's a public forum so I speak only for myself.

:idea:
If you're begining to build a CNC machine may I suggest you start a new thread about your project in one of the machine building logs. It's a good way to keep track of questions, answers, your efforts and personal comments about your experience building it. You can even add photo's of your progress. Plus it will be seen by those who need the picture to avoid a thousand words, like myself! What say ye?
-

Hi moonlighttech,

Thank you for the kind offer.

After careful evaluation of the machine and my available time, I decided to sell the old mill/drill, and it went to a good home.
I'm now pondering the new vs retrofit-used machine question.

/Frank

Would others in the area be up for a Meet & Greet & Eat ?

I'm planning on going to the Northwest Machine Tool Expo on one of the two days (May 16 or 17).

I'm also up for getting together next month (March).

/Frank

Hi, I am going to be enrolled in some basic drafting CAD-CAM classes this spring, and would like some hands on experience getting trained to run a CNC! I will work for FREE if you are able to take some time and teach me how to run a CNC and all the tricks behind smooth operation. I am looking to purchase a smaller CNC router, maybe a table top... In order to build guitars and other related parts. I am a fast learner, and I own my own business so I have fairly flexible hours if someone is willing to take me under their wing! If not, I would also be open to a meet and great with other CNC heads, even if just to listen to ideas, etc. I read that someone said there is a convention or something this coming middle of march? I would love to attend, as I am looking to purchase a CNC fairly soon! A meet and great would be great, either there or close by too.

You can reply to this forum for my contact info... I do not want to type in my regular email as some bots and spammers find peoples emails and send them all kinds of junk.

Best Regards,

Levi

Im in Beaverton.

My Toy:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28668

Great idea Kludge, I'm ready! Could you provide more details or further cause this to happen at sometime and someplace?

Levi, where in this area are you? Maybe we could meet with Kludge and others(?) and discuss it.

Could be very interesting if other(s)come too!
-

Levi: Never ever ever work for free.

Even if your just sweeping the floor your time is worth at least minimum wage. Working for free will give the idea that you are worth nothing.

Great idea Kludge, I'm ready! Could you provide more details or further cause this to happen at sometime and someplace? ....


The Northwest Machine Tool Expo is at the Oregon Convention Center on Wednesday May 16 and Thursday May 17.

Free Registration at and info at Northwest Machine Tool Expo (http://www.machinetoolexpos.com/mte/mtnw/index.po)

My plan is to go on Wednesday as the morning seminars on Wednesday look the most interesting to me.
I'm up for getting together at 1:00 for Lunch or after the show closes at 5:00.

/Frank

Kludge, sounds like a good plan to me. I'll mark my calendar to attend. I checked out the show a bit with the link you provided, thanks. Really looks like a great show. I agree with you, the classes look worthwhile too. I'm usually leary of the brief sales pitches the lasts way to long for a captive audience, but a few of these might really hold my interest. (resist attention span abuse!) The floor exhibits usually keep me smiling for hours. Have you gone before? it's not crowded elbow to elbow is it?

I visited the Carlson guitar website. It makes your mission very clear. Very nice instruments, but it's the custom guitars you want to do right? Do you design the amplifiers too? I'm very much into playing music but I've slacked off of guitars since I bought a decent synth about a year ago.

-

Anybody else interested in the show?

I am new to CNC I would like to find someone that would like to trade some time on my machines for some help figuring out how to build a CNC router. I have 2 lathes a Jet 1340 and a South Bend 10K and a Wells Index vertical mill with a dro. I also have a nice Miller 250 amp mig welder and large horizontal band saw for building frames. I am not a machinist by trade just a hobby guy but I have plenty of tooling for the machines and would share what I have to someone who could help me break into the CNC world.

I work rotating shifts so taking a college course would be dificult but it gives me a lot of days off and different days of the week to meet. I would like to get pointed in the right direction. I could use some help finding something to read like CNC for dummies. I have a hard time following these threads because I don't understand the basics of CNC.
Mike

Gundawg
I would be happy to teach you what I know.. I will admit I do not know everything and my Gcode is a bit rusty. Im or email to work out the details
Paul

Hi,

I"m Derek and located near Portland downtown area. I'm not that expert in CNC either but it's been a while I studied by myself. If you are interested in CNC you can join in www.portlandmodeleingeers.org. You will meet gurus and people you can share information.
FYI, I'm also building a CNC router currently. So if you are interested in what I do let me know. You can email me at derek.sangkyu.park@gmail.com

Gundawg, I'm just a few miles from the Sprit Mountain Casino in Grande Ronde. I'm alot like you, just a hobby guy with a 9 inch southbend lathe and an enco drill/mill and a heap of support tools.

My training is electronics so I'm not unfamilar with CNC, I just haven't built a machine yet.

Hi,

Gundawg, I live in Woodburn. I don't consider myself an expert either, but I have now built two cnc machines: a cnc wood router and a 9x20 lathe cnc conversion. The router is completely usable but still a work in progress. I am still working on finishing up the lathe conversion but it is cutting under machine control now. So, I would be glad to try and help out if I can.

Alan

Thanks for the support guys, I got the Dyna CNC back in October '07. Since then I have been learning the ropes, but I have a lot more to learn. Anyone need some help in their shop?

Are there any CNC related shows happening on the West Coast anytime soon? I am going to the next Northwest Machine Expo, and would love to go to anything similar show if it is a state or 2 away!!!

PS, I went to the Northwest Machine Expo last Spring, I looked at a couple machines but decided to go with a less expensive router to start out with. There were some helpful people as well as some stuff that I didn't know existed at the show... I really like some of the seminars-classes they had. At the show I almost picked up a Techno-Isel table top router, glad I didn't because they wanted more than a comparable router that was twice the size (dyna CNC) plus had a "mandatory loading fee" of $495... Not to complain, after haggling I moved on. The dyna router seems like a pretty solid machine, but I will let y'all know more about that as time goes on. I plan on looking into the Haas - Fadal, high quality 4 axis machines when I have enough $$$ to buy one outright, or at least pay for half of it! I am going to check out the threads on MACH3 questions since the machine uses Mach III, which I am not used to working with. Any suggestions or websites for help?

Thanks for the replys. I will be contacting some of you after the first of the year things have gotten real busy for me right now I probably should have waited to post for help until then. The thread was old and I was not sure anyone would read it. I have ben wanting to join the Portland club for a while but it seems like every time I check into the meeting dates I am working that weekend. I will have to keep checking until I can make a meeting.
Thanks Mike

I'm in Ridgefield, WA. Used to design and build CNC thermal machineing centers for a living (oxyfuel/plasma). Moving more to automated manufacturing now using several types of CNC equipment and 6 axis robotics. I'm always willing to help out those who have an interest in CNC, since we are rapidly losing our manufacturing expertise in this country and it would seem that fewer people are even willing to get their hands dirty anymore. Lord knows that finding decent service is almost impossible.

I'd really like to network with any owner/operators of Integrex type turn mill machines. Especially if you happen to know how to force a bit to control an output using a macro variable.

Stu

Hi Folks,

I'm interested in getting into CNC equipment and machining in general. I'm an Equipment technician in Semiconductor manufacturing. I have alot of experience with electronics and robotics. My favorite hobbie is auto restoration and hot rodding. I can weld and do a fair bit of metal fabrication. I'm looking to build a CNC plasma cutter and later a CNC mill for making custom auto parts. I live in Forest Grove and would like to hook up with someone experienced with working CNC equipment in my area. I also think it would be an excellent idea for a group of us to get together sometime and share info. If you would like to share your knowlege and need an extra pair of hands drop me a line.

Thanks,
Bill

I'm up in Ridgefield, WA and used to build CNC plasma cutters for a living. Tinkering now on setting up a cell in my garage equipped with an Integrex a VMC and a CNC lathe all fed by a Fanuc 420if Robot.

Building a CNC plasma cutting machien is really simple actually. My cousin started tinkering in my shop a few years back and recently built his own plasma table I think he's got some videos here on CNC zone. search for dslpwr for the link.

Most people are welcome to stop by, and I'd be happy to hlep out if you want to build a machine.

Stu

Any one interested in CNC around Portland/Vancouver area should attend the next meeting of the Portland Model Engineers the next meeting is at Grant Carson’s shop, A&G Products, 7360 SW Bonita
Road Unit C, Tigard, OR 97224 at 1pm on Saturday, April 12, 2008. Look up Bill Miller.

well count me in as one being in the Portland area (Milwaukie to be exact) and I just got into the apprenticeship at my work (Oregon Cutting Systems) as a tool room machinist, but right now am going to school for CNC/EDM/CAD-CAM for the 3rd term classes of the series. So it is very interesting to learn new things with CNC and such. So just saying hi *waves* and maybe some of us gearheads can meet up and talk shop so to speak.

Oh btw I am starting up working on a 76 Subaru 4wd wagon that is getting quite a bit of manual/CNC machining done to it for parts because of the nature of my project (lots and lots of custom stuff lol). And also involves my capstone project for school so any help would be greatful!

I'll try to make it.

I'm down in Salem if anyone is interested in meeting up or perhaps taking on a student. There is always more to learn!

~Levi