Hi,

I'm a complete newbie with no experience in machining and am looking for help on getting started. I'd like to pick this up as a hobby and am interested in making RC car parts like chassis plates. Searching around it looks like a Taig is a good choice, so that is the mill I'm mainly looking at.

Any advice on where to start? What is a good informative book? Any websites? Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie with no experience in machining and am looking for help on getting started. I'd like to pick this up as a hobby and am interested in making RC car parts like chassis plates. Searching around it looks like a Taig is a good choice, so that is the mill I'm mainly looking at.

Any advice on where to start? What is a good informative book? Any websites? Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the zone.

I have a Taig and it is a nice little machine if you use it within its limitations.
It won't do steel well except for the ocasional small cut.
It will take time to cut aluminum. don't expect to make hundreds of chassis plates a day. If you are going to cut fiberglass and/or CF, be very carful og the dust as it is very bad for your lungs.

When and if you purchase one, get the cnc ready one with the er collet spindle and the extended X travel.

When adding the cnc to the machine, I would recomend the Gecko G540. Search for posts by speedscustom to get a feel what you are looking at.
Mine has the Xylotex boards and it is very limiting in the feedrate and rapids.

If you are looking to get into true production volumes, consider something bigger or more than 1 machine.

Mike

Dont forget a good band saw and belt sander. for bother cutting your raw material and deburing your parts. Also expect to pay at least what you paid for the cnc machine for tooling.

I really hope that you understand that having a cnc machine doesnt mean that you will be popping out parts really easy. your first couple of years is going to be a learning curve. What often happens is that someone gets all hyped up and geared up to do this type of work. They spend alot of money and often underestimate the complexity of what it involved. Then all the stuff ends up either in the back of the garage or on ebay.

Im not trying to discourage you. Just letting you know that its not as simple as people might think.But it does get easier with time........ and experience.
I wih you the best on your endeavor. and if your not in a big mass production hurry the taig will do you right.

http://www.efunda.com/processes/machining/machin_intro.cfm

READ and learn. If you can find a deal on a cheap mill in your area then that would be the way to go. Learn how to manual mill stuff before going cnc.

Here a kool link that Hoss found http://techtv.mit.edu/file/743/

Nice to see more people getting into CNC for RC cars!
I agree with what everyone has said, you wont be popping out parts like shelling peas. Having said that, don't be put off either - its a hell of a lot easier than doing things with a manual mill or hacksaw/file old-school methods! You can make cool stuff that is IMPOSSIBLE any other way. I have 3 years experience with my CNC X2 conversion now, this is the only CNC I have experience with. All the cnc mill work for my custom 1/8 buggy was done on the X2, and I have a couple of manual lathes.

http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL660/2777486/17301719/324470266.jpg

http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL660/2777486/17301719/324947184.jpg

Good luck!

dude!!!! That rocks!!!!!!

very nice work longrat :)

Thanks guys. It is a total beast to drive!
CNV - I've heard a lot of good things about the Taig and think it would suit the task well, although I have never used one. They are nicely made, better than the Chinese X-series type machines but slightly less beefy. If you are wanting to do aluminium chassis components you would be set, and I believe there's a 10kRPM spindle option which would work well if you also wanted to do carbon fibre work. For CF I have a Proxxon IB-E (high class Dremel) bolted to the side of the head, this revs to 20k and does a great job on carbon sheet. Also very good for light milling with 2mm and smaller cutters in aluminium, and it is a cheap option.

Thanks for the replies guys. I've been doing a lot of reading but I'm ending up with more new questions than answers! I decided that I should pick up a Taig CNC-ready mill and add handcranks to start for now. I hope that would be a good start for me learn with and to get the hang of things like the toolings, mounting, etc. I'm a contractor and am pretty handy with woodworking so I hope it won't be too hard for me to learn the ropes.

I appreciate the warnings and have been trying to scare myself out of it but I don't think it is going to happen. I'm determined! I also don't plan to get into any kind of production and want to keep it as one of my many expensive hobbies.

I'm still clueless with what programs are needed. I have easy access to Autocad and Solidwork. So what type of programs are needed and what does what?

Thanks for the link Zipsnipe. First link was a little basic and had information I already new, but I'm watching the videos from the second. Thanks again.

Longrat,
Car looks awesome! Have you considered making a gasoline powered car? A 4WD truck would be sweet with a lots of delrin parts to keep the weight down. That would be my ultimate goal down the line, but for now I just want to make some simple small parts for my rock crawlers.

Any book recommendations? Something that gets into the details but also has the basics.

Thanks for the replies guys. I've been doing a lot of reading but I'm ending up with more new questions than answers! I decided that I should pick up a Taig CNC-ready mill and add handcranks to start for now. I hope that would be a good start for me learn with and to get the hang of things like the toolings, mounting, etc. I'm a contractor and am pretty handy with woodworking so I hope it won't be too hard for me to learn the ropes.

I appreciate the warnings and have been trying to scare myself out of it but I don't think it is going to happen. I'm determined! I also don't plan to get into any kind of production and want to keep it as one of my many expensive hobbies.

I'm still clueless with what programs are needed. I have easy access to Autocad and Solidwork. So what type of programs are needed and what does what?

Thanks for the link Zipsnipe. First link was a little basic and had information I already new, but I'm watching the videos from the second. Thanks again.

Longrat,
Car looks awesome! Have you considered making a gasoline powered car? A 4WD truck would be sweet with a lots of delrin parts to keep the weight down. That would be my ultimate goal down the line, but for now I just want to make some simple small parts for my rock crawlers.

Any book recommendations? Something that gets into the details but also has the basics.

If you have a computer, you can install Mach3 or use the EMC2 bootable disk and trial the programs without a machine attached. This is a good way to see which control program you like. Both of these are machine control programs.

Autocad is a program that you will draw the parts in. I am not familiar with solidworks at all. You will need a program to get from drawing to Gcode. Gcode is what Mach3 and EMC2 use to cut parts. I am not sure if either of the programs that you have access to will do this, someone else will step in and let you know.

I am not sure if this is an appropriate place but if you can wait a week or 2 I will be selling my Taig, ready to run cnc mill. PM me and we can talk. Include your phone and I will call you on my dime as I am the seller.

Mike

99% of the 1/8 buggy was done using free 2D CAD (Dolphin Partmaster) and 2.5D CAM to generate the GCode from the DXF drawings (Sheetcam). This is an exceptionally good combination in my opinion, total cost $150 for the Sheetcam licence. As stated above you'll need a machine control program, I use Mach3 because it is Windows based and I'm very happy with it, like most people. That's another $150 and that is all the software you need. If you want to do 3D work with your machine (see my exhaust manifold) you need 3D CAD and a 3D CAM program. Solidworks would be great for the CAD, as for CAM - there are a lot about, less for low cost though. I've used Meshcam with success in the past.
I have made a 1/5 buggy in the past, but I used 2 nitro engines for power. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the chainsaw engines and their derivatives. If I did another big buggy it would be gasoline powered probably, but with a home made multi-cylinder engine... that's my ultimate goal.

1/5 scale:

http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL660/2777486/6270454/110815907.jpg

3D exhaust manifold - drawn in Solidworks, tool paths generated with Meshcam, machined in 2 halves and welded together:

http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL660/2777486/17301719/327819100.jpg

Im glad to see that your deter.....hard headed :) now just remember jump in feet first not head first. You have no idea how deep the water is.

The design process is this.
You think of something in your head. Draw it on paper as close to scare as you can. Visually see the 2d shape and make any changes. Then you CAD it up. The cad part is the design software in which you fight with your computer and call everyone bad names around you. Finally you get it all drawn up. Now you need to bring the part into CAM software. This is the software where you define your cutting tools stock material feed rates ect. A little more cursing and threatening your computer with a water hose you should get some type of toolpath and create a g-code. The G code is the physical program that will make your machine move to make your piece. You load your code into the controller software. Mach 3 or EMC as mentioned above. Set your zero points and your tooling and press go. You watch in amazement as the machine seems to follow every command. Then when something goes terribly wrong you spend the next 3 days trying to find out what it was. (Remember its a learning process as well) Then you start over :)

so it goes like this.
From brain to paper, paper to CAD, Cad to Cam, Cam to gcode, gcode to machine Rinse and repeat. I know I made it comical but there will be times where this example will hold true. Mostly in the learning phase. Because everything is still new. I recommend trying your new codes out on something soft like floral foam or MDF wood. These are very forgiving to mistakes and large unexpected moves.
I cut mainly wax so I dont really worry about feeds and speeds ect, but this is a very fine art when cutting metals and plastics.

You will be ok. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that when I first started out in this hobby, I was totally clueless. But you will get a hang of it. I have learned so much in this forum. So much and sometime too much info. More questions are good. That means you are learning more and more.

BTW Longrat, the RC buggy is awesome. Now I wish i can do that someday. And I guess I know what the answer to that will be :).