Welcome to your new club house.

Many thanks !

I was amazed to discover a few people from the UK living close to me on here.

I struggled to source a few components that are freely available in the U.S so hopefully this section may be useful for specific region assistance.

Would be interested to see the number of UK members here.

Cheers

Me, me! I am in Southampton, what about everyone else?

I'm from Grays Essex.

Middle of Sweden.. :-)

I'm in King's Lynn in Norfolk.

Mr. Bean, how did you get to have an avatar that is 6kB big...?

Mr. Bean, how did you get to have an avatar that is 6kB big...?


Whats up with 6Kb big. That's just the size it happens to be.
Not sure I'm understanding the question.........

Whats up with 6Kb big. That's just the size it happens to be.
Not sure I'm understanding the question.........

It is normally(at least for me...) limited to 1024B :(
It could be that you have donated funds :idea:

:)

Hello from Madrid, Spain.

/Fer

:) Hello from Valencia, Spain

Hello from Alicante Spain!
¡Hola jmaunion y ferenczyg! tan cerca, que sorpresa.
phillipmc (Australian living in Spain)

Just found this thread.Hello from the far East of England,a bit further east than Kings Lynn that is.

Ah Ha. Didn't expect to find anyone else from around Lynn on here. Just goes to show. Small world.

I'm about 2 miles from Lynn centre

Regards Terry.....
http://www.terry-is.f2s.com/

Hello, I live near Amsterdam, Holland.

Hello,i'm from Milano,Italy

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/fudo66/

my cnc :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Fudo, that is a nice CNC, looks solid! Is it finnished yet?

Blank kong,
I make excuses myself for my English, is not good... Not, my CNC is not finished... but it does not lack very!! Thanks

We would love to see more pictures when it is finnished, nice work:)

Hi I am from Cardiff Wales. Just finishing No2.

Paul

Hello,

I`am from the Netherland. I live near Den Haag. I just started building a router, I`ll post some pictures soon.

Cheers,

Michael

hello, im from Donegal, Ireland

Hello
Greetings from Sweden Gothenburg
Per.E

Hello,i'm from Milano,Italy
Dario

http://www.cncitalia.net/fotodag/index.html

mani proget in link

Hi All,

I'm in the UK, near Manchester, been around/using cnc machines for as long as i can remember.

Simon

Greetings from the Netherlands :D

I'm from Norway, near to Oslo in the north, probably loosing the northernmost to Wile_e.

So far we have Alicante in the southwest. Norway and Sweden competing for the north. We have Ireland/UK in the west. Who's in the east? So far I guess it's Sweden there too. Dang! Those Swedes seems to be everywhere!

Maybe Zoooo from Bosnia might take the title of most eastern cnczone member?
Skippy

Not if you count me in! Moved from richmond in surrey to bosnia a year or so ago. Which sadly presents a whole new set of problems when trying to build your cnc machine. It's the basic bits and pieces you can't get hold of like steppers and chips for drivers. One could always order them from the UK or even the US but the postage charges usually mean your PICs and stepper drivers (h-bridges) end up costing as much as a pentium 4 2.5GHz and your steppers as much as a recon'd 2.0l ford duratec engine. Complete with cosworth forged rods and pistons :tired:

Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to make your own steppers? I know, I'm going :banana:

Yup, those Swedish are everywhere! ;)

Hello from France ( 100 kms away from Paris )

Calor

Hello
I'm from France ( Bourges city )

Francis

Calor et Ftissera, soyez les bienvenus.
All eyes will be on France tomorrow (April 27th) with the launch of the super-duper 800 seater by Airbus. I'll be watching it live. Sorry everyone, but for me that's better than any football (soccer) match!
Skippy

Hi from sweden here. Near Stockholm.

Maybe Zoooo from Bosnia might take the title of most eastern cnczone member?
Skippy

Nope, greetings from Athens...

Hi, I'm from Woking, Surrey, England. I want a cnc router for my sign business but know nothing about them so I thought it would be best to try and build 1 to learn with rather than splash out £1000's on something I might not get on with

Nice to have you here innocent! I am not too far away in Southampton so if you ever need to see one up close, give me a shout!

Nice to have you here innocent! I am not too far away in Southampton so if you ever need to see one up close, give me a shout!

thanks Kong, I work down your way quite regularly, I may take you up on the offer. Would I get a cup of tea as well, lol. Out of curiosity did you build your machine yourself and what do you use it for ?

Hi,

I am from Romania. I am building a router machine, almost finished, and already I planned a new one. The problem is that here even MDF is difficult to find or very expensive. Not speaking about electronics. Most parts are coming from old printers....but the show must go on.

I would like to make a comment. the Forum is more than excellent, and I learnt a lot here and found out a lot of answers to my questions, but I have seen that when you ask somebody specifically for a certain help...most people are reluctant to help you,...I mean with advices, plans, drawing, schematics, etc..I was wondering why?

Hi Innocent, I am sure I could stretch to a cuppa! The machine has a 4'x2' capacity, but I find myself using it mostly to cut spoke patterns in 2.5" diamater alloy wheels! It is a bit wasted really, needs some bigger work.
Zoltan, it is a difficult question to answer, just keep posting and the answers will come I am sure.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost to build ? I'm looking to build a machine with at least 4' x 3' capacity and given myself an initial budget of around £2000, I'll be using it for wood, foamex and light aluminium, is it possible on my budget ?

Yeah, should be possible. Mine was more, but I probably wasted a fair bit on machinery used to build the thing! Ebay is getting much better these days with ballscrews and other motion components quite cheap.

Hi guys,

It's Mass here from Tuscany, italy,

no cnc yet , to be honest i'm yust starting to understand few things about it, but I learn quite fast , so before the end on THIS year my cnc will be ready and working, I don't know how well, but working.


I'm a bass builder,

www.mbbass.com
(sorry, Italian only actually) , i've spent few years abroad in the past , mainly in UK (London) and Germany, but i enjoied sone time in L.A. as well where I have some relatives running some food buisinnes.


I cannot be of help to anybody about CNC , so don't expect any contribution about it, but in a little while i will buy an hobbist one to learn how to run it properly before starting to build a bigger one.

well,that's it by now.


Ciao



M.

Bonny Scotland here :wave:

About 10 miles east of Edinburgh.

moray
10 miles east of edinburgh ,dunbar/prestonpans?
me 10 miles north of edinburgh (fife)
(sounds a wee bit like grounds keeper willie)

moray
10 miles east of edinburgh ,dunbar/prestonpans?
me 10 miles north of edinburgh (fife)
(sounds a wee bit like grounds keeper willie)

In the country pretty much halfway between Haddington and Tranent.

moray
10 miles east of edinburgh ,dunbar/prestonpans?
me 10 miles north of edinburgh (fife)
(sounds a wee bit like grounds keeper willie)

I've spent a couple of weeks in KIRKALDY, few years agò.

I Love Scotland, and Scottish people too.


M.


Edit:

cool news, today I recived a REP. from Rexroth (Bosh) and I've on my desk all the catalogs for drive controls,linear motion and assembly....


great stuff, quite expensive.....

Hi. Jonny here from norway.
Acually i have not build a machine yet, but i have ordered drivers and steppers. So i guess it wont be long. I am working as a cnc operator but it is always something new to learn here i see.

Greetings from Norway!

Almost finished my first router :D
I have posted some pictures on a Norwegian site.

Link : http://forum.modellflynytt.no/viewtopic.php?t=2694

Pete, from near Norwich here, surprised to see quite a few from this way...must be the water.
Just finished number one, having started at the beginning of the year. Now its time to play heh heh.

John, aka greybeard, from East Rudham, Norfolk. Perhaprs Pete is right about the water.
Very new to cnc, and looiong at the possibility of a minature setup to make fansticks.
?? - see my problems at www.fanmaker.co.uk

Also have problems with typos - see "perhaps" and "looking" - perhaps cnc fingers ?

Hi John.
I took a lot at your website and yes I agree that it's the perfect project/target for some kind of miniaturised cnc setup. Mini laser would be good if the blackened (vertical) edges where the cut has occured are not a problem to you. You'd get sharp internal corners that way. Alternatively, a mini-router or mill would be much cheaper but even using the smallest cutter you may still have to sharpen up the internal corners a bit with a file, etc. You could even make a holder to gang about six or so sticks (if that's what you call them) together vertically in order to cut all six at once. Even if using a multiple pass cut it would still be much faster than loading and cutting one at a time.

Nice work by the way. Like most of the people here, I always get a kick out of seeing something nice crafted by someone who takes pride in their work. Take for example the guys on this forum that are making guitars or on the other end of the scale, the guys that make working miniature turbines/jet engines.

Just out of curiosity, how are you printing the fan material? I'd imagine that the simpler ones are hand painted but what about the ones with fine detail? With the latest advances in UV stable ink jet printing inks it would be possible to reproduce just about any design even if just one or two were required.

Thanks for your ideas Skippy. We'ed love to have a mini laser set up but I've never followed up the possibilities after we had fansticks laser cut commercially - expensive but good. The scorching could be got round by painting, so if you have any further pointers in that direction, I'd be very interested.

Currently my approach is to mill the outside profile 2mm deep on one face of a block, then run the block on past a saw to slice off 1mm slice (plus 1mm waste). Minimum tool effort plus minimum waste of material.
When I can do that, I'll look at the problems of generating(engraving?) an internal design.

Perhaps I should start a new post on multiple heads on one base, moving the workpiece past the individually controlled heads ?

John, I'll make this my last post in this thread in order to not sidetrack the main topic here BUT re the sticks, if it's only the external shape you are worried about then I'd be seriously looking to explore the possibility of punching them out using a die tool. You'd probably need to soak the wood in water for some time beforehand (cuts better and stops wood cracking/splitting during punching) and then you simply place wood stock under a manual die punch and churn them out at about 1 per second. Probably if you start a thread such as "anyone ever punched wood?" in the wood section here I'm sure you'll get a response. I've never done it (metal yes, wood no) but I know lots of small wood products are made that way. Then keep your cnc mill/router/engraver for the intricate stuff in the middle. Just a thought.

Hi, anyone from Portugal?

There was someone not long back from Portugal who wanted to make a 4 or 5 axis machine to model car bodies in 3D out of foam. 1/3 scale from memory. (unless that was you??)
Skippy

regards from the sicily land
hi to everybody

Hi,
I'm a rokie in CNC. I'm building a smal CNC machine from old printers and telefax machines. If my project works then I'll try to build something bigger.
Every advise welcome.

I'm from spain (Extremadura) and i make reliefs with my cnc router. You can see my creations in : http://www.geocities.com/grabadosjapansa.
Regards

I'm from Norway! (a lovely place called Fetsund... ) Currently assembling my first CNC router..

hi , to the lads in the East, I'm in Ely.

Hi, I live in Harrow-on-the-hill, North west London.

Greetings from Finland!

My name is Dave I am English I live in France and this will be my first CNC machine my back ground is in engineering and cad.
I am hopping to billed a cnc router, (1m x 2m x 150mm 3hp 5 speed router).
For routing wood plastic and thin ally at the moment I am in the first stages of design and if anyone is interested in a project it would be grate to hear form you.
I have found a supplier of all sorts of bites in Europe deliver is not great in France but you cannot get every thing hpceurope.com

Hi i am from rotherham south yorks been using manual lathes and millers for some time but fancied building a cnc router
john

Hello from Macedonia.

:wave:

Building my first CNC plasma table in Reykjavik Iceland.

Yours

Jarl Stefansson
www.rugludallur.com

Hello I'm from Fredrikstad in Norway .would like contact whit others with CNC as Hobby.

Hi from Dorset, My work is on a 2 Axis Bridgeport EZtrack which is slowly but surely driving me nuts LOL. want to build a 3 Axis Router mainly to cut foam, if the project flies well them maybe i'll build a production beastie one day.

Lucky for me a friend used to work for a local company that made stepper drives so scrounged me drives and a few smallish steppers. unlucky.. he's changed jobs!!

I'm pondering over basic designs would like 1m x 1m x 200mm

overhead gantry type in my dreams. very low on the £££.

OK, back to that crazy 2 axis, clicking that stupid pendant switch and setting me tools six million times. :tired:

Hi Kong you look closest, I venture your way sometimes.

Pat (male variety!!)

Anytime buddy, Southampton is just a stones throw away!

Isn't here anyone from belgium :cool:

I'll present my country of tasty beers :cheers:

is er iemand van tegen reusel, eindhoven of tilburg? ik woon net over de grens, bij turnhout :p

greetings
I love chocolat

Isn't here anyone from belgium

Yep, I live between Kortijk and Ieper meaning the other side of the country, but using american standards: we are neighbours, Belgium is just a "big town".
Tasty beer: just had a few and might get a few more.

For other members: Ieper = Ypres, very well known from WW1.
We, living here, are still every day confronted with it, driving past the graveyards, memorials etc....
My daughter just bought a house in the area that was the battlefield, I wonder what we will find when we start digging.
Still every year farmers find bullets, bombs etc...
Last week I saw bomb shells beeing used as counterweights for a DIY garage door.

Luc.

Hi Zoriander,
Just do a search using "Belgium" and you'll see that there are a few of you. Tompie is one that comes to mind. Re the beer and the chocolate, you're right. It's the best in the world as far as I'm concerned. I used to think Australian chocolate (similar to English and American chocolate) was great, until I went to live in Belgium. Sorry to admit it but now I wouldn't touch another chocolate from Australia, UK or USA (lots of sugar and cheap non-cocoa oils......) I don't want to offend anyone here BUT hey they're great, and until you've tried one....... And I'm not even a chocolate fan .......

Hello,

I'm a New Zealander living in Barking, (east London).

I work in electronics, mostly microcontroller hardware/software. The mechanical side is still a bit of a mystery to me, but hope to build a machine once my wife realizes we really need it…

Tony.

Hello Tony,
what is your latest project??

Hi i'm Mark from Leicester,
Just starting to build a CNC foam cutter.

Sunny Romford, Essex.

Another belgian (oostende)
busy building my first cnc router....
still looking for some good shops in the neighbourhood....

Try these : http://www.gallon.be
They have a wide range: acme style screws, accessories, belts, etc..
I bought some stuff there and they are very helpfull, I think you will need a VAT number.
Probably this week I will order some more.

East Midlands. Place called Long Eaton
About 3 or 4 miles from the M1 J24 or J25. I work from home so if anyone wants to pop in for a coffee at anytime give me a shout first.

John S.

Sunny Manchester! (kidding it's peeing down!)

Hi, anyone from Portugal?

Hi , from Azores - Portugal

I'm an American living in Germany fixing planes for NATO. Brought a HF 44991 Mini Mill here with me to convert to CNC but need to resolve the 120VAC/60Hz vs 220VAC/50Hz issue first. Any ideas where to get a 220/50 motor in western Europe?

Am learning a lot by searching and reading.

'munkie

I'm an American living in Germany fixing planes for NATO. Brought a HF 44991 Mini Mill here with me to convert to CNC but need to resolve the 120VAC/60Hz vs 220VAC/50Hz issue first. Any ideas where to get a 220/50 motor in western Europe?

Am learning a lot by searching and reading.

'munkie
----------------------------------------
i need three dc motor 220/50. Do you have?
I'm in Vietnam

o

Hi All,

I'm in the UK, North Devon (English is not so good, Wurzel is better!),
been using cnc/nc, peg board machines for too long.

http://www.marchantdice.com/linear

Regards / Kevin

Hi All,

I'm in the UK, North Devon (English is not so good, Wurzel is better!),
been using cnc/nc, peg board machines for too long.

http://www.marchantdice.com/linear

Regards / Kevin

Hi kevin
I work in Heathfield for Bedwood and backers for years-running EMI autos grate times
I am trying to set up a model aircraft-manufacturing thing in France and have a DIY cnc router and foam cuter
D Potter

Greetings to one and all, and a happy new year aswell.
Nice to hear from a few fellow UK dwellers.
I’m based in the West Midlands, is anybody else?
Silly question but I’m going to ask, can you get Gecko drives (201) in the UK?
If not, is there an equivalent UK product.
Who do you guys use for breakout boards and steppers etc?
Look forward to hearing from you.
Steve

Hi Steve,
We; Marchant Dice Ltd, can supply Gecko 201's.
Even better, at the end of the month we are going to launch a plug and play for 3 or 4 axis, YES! the whole electrial package including the motors and couplings
Couplings can be found at; http://www.marchantdice.com/linear
Regards / Kevin

Kevin, that sounds really interesting, please keep us updated.
I want to extend the gantry on my machine, do you have this structural section?
http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/data/500/Y_Axis_Lead_Screw.JPG
What grease do you recommend for my lead screws?
Cheers
Steve

Steve,
Lubrication for Ballscrews, Leadscrews and Trapezoidal spindles!

Before I write a thesis: basically, the same lubricants can be used for lubricating Ballscrews, Leadscrews and trapezoidal spindles as for anti-friction bearings, i.e. oil and grease.

In contrast to anti-friction bearings, the maximum operating temperature is of far more importance with ballscrews, as it affects the accuracy of a Ballscrews, Leadscrews and Trapezoidal spindle due to longitudinal expansion along its axis. A single application of grease for a ballscrew is not adequate, as the grease is continually being removed due to the spindle moving through the nut. Maintenance schedules must be observed.

As central lubrication systems are available in many instillations, oil lubrication predominates with ballscrews. Oil lubrication has the advantage of acting as a heat transfer.

Lubrication of ballscrews with grease leans towards systems with low speeds.
To reduce the risk of running dry, wipers should always be fitted.

Lubricating greases are divided into NLGI classes; this corresponds to their flexing penetration. In most cases, water resistant grease should be used.

The mixing of types of greases should be avoided.

Do not over grease The amount of grease that should be applied is 50% of the free space inside the ballnut. Over greasing causes heating and the design must allow used or excess grease to escape.

We prefer to use Kluber NBU14, this however is extremely expensive!

For a list of lubricants please visit; http://www.marchantdice.com/ebay/photos/lubricants/

For ballscrews and trapezoidal assemblies please visit http://www.marchantdice.com/linear

Hi all,
How about starting a thread on UK/EU Surpliers of parts for CNC projects, I know I have problems finding thing at resonable price at times.

Hi all,
There is a new site that started in 2006, open-source-cnc.com that has an independant write up of my companys services in the UK and Europe.
visit: http://www.open-source-cnc.com/content.php?article.6

Regards / Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for that infomation I did not know of that site.

Regards mark

Kevin, thanks for the info about lubricants, and the open-source-cnc.com info.
I read the article about your company, sounds pretty impressive.

Any news on your electrical package yet? I would be interested in a 60v setup, 3 drives, power supply, breakout etc to upgrade my machine.

Look forward to possibly doing business.

Steve

Anyone from Portugal?

Azores - Portugal

Hi all from Robin Hood County (Nottinghamshire)
Just got my Geko's, steppers and power supply bits together, getting to grips with Auto Cad and loving every minute, hope to get my first Miller built early in 2006

Plug and Play - 3 options to begin!

If anyone is interested we can send price and spec' on a spread sheet

Regards / Kevin

Hi all I'm from Denmark, actually surprised to find so few from Denmark. I'm working as a service technician, for CNC controlled drilling and routing macines, for the pcb buisseness. But now I want to build my own CNC router for hobby use.

Hi All
I am in North Wales. A newcommer to CNC , looking for the best options for building a 3 axis plasma/router table

hi i`m from Serbia,
tryin to start building my first CNC.

Bill S Knottingley West Yorkshire.UK

Just seen the post from "apply", I'm in Portugal...Algarve...Rod

Hi im from Selby uk

Hi all
Just thought i would put a post and let see if there was any one down in the Kent
area sunny Romney Marsh Kent,Building a routing machine at the moment and a foam
cutter after that converting the X3 mill.
Bill

To Grandad...
I live in Loulé and you?

I'm in Moncarapacho but I work in Quinta do Lago during the week..Regards Rod

Hi, I am about to buy a 50hz wire EDM and need to operate it on 60hz in the US, will it work without problems?
THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP

Hello all,

I'm from the UK. About 4 miles from Oswestry, Shropshire although the Welsh border is about 5 mins walk from where I live. Local pub is "The last pub in England" according to the sign anyway.

About to start building what will eventually be a 6 axis machine.. cut area 1.7 x 1.5 metres...but will have enough to keep me busy getting the first 4 going. Build starting with controller as soon as the BOB and other bits arrive..

anyone in my area or close.. give me a shout..

Greetings Apply, Grandad and GHSoares

I´m from Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal.What kind of machines and software do you work?

Using Mach 3 with a home built router

Hello,
I'm from Groningen, The Netherlands. I'm trying to develop a multipurpose CNC machine...
Developments could be followed here: www.khwelling.nl/cnc/index.html
Suggestions & idea's are always welcome!

Cheers from Portugal, Almada city !!!
Hi all , just starting my home made CNC machine .

Olá a todos os restantes membros portugueses, um abraço e venha a França.

Hello Azores , miss you guys.Beautifull islands with great people.

Hi, I am about to buy a 50hz wire EDM and need to operate it on 60hz in the US, will it work without problems?
THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP
Hi all,
Im in Meath, Ireland. Am I the only Irish on the zone?!

I want to do the opposite to above. Buy US 60Hz tools and run them on 50Hz. Has anyone done this before?

Hi! I'm from Fredrikstad, Norway - Thanks for the european welcome... ;-)

From Turkey. (well, actually... I am a Turkish Man in USA... :))

Hi! I'm from Stockholmm, Sweden! This is my first post! :D
Building my first CNC portal router out of aluminum and some SHS20 rails. Quite sturdy I Hope. I'll create my own thread when time is right!
cya!

Hi. I live in Irby on the Wirral UK.

Building my first 3 axis machine but already thinking of ideas for a 5 axis one. Damn this hobby is addictive.

Hi

I come from the home of british steel Sheffield(well it used to be the home of British steel)

Hello
I'm from London, moving to Southampton in the next month or so. I've decided I'm going to convert my Hyundai mini machine ( the same as a clarke cl250 with 251 mill attached) to CNC. I'm an electronic engineer by profession so this should be fun.

Incidently has anyone used the steppers from bullnet ?
They are towards the bottom of http://www.bullnet.co.uk/shops/test/electric.htm
They seem very reasonably priced.

Does anyone knows a aluminium profile supplier in Portugal/Spain?
I need some to my cnc chassis.

As in the 80/20 variety?
http://www.item-international.com/de/kontakt/vertriebspartner/europa/portugal.php

Thanks for the help.
Apply

We have an outlet in Spain,
Please visit: http://www.marchantdice.com/linear
and download http://www.marchantdice.com/linear/retrosystem.pdf

Regards / Kevin
Marchant Dice Ltd

Hi, about 40 miles east of K Lynn. Would be nice to meet up with someone who knows what they are doing.

We have an outlet in Spain,
Please visit: http://www.marchantdice.com/linear
and download http://www.marchantdice.com/linear/retrosystem.pdf

Regards / Kevin
Marchant Dice Ltd

Excuse me being an amateur, but all your ballscrews seem to be 300mm length. I'm going to need 900mm lengths for my upcoming machine. Do you sell longer than 300mm?

What you read is deviation. Deviation is specified per 300mm and is thus an quality indicator. It has nothing to with available length.

Thanks fka. :o

Hi Geoff - Which end of Cromer pier does that put you ? :cheers:

I'm between East Rudham and Bircham, and if I find anyone who knows what they're doing, I'll let you know because I seem to be going round in ever decreasing circles, while the number of projects gets longer each month. :confused: :confused:

Hi john,guess I dont my left from my right.so what hope have I got of understanding g code?I am about 40 miles WEST of Lynn,in a village called Morton near Bourne. my current projects are a DENFORD lathe and mill with no controllers and an attempt to convert a single spindle pcb machine (air operated z axis so no depth control) into a twin z axis ballscrew machine.I have also aquired a Phoenix Magnum router which has an outdated cad\cam system which I am trying to learn. I have another pcb machine (servo drives with heidenhain scales) which is currently being converted to work with a new controller.( I did tell you that I am a cnc nut). With the denfords I would like to know if it is better to opt for a dedicated controller via the serial port or to directly connect to a pc via the printer port. i know that I may posting in wrong place for the info I am looking for, but at least it is a start.

From Sweden, Ekerö, a little place a bit outside stockholm :)

Hi guys I am in Wakefield.west yorkshire - just aout to start on my jgro project .I have also started a thread for uk suppliers of parts http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24716 which may be of use.Any guys local to me that have a finished working machine I would love to come see and maybe ask you to cut a few things for me to get started.

Regards ti all
Tony ( IF you want a guitar making/repairing I am that man!)

Hi,
I'm located in Stockholm, Sweden and i'm building a small fixed gantry 3 axis machine using ISEL ballscreaws and linear bearings from www.solectro.se.
The project is constantly getting upgraded so I suspect this will take a long time to finish... :)

Hello from Cegled, Hungary.

Hello,i'm from Brwinów, Poland :)

Hello from Norway.

Another hello from Norway! :)

Hello,
It is very interesting what one can read here.
I learn much.

I am French, of Bordeaux. Ex-technician in the µ engines (orders of flight, medical) => power 100 W 100.000 rpm, Laser, x-Ray, Ultrasound, compressor of medical air,….

Although I do not speak English, I manage to include/understand, with machine translation: that gives a very picturesque language!
If what I can write shocks you, me do not hold rigour of it: it is still the automatic translator;)

Thank you with all for your contributions.

Hello from Barcelona, Spain.
It lives ! My *scratch built* milling machine / grinder moves.
6-8 discrete steps /per 0.01 mm as tested by DTI.

2700 mm x 1100 x 200 mm work area (ballscrews limit to 1100 mm at moment).
1500 kg weight. 3 years+ of work ;(
Over 300 pieces...
Bridgeport M2 head as milling spindle.2.2 kW VFD. Benchtop drill as grinding spindle. 201 Geckos. 68V hand-built PSU. 3:1 down with 9 mm timing belt on steppers. 5/8" ballscrews.98% complete.
I hope to be grinding my own linear rails on monday...

Anyone know/can get hobbycnc/xylotex/similar boards in EU ?
3 or 4 axis.
About 3 amps/30 volts is okay.
For CNC bandsaw, CNC lathe, CNC toolgrinder.
Neither one wants to ship to psina for some unknown reason ...

Hello everybody,

my name is Rene and i´m posting from germany. I´m still amazed whats going on here. i´m interested in CNC since i started building a metal miller about six years ago. Its working now but i´m still in progress. There is also a Zoltar Kit ready lasered lying in my workshop and waiting for completition.
http://www.buntbahn.de/fotos/showphoto.php?photo=26930&password=&sort=7&thecat=7104

Here is a foto of my CNC

Bye,
Rene

Here up in Scotland

Welcome to your new club house.

Thanks!
This forum is great.

I'm from Sweden,BTW.

Hello.

I am from France.

Hello from Gabrovo, Bulgaria !

Hi from Seaford in sunny Sussex,

I rarely finish anything but still have fun trying. I have 2 axes going on my old Warco mill just adding the z :)

Hi Robert

I am here up in not so sunny Fort william.
I am just embarking on making my own 3 axis milling machine, so i am in the process of finding out all that i need and where the best places are to purchase them. would be interested in anything you may feel would be useful to me. do you have any pictures of where you are at with your machine. are you using slide rails or ball and screw to move in your axis. where did you get your stepper motors ect ect. i am a real novice, i plan on building my machine first then purchasing the software (bobart). i ampretty good with CAD and can draw in 3d.
Anyway good to hear your on the island


Dave

Hello.

I am new on this forum.
I am from Bosnia & Herzegovina.
My practical experience in building CNC machines is not so big.
Long time ago I made simple machine and after that nothing. :(
My first CNC can be seen here (http://www.elektronika.rs.ba/data/projekti/cnc/fotografije.shtml#).

Now I plain to build my next machine. Actually an pick 'n place. :D

Best regards,

Suske.

Greetings from Lincoln. New to the forum and loving every minute of my recent retirement.
Jim

Hi,

I am from Germany, Luebeck (in the north).

I'm an absolutly newbee, looking for good ideas building a little mill.
In Germany cnc-builder often takes alu-profiles for hobby-cnc-mills. But is'nt it better to take steel ? And not so expensive ?

Greetings,

Andreas

Hi from Royal Berkshire :) I dropped out of engineering, as a job, about 15 years ago....you know what it's like though, it is impossible to stop inventing and designing and for the first time ever I have shelled out on a brand new...well customer return....lathe (C6B). This after years of making do with half a turn of backlash on the cross slide and main bearings that fit where they touch!

I have a few mods in mind for the lathe before I consider CNC but I joined the forum mainly to keep in touch with like minded people.

Regards Rog8811

Hello from ADA, Serbia

Hi everyone
From Sweden (Floby about 120km northeast of gothenburg)

I´m in the process of converting a kearny-weaver kneemill

heya

Im from newport, South Wales, UK

Im just trying to get into all this, I want a machine for pcb making, engraving and light aluminium work.

I have a budget of around £1000 but do not have the machinery to make my own parts yet.

Any suggestions?

I was thinking about a Proxxom converted cnc mill from germany but it has the SMC 800 card so no good with mach 3, also prob not good for much more than pcb milling?

I ahve also been considering converting an X1 or X2 witht he kits from cncfusion.

originally i was going to buy the cncdudez kit but he no longer does them :(

Can anyone reccomend anything? what should I go for? what are your experiences?

What can i expect for £1000? And where can i get it?

Thanks

DJH

Hi DJH

There's some bunch on ebay selling low cost stepper control gear and motors in the UK. Check out auction number 130128439174 to find them.

I bought 3 of their MSD542 stepper drivers and the 40 volt power supply, it seems to be good kit. They seemed reluctant to sell when I rang which was a bit odd, but the drivers are zippy.

Beware the 600 oz-in stepper motor trap, if you need more than 50 oz-in to turn your screws you need to adjust the Gibb strips not buy bigger motors. I use 160's which seemed plenty enough overkill for me :D

Bargain ball screws come out of China but be ready for a feeding frenzy in the closing seconds of the auction. Marchant Dice sell them on ebay if you don't want to wait.

Not quite sure what you're after, but I use the same cheap Chinese mill this lot seem to favour, it's sold by Warren Machine Tools as the Warco Major. You get a lot of iron for your money.

Have fun

Robin

Thanks for the info, is there cnc conversion kits you can buy for those warco mills?

I guess the micro mill is more in my price range by the time I buy everything.

basically Im either looking for an already built cnc machine, or a manual mill where there is a cnc conversion kit available, anything seems just too expensive for me at the moment.

What would you reccomend along those lines? where can I get them or where can I get the conversion kits?

Thanks

DJH

Don't know about conversion kits, but the cheapest way is to buy the mill, use it to make simple motor mounts, then make it pretty once the computer starts turning the handles for you :D

ahh I see what you mean, although im not sure I could do the milling by hand, my background is more in IT and Electronics :(

DJH

Hello I'm Micheal Donnellan From the West of Ireland. if any Irish person has actually imported a laser I would love to here about it.

Hi all

I'm from Bordeaux in France, working as a DP man for a laser robot manufacturer.
It's a long time I started to design my CNC light metal router :)

Regards / Julien

Hello from northern Norway.

Hi DJH82uk,

I live just outside Aberystwyth, Wales, UK. I have a 1meter by 1meter home built CNC, which is used to cut wood (only). If you brought the materials and had the CAD files for a home-build CNC router, I could help you cut them.

Jason

Greetings from Denmark.
I am a newbie to CNC, but having spending some time looking around on this forum, found lots of cool looking routers, and decided to build one myself. I am hoping a fellow Dane will be reading this and maybe give me some advise on the electronic part of the router.
Anyway greetings to all, hope someday I will be able to give a little advice and some pictures to others wondering if they will be able to build one of those cool CNC routers.

Hello All

I'm an electronic engineer by profession and and a complete CNC / Mechanical engineering beginner ( except for a course I did at college some 20 years ago ).

I have purchased a High-Z/s-720 for PCB and small Aluminium part manufacture and hopefully some engraving. I cant get on with the software supplied so I'm going to try Mach3. Any suggestion ( however daft ) will be welcome and if anyone wants any help I can give please ask. Also if anyone wants to pop in and look at the beast / have a cup of tea / laugh at the simple mistakes I'm making/ feel free to contact me.

Russ

heya

Where you from Russ?

What software did it come with?

What controller does it use?

Do you have a lonk to info on the machine?

Tho your right in that mach3 may be the best option

DJH

Lo DJH

I'm originally from london but now live in Bitterne Southampton

the machine and software link
http://www.cnc-step.com/englisch/html/infos_about_cnc_milling_machin.html

Heya

Thats a very nice looking machine, the trouble is, it appears to be german, pretty much all german machines i have seen use and SMC controller (smc800 etc), this is a problem, and is further confirmed by the fact that the software they sell with it is PCNC, is this the software you have?

There is very little software that will work with smc controllers, and I have never seen any that are decent.

If I were you I would confirm with them what controller they supply, and does it only work with smc signals.

If this is the case then mach3 will not work, but all is not lost, as you can always upgrade the controller in the future.

i can help you find one in the uk when that time comes.

feel free to add me to msn if you use it

djh82uk@hotmail.com

DJH

Grettings from Castelo Branco, Portugal

JMCC

New here.
From Northern Italy.

Ciao :)

Hi there
I'm from the south of denmark, and have got help in danish:wave:
nede fro lolland hvor roerne gror, og de gror og de gror og de gror
Nice to see it's not all americans

Hi, I am a cnc nut, live in Lincolnshire and would like to meet up with other like minded individuals who may be interested in mutually helping each other with regard to self build or conversions. I have a few small cnc machines (2 lathes,1 mill and 2 routers)which are basically mechanically complete, but do not have stepper drivers, power supplies or spindle speed controllers. Would anyone like to try to organise a UK (east midlands group)? If anyone woild like to discuss this with me, my phone no is 01778 570595.

Hi Geoff

Unfortunatley I live in South Wales, but if you want any help with the motors/drivers etc then give me a Pm or email or msn (djh82uk@hotmail.com)

I am a lot better with electronics than I am mechanically, but im learning.

What lathes do you have? Im thinking of getting a lathe next.

DJH

Hi Geoff

I live in Nottinghamshire, not too far away, I have my electronics sorted and running, just started my mechanical build which is coming along fine so if you want any help with your power supply etc I might be able to help. I built my own supply, using Gecko 212 for the control which I can highly recommend.


Andy

Hi
Based in Dewsbury near Leeds - been making plasma and gas cutting machines for a loooong time. Loads of old bits at the workshop if anyone has a dead machine, we will usually swap bits for beer tokens. Also new UK built machines with PC based controllers.

Currently building a low cost plasma machine to sell in kit form, sort of a UK version of the torchmate/dynatorch stye of machine. The small machine will use integrated stepper motors from baldor, perhaps a bit expensive for hobby use but hany for business use as the electronics is in the motor housing, just needs supply voltage and step/direction. I hope to have it ready just after Christmas, thinking of using a usb camera as a scanner to follow the old style line drawings, and a wireless usb game controller as a remote control - only £20 from ebuyer.

www.bluemarlin.biz and www.techserv.co.uk for pictures of our bigger machines.

cheers

Mike

Hello from Sofia,Bulgaria.

Hello from Paris , FRANCE

any CNC builder here from France ?

Helo everybody,
here's my blog : http://rototom.hawablog.com/

best regards from France.

Heya

Thats a very nice looking machine, the trouble is, it appears to be german, pretty much all german machines i have seen use and SMC controller (smc800 etc), this is a problem, and is further confirmed by the fact that the software they sell with it is PCNC, is this the software you have?

There is very little software that will work with smc controllers, and I have never seen any that are decent.

If I were you I would confirm with them what controller they supply, and does it only work with smc signals.

If this is the case then mach3 will not work, but all is not lost, as you can always upgrade the controller in the future.

i can help you find one in the uk when that time comes.

feel free to add me to msn if you use it

djh82uk@hotmail.com

DJH


Hi,
I am based in London.
I have a Heiz S 1000 machine, I use Turbocad, Filou and Win PCNC Pro.
So far, after a year of heavy use, I am very happy with both machine and software. I haven't yet failed to get it to do anything I wanted done - from mass production of acrylic parts to fooling about with a digitiser probe copying a spanner into wood, (useless but fun).
For those who want to build their own system there are probably better ways to go but, if you want something which works "out of the box", this is a well made machine capable of very accurate repeatable machining.
I have taken over 100 parts off it and been unable to measure any difference between the first and last even when I have needed to shut down and re-start the machine in mid run.
The tech support from both the machine and software suppliers has been excellent in my experience, I have sometimes had replies to e-mails within minutes and never longer than the following day.
Taking into account the lower shipping costs and no import duty these machines don't work out any more expensive for European buyers than most others available.
cheers,
Max.

Happy new year for everybody !
I'm from Warsaw,Poland

Have a great new rotation around the Sun and do not waste it cause they come in limit production only. I am from Cuba that used to be a part of Europe but no more. All the $100 (plus $25 for airfare) all inclusive for a month Club-Med party officials and few others were here and now all we get are these new McDonald style Funeral Homes moving in. I do not understand, no one has died here in like 3 years, really. And everyone I talk to has no such intentions. So Happy New Year to all of my European friends and come and visit us and we promise to put a tan on your cheeks.:rainfro: wrong island, that was Dominican Republic trying to be Jamaica, :banana: or if it was brown and smoking...

HELLO butterRPG.. ARE YOU LIVING IN CUBA..OR NOT?
IAM CUBAN TOO, PLS REPLY
BEST REGARDS
RENE

I´m from Charneca da Caparica, Portugal.

Finishing mechanical eng.

Hi from Geoff, currently in London, but normally in the French Pyrenees near Perpignan.

Hi praest !

My name is Jørgen, so that will tel you somthing about me. I build a CNC plasma/router machine, so send me a line, and I will showe you my machine, and we can grow from there. I live in Australia/Queensland, and my Danish is better than English.
Pleace send me a line : jjakobsen@bigpond.com
I belive you are building a machine your self, or ?
Med venlig hilsen
Jørgen

Hi I'm in the Northwest of the UK !! Lil place called Warrington :) Currently working in Runcorn near Liverpool and have been for the past 11 yrs :D

Hi I'm from Madrid, Spain.

I am starting to think about building a desktop CNC milling? routing? machine to help me in my electronics hobby. But I am finding that in my country is fairly difficult to source some parts at reasonable prices.

Regards to everyone

Hi soon to be wabeco D2400E owner north wales.

I liked the Idea reading reactions from lots of countries. So This is my contribution.

I have a home build cnc router using ISY-CAM software, Getting some good results in 3d.

Looking for specs steppingmotors type 34PM-C042 manufactered by Shinkom.

Looking for a better spindle motor, considering : http://www.damencnc.com/damencnc.php?dir=cpt&&langId=EN&idType=9

Future: Using 4th axis rotating along the y or x axis.

Bye.

Hello, my name is Arlo and I'm from the Netherlands.
I program these machines..

Unisign univers 3
6000rpm 10Kw
X1600 Y400 Z370
11 tools SK40
Sinumerik 840D
http://www.vdelsen-mf.nl/fotos/machinepark/large/4.jpg



Two of these:
Yang Eagle 1000
8000rpm 12Kw
1000x510x400
20 tools BT40
Fanuc 0MD
http://www.yalesystems.co.uk/images/capacity/yang1000.jpg




YCM (supermax) FV56A-APC
(Automatic pallet changer)
10000rpm 15Kw (?)
560x410x450 (2x)
20 tools BT40
Fanuc 200i
combined with a Fanuc robot
http://www.cmur.it/supermax/verticali_file/verticali_file/4_7a.jpg



Hyundai-Kia VX500
10000rpm 20Kw
1100x510x680
30 tools BT40
Fanuc 200i
http://www.chiapperohnos.com.ar/img/inicio/vx500.jpg



Deckel FP3A
aprox 3100 rpm (gears worn out)
485x385x310
1 tool :)
massive power and stability
Deckel dialog
http://www.cooperation.hu/img/rolunk/gepek_gyor/deckel_fp3a_2_800_sm.jpg


And my favorite...
Datron M35
60000 rpm 2Kw
1020x700x240
20 tools.
Datron V7 (soon to be upgrated)
http://www.datron.de/typo3temp/pics/b9e934f895.jpg

Note: all pictures taken from internet!
Don't have any actual ones :confused:



Now in the market for a second Datron most likely an M8
The new M10-power is a bit to expensive :-( (but a brilliant machine to watch !! )
For CAD I use Vector ... nice program... simple but effective..

Hi

From Ipswich Suffolk.

Just finishing a DIY Torchmate

Anyone near Barcelona?

Just starting on this world, I expect to have my milling machine running tomorrow, and even sometimes problems are hard to solve, now I tkinking in a second machine.

Does anyone know some good supplier from the zone? This first milling was acquired as a kit in germany, too far some moments :(

Toni

hello from hull england

Any one from Harrow, North west London?

Anyone near Barcelona?

Just starting on this world, I expect to have my milling machine running tomorrow, and even sometimes problems are hard to solve, now I tkinking in a second machine.

Does anyone know some good supplier from the zone? This first milling was acquired as a kit in germany, too far some moments :(

Toni

Hi Toni

I am in Coustouges, which is just on the French/Spanish border about 180km from Barcelona. I currently have a small lathe, but I am planning to build myself a CNC mill, or do a conversion on an existing mill.

I am still looking for a good metal supplier in this area, the only place I have found only sells stuff in 6 metre lengths, do you know of any suppliers in Barcelona?

Cheers
Geoff

Hello from Timisoara, Romania!
Good work here, I begin to read and figure out how to use old dot-matrix printer part from my junk to built my first CNC router, for engraving and milling/cutting small parts from wood, plastics, aluminium...

Hello from Serbia!
Nice CNC forum.

Hello from Romania!

New to this forum. Use Mach3 forum a bit. Anyone from DK out there?

Hello from Norway, Tromsoe in fact :)
I use Mach3, Probotix stepper and drivers on my home made router.
-videos on youtube under MitzuRazing profile.
Just ordered the Kress FME 1050 and some clamps.
Searching the net nowadays to find a suitable CNC router for my many projects. K2's KG-3925G and Heiz High Z1000 are my options as i see it now, any input or suggestions??

-RK.

Hi MitzuRazing.
If you use the search function and search "heiz" you will find a few posts from me about my Z1000 which I have had for a couple of years now.
I am still very happy with it and have recommended to a couple of friends who are also happy.
Regards Max

Hello from Finland!

I am retrofitting a mill using Mach3 and Granite Device controller cards.
Planning to add 4&5 axis.
http://inspire86.blogspot.com/

I don't sell tooling but if you need any help with tooling problem please get in touch with me, via the forum or via my site www.mctooling.com

Hi everyone,

I am from the south of Sweden. I know toolroom mills and lathes quite well and also how to use them, but I am new to CNC. So I decided to buy a VMC and I have been quite busy since June when I got this new baby for my garage shop.

It is a Vertical Machine Center, Feeler FV-800 from 1996 (a 10 HP, 3 axis, 18 tool CNC mill from Taiwan) with the optional 4:th axis to be fitted soon. Control system is Mitsubishi Meldas 520 AMR. See the attached "before" and "after" fixing-up pics below!

She looks quite smart for weighing 5 metric tons, dont you think? The axis movements are: X=800, Y=450, Z=510 mm, so I will be able to machine fairly big chunks of aluminum, steel etc.

I have been working since June to get her in this "as new" shape and she is in a really good shape. With only 2000 spindle hours it is not even broken in. Most of the job was cosmetics and maintenance.

Now I am going through the pain of setting up comunication between the CNC control and my PC. When that is sorted, I will look into CAM programming, G-code editing and such. I hope to have some chips flying here before the year end!!

There must be quite a few Feelers sold in Europe, so fellow Feeler owners, please join this thread!!

Regards,
Peter

Hi all
A virus infected me.
A virus colled cnc.So here i am for the cure.
Great site!!
Gretings
Roger

Hi Everyone,
I'm based in Bristol UK. Converted my X2 mill to 3axis CNC a few years ago.
Regards
abfa9358

Edinburgh here. Building my first CNC for wod working and light metal projects. If anyone in the area wants to chat please let me know. Will have pic's up a soon as it is assembled.

Using a Marchant Dice base with a Kress 1050 spindle, Stepperworld FET3 Dynamo for motors and control board. HP zv6149 running BobCAD-CAM V21 and trying out a few control programs to see which gets the best results for the money spent. Looking ti move up on the CAD part in the near future as it is very difficult to edit drawings inside BobCAD.

Any opinions or advise would be appreciated as I am new to CNC as far as running it completely (used to build parts of them as a Pipefitter many years ago). Look forward to some good exchanges of information and will post pic's of projects and the machince once fully up and running.

Hello everyone from Hungary!

Another Hello from Hungary ,)

Hello from Greece>Macedonia>Salonica.
73336

Hi

Hello from Estonia.
How are you , fellow CAD CAM guys affected from economic meld down? My shop floor is almost out of orders. I have brand new 4 axis CNC mill Quaser MV154PL 1000x500x500, MultiCAM600 Plasma/Gas cutter 2,5x6m, manual lathes and mill.
So if you have any interest of machining, give me a mail.

timoty@hot.ee

Hi everyoneeee!!!!!

Nothing...
another crazy loose around here...

hahahahaha!!!

Hi
I'am new here & would like to start asking questions but I can't find a way to get going. I'am in the UK and manufactoring is just starting to go into free fall.
Rob

Hi Rob
Whereabouts are you?
Do you have your own machine or do you work with them?
Privately owned CNC seems to be far less common here in UK than in US, probably due to lack of work space in our tiny little houses!
Anyway, nice to hear from you.

Regards Max

Hi Max, I'm in the south of Portugal(Algarve), I have two machines, well, one and a half really, i'm halfway through the second one. How about you, any build going on...Rod

Hi Rod,
No build going on I'm afraid, I bought a Heiz S1000 machine some time back when the pound was still worth something versus the euro - see my other posts for how pleased I am with it. I have used it to make all sorts of "attachments" for itself. I built an indexing head to get over the problem of no 4th axis when I needed to cut equally spaced slots into a cylinder, a water/air feed for cutting alloys & plastics and 3 different vacuum hold down systems. I am designing a rotary 4th axis at the moment as I can't afford to buy one, luckily my software and controller have 4th axis capability so it"s just the mechanics to deal with.
If you have built your own machines I would be interested to hear how you got on.
Regards,
Max

Hello from the UK!

Hi Miikey

Welcome to the crazy world of CNC and the forum of course ; )

Andy

Hi Miikey

Welcome to the crazy world of CNC and the forum of course ; )

Andy

Cheers for the warm welcome:cheers:

Hi to everyone!

I'm a designer from heto one of the most powerful cnc, driling/milling machine in the worl, Heto!

You can visit us in the www.heto.com.pt
we have enormous solution.
if you have any doubt about you can contac me here.

Best regards
Artur Bastos

Hi I'm Mike from Techserv in the UK, were aren't very powerful and dont have anything enormous (sigh) but we are fairly tall, does that count?


Cheers

Mike

PS we make plasma cutting machines if anybody wants one?

Hi, looks like I am first visitor from Vilnius, Lithuania.
We are very strong and professional in laser sales with over 300 installations all over the world. Also we have interesting equipment for engraving on stone.
www.litografa.lt

Hello all.

I am new to this forum and hope to contribute as much as I can. But I'll be asking questions mostly, because I do not have much experience in CNC yet. However, if you have any questions concerning electronics in general, I'm your man.

Greetings from Belgium.

Hi everyone,greetings from Poland.I run a machine shop in Poland,but bought all machines in USA.Now I've got a problem with service in Europe.Specially with Mazak,if someone have a problem with converters,amplifiers from Mitsub. I can give You a adress in USA that can repair at half the price that Mitsub. Europe charge.Best regards.

Hello from Romania!!!

Hello!

Recently I've entered the fascinating world of metal working by purchasing a small micro mill by Sieg (X1). Started the CNC conversion by etching PIcStep 4 PCB's, and I was given 3 Japan Servo stepper motors (KH56KM2) and a Vexta Stepper motor (PK268-E2 851's) (Thanks Ed!).

Also I've found a scrapyard nearby with has lots of (I hope) usually aluminum.
As I don't know much about prices with regards to metals, I think I've found 2.5 kg of alu @ 4 euro quite a bargain!

Looking forward to starting a build thread to show the slow progress I am making.

regards,
Hamish