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    Default New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Hi everyone, I'm Jarrad and I'm a car enthusiast based in Melbourne. Long story short I'm looking at manufacturing some car parts (very small scale) and have been looking at die cast (tooling blows my budget) and have now been looking at having these parts made by cnc and lathe mill. I'm now looking at making these my self have come across the eBay kits you can buy, I'm looking for some direction and some advice, essentially I'd like to make the following parts in the attachments out of brass, I know there is a knurled edge and also a centre keyway

    Look forward to hearing some feedback
    Kind regards Jarrad

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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    If you're talking about buying those cheap Chinese stepper motor and driver kits on Ebay, don't waste your money. This forum is full of people who did, and then had to buy something else when they didn't work. If you want to retrofit a lathe or milling machine with CNC controls, the best thing would be to find older machines which already are set up for CNC, but which have broken or obsolete controllers. These can often be found quite cheaply - cheaper, actually, than equivalent manual machines. Once you've got that far, then go shopping for an appropriate control system - you may be able to reuse the existing motors, if you can figure out how to drive them. If not, then do some research before investing in a control system - there's a lot to learn about.

    Making those timing-belt pulleys in brass from scratch might be more work than it's worth. There's a reason most of these things are die-cast. The brass stock alone will be pretty expensive. You'd need a pretty good-sized lathe to turn them on, before refixturing them on a 4-axis mill to cut the teeth and drill for the set-screws. Then you can broach the keyways with an arbor press and the appropriate tooling. I don't think you'll need to do any knurling, though.

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Yes it's a $70 dollar piece of brass that's if George white is carying a size like that in stock then you will have to buy a certain length of it I would think about casting it I use a pretty fine snad I purchased from some guys in Sandringham you would get close to that finish ,then you have to make a home forge and all the gear .So I guess it's like Awerby is saying there is an Investment in time learning money that might not be viable in the end ,although I give most things a go i have shelves full of them.



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Thanks a lot for the replies they're great help. I was looking at a machine like this 3AIX 4 AXIS CNC ROUTER ENGRAVER ENGRAVING MACHINE MILLING T-SCREW CRAFTS W Mach3 | eBay
    Thanks for the advice, I'll stay clear of one.
    I was quoted $280 per cap to have them manufactured....... I'm starting to think that it would be much easier and cost effective to have them made in China,
    Or is there anyone on this forum who has the capability to manufacture these?



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    I was looking at a machine like this
    Those machines are barely adequate for light cuts in soft wood.
    To do what you want, you'll need to spend 10-20 times more.

    Gerry

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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Don't happen to have a business name by any chance? I think that's what I'll be leaning towards, make a cast in Beas and have the rest machined



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    First bit of free advice from quite a few experienced CNCers here regarding cheap Chinese CNC kits: RUN AWAY!
    2nd and 3rd bits: RUN AWAY!

    What is it?
    What is wrong with it?
    What materials is it made from?
    Do you have engineering drawings?
    How much are you prepared to spend to get someone to make it for you?

    Cheers
    Roger



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    And the is it worth it thing ,I have had some great ideas jumped in went ok not so ok for some .Now I have similar Ideas sit back and think how many can I sell is there even a profit or is it even worth it ,most of the time no to all .This is a good place to throw your cnc ideas out because most of the people have been there done that the knowledge base is far greater than a few mates around a BBQ on the weekend ,good luck ,cheers John.



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    Quote Originally Posted by RCaffin View Post
    First bit of free advice from quite a few experienced CNCers here regarding cheap Chinese CNC kits: RUN AWAY!
    2nd and 3rd bits: RUN AWAY!

    What is it?
    What is wrong with it?
    What materials is it made from?
    Do you have engineering drawings?
    How much are you prepared to spend to get someone to make it for you?

    Cheers
    Roger
    Hi Roger,

    I'm in the process of having some CAD drawings made up of my part. I'm willing to spend the money (cost irrelevant) if the product is viable. I've had two quotes now both in the high $20,000 (for 100units)and unfortunately at that price it's just not viable.
    I'm unsure if this is purely because of material costing (brass) with the original being a diecast (265 grams per unit)
    I am now looking into aluminium production and or having diecast tools made up (approx 6k)

    Like everything it's a matter of speaking to the right people and knowledge is everything! Something in this field I'm very very green in but do love to learn.

    Kind regards
    Jarrad



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Hi Jarrad

    On the drawings you need to show what is critical and what is not. The difference could be significant in $ terms.

    In the quote you have, probably at least half the cost or more is in setting up. There might be $15k set-up and $50/unit, just as an example.

    Cheers
    Roger



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Put another way do you have sales for 20K worth of units.



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    Default Re: New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

    Quote Originally Posted by ger21 View Post
    Those machines are barely adequate for light cuts in soft wood.
    LOL! And BTW he was talking Balsa wood.

    For the money you want to pay for that thing, I'll turn one up for you. But, if you're really serious about making this, forget about cnc and get yourself a little manual lathe and one of those $300 bandsaws.



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New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne

New to the world of cnc, abit of advice needed! - Melbourne