Originally Posted by Forum Admin Hello Bob La Londe,
Our records indicate that you have never posted to our site before! Why not make your first post today by saying hello to our community in our Introductions forum.
Why not start with your first post today and become an active part of CNCzone.com-The Ultimate Machinist Community now! |
Well, I kept seeing this message as I perused the forums so I figured I better make an introductory post. I couldn't find an "Introductions" forum. If there is one and I just missed it that should be your first clue about how good I am at wading through all the information here and actually finding what I want. Not seeing an "Introductions" I figured the 'Clubhouse' was the next best thing.
To date my metal working is limited to hacking, cutting, carving, and welding with hand controlled tools. Rotary tools, metal cutting blades, grinders... you get the picture. The closest I have ever come to actual machining was clamping a cross slide vice to my drill press and cutting some groves in some aluminum sheet with a rotary file. Well, I have cut quite a bit of aluminum sheet and plate on my table saw lately, but in my opinion that's more like wood working than metalworking. I am currently rebuilding a wrecked aluminum bass boat. So far I have learned, clean, clean, clean, keep the gas flowing, and when those aren't enough try cranking up the wire speed and welding faster before adjusting anything else.
My math education is somewhere between College Algebra, and Finite Mathematics, but my practical math skills are probably more like in the second year high school algebra range. In other words, if you tell me all I have to do is mathematically model a practical rotation of a 3D object to get what I want I'll probably look at you like you are speaking Sanskrit.
Mostly I like to fish. I go fishing quite a lot, and if I have a spare day and don't go fishing its because some necessary project has overcome my comfort factors. For instance... today I am going to fix a lighting circuit on the house. Its been out for a couple months, but I actually needed those outside lights last night and it drove me nuts that they weren't working. Otherwise I would already be fishing.
My current CNC interests are in setting up, buying, or maybe building an inexpensive machine to cut plaques. Some minimal 3D cutting ability may be wanted in the future to make aluminum molds to cast lead and plastic. I have noticed several machines for sale on Ebay and other sources that look like they would suit this need for a very reasonable price, but most have a long list of things they do not include. When I start adding them up the price starts reaching the limit of my comfort zone. In another forums (one run by a guy who does some proffessional machining) I was told this was the place to go. He told me that I could probably pick up a cheap mill from Harbor Freight and talk to you guys to turn it into a passable cnc mill for the type of stuff I want to do for about a grand using freeware and shareware software.
HELP!!! I am not afraid to use Goggle and search forums, but I would sure appreciate some suggestions for refined starting points.
Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com 
10-26-2008, 12:03 PM
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