CNC BBQ - Cairns,Australia (June11 2011) (More than $2000 of door prizes)

[Dan85]

Hi Gents id love to come along, no cnc experience at all as yet but im looking very seriously at buying a smallish 3/4 axis as i have parts i want to start making for a home business sort of thing, ive penciled it into my diary if its ok for me to attend(before you say yes realise im gonna pester everyone with questions) a bit about me? well i live in townsville and im a civil designer by trade and have been using various cad programs for 7-8 years now designing and building roads/carparks/airports and various other infrastructure. I have heaps of questions im dying to ask people!!! the only thing really holding me back is the unkown at the moment and possibly how loud the machine will be as i dont think my town house neighbours will appreaciate it hahaha. Is there anyone else in the townsville region i can annoy for the next few months with questions until the BBQ?

Dan

[epineh]

Hi James, I think I have a working PC ready to go, but I will give you a yell if I get stuck. Right now I am waiting on parts to arrive for some of the bits and pieces I mentioned originally (PWM generator and Elm servo drives) and will post pics and vids of those once they are up and running.

Cold Turkey, nice to hear from you, the bus may be a great help on the day, there is another I had in mind locally but it looks like there is going to be a few people turn up to this on the day, maybe a case of the more buses the better Keep us informed on how the machine you ordered goes, it seems like we may have more people in the area getting into this stuff than any of us realized !

Dan, you are most welcome, the BBQ's are about information for everybody, from beginners to experienced everybody usually gets a lot from the day. I am sure there is at least one other person I know of that is in Townsville, I will have to backtrack a little through some posts to find him, once I do I will let you know. Questions are great, most of us welcome them, the hands on stuff is even better, with a bit of luck I will have both my machines running on the day, one is my first build, lets say it is a little agricultural, the other is the current work in progress, hopefully should provide some inspiration if it doesn't catch fire ... at least you should be able to compare running noise of the two.

Cheers.

Russell.

[VWSatOz]

This is the real spirit of OZ! I just love it!
Congratulations Russel & to you guys brushing off the disasters and getting on with your CNC stuff and planning an amazing demo day with friends in the same mind set.
I am in Adelaide and have never managed to get to a local meet as their meeting night Tuesdays? seemed to clash too much with another hobby club I'm in. Maybe I should try a bit harder???
Cairns is a tad too far away for me...! would just love to see this 1st meeting.
I have a couple of CNC dead mcs... a 4axis Makino EDM with steppers, and a old LazerKomb flat bed cardboard box cut/scribe/driller 2-1/2 axis with a couple of Baldor servos that would both be a great start to retrofit in my semi-retirement years.

[Cold Turkey]

Can't wait for this BBQ, I'm sure it'll be a lot more informative then the ones that my mates and I normally throw.

I had no idea that there were so many people here so into this sort of thing.

Shouldn't be a problem with the bus at all, it's even Q registered but I don't have a commercial license. So as long as I'm only transferring non paying mates we're gold.

Any chance I can catch up with you before the BBQ Russel? I'm brand new to all of this and wouldn't mind just a few little pointers before my machine arrives so I can get stuck in and use it as much as I can.

Cheers, Dave.

[epineh]

Hi VWSatOZ, it is only a couple of days drive ! I am glad the shed is still standing, there is a really big tree beside it that was leaning that way during the cyclone but only dropped a few branches onto the shed, if the whole tree blew down there would be nothing left

I hope one day to tackle a VMC or HMC retrofit, it is just a matter of money, time and shed space, in that order, lol.

Hi Dave, no probs if ya want to drop in, mind you I am a really slow machine builder and as such only have one machine working (more or less) and the second I really hope to finish before the BBQ. If I can help out I will.

Cheers.

Russell.

[VWSatOz]

Wot's this cuppla days drive to get to Cairns? from Adelaide
Last time I drove up there it took us 3 days days just to drive from Brisbane and that was in a Chrysler Valiant & they were sposta be HOT then... big slant 6 and built in Adelaide too.

[epineh]

Just depends on how much of a hurry you are in

It is a shame there is so much distance from one end of the country to the other, it would be a lot easier to put faces to names, ah well.

I will be sure to post photo's and video to let you know what you missed

Cheers.

Russell.

[Cold Turkey]

Yeah takes me 32 hours to drive from here to Sydney (2 drivers) and only 18 to Brisbane (just me driving) I've also driven up from Adelaide, took a detour to see the rock and then drove through the Simpson Desert once before too. You can make it no worries

Yeah cheers, I will try and catch up with you Russell, I mainly have a few questions and I tend to learn much better face to face then trying to relay my thoughts over the net. I'll PM you in a couple of weeks and see if we can work out a time.

Dave.

[epineh]

No prob Dave, with a bit of luck in a couple of weeks I should stir the old router up.

Russell.

[Cold Turkey]

Sounds good.

[epineh]

We have our first lucky door prize to giveaway !

Roman has kindly offered to donate a SuperPID motor speed controller, he has offered it to display on the day and then we can have a draw to decide who takes it home.

I will install it on my red beast that has a DeWalt laminate trimmer with no speed control and show the benefits of the controller, we can mill some plastic cable chain pieces or something.

I think the draw will be for people that have registered their intent to turn up on the day either here on this thread or on the Woodwork forums, the two places the event has been promoted, this way the threads get some "bumping" and hopefully we get as many people attending as possible.

So if you plan to attend, say so on this thread and you will go into the draw. Hopefully I can attract some more prizes before then

Cheers.

Russell.

[Cold Turkey]