New Guy, No Clue, Router Advice??

[meyer712]

Greetings, I am very impressed by all the knowledge contained here at this board, wish I understood what you were all talking about!!! Here is my plight. I am a full time cop (hence the fact that I don't understand what you are talking about). I want to make routered out signs, like you see being made at the county fairs and other areas where there are large numbers of people. I have no idea where to begin. I do have a laptop and some computer knowledge though. I would like to do this as a hobby and to make gifts for people. Is there a book or some basic machine that I can buy, plug in and just go with it?? Eventually I would like to learn what a axis is, and gcode means. Any advice for a guy who has a hard time reading a tape measure???

[ger21]

Look at www.k2cnc.com for the machine, and http://www.vectric.com/index.php?home for software. It's probably not going to be as easy as you think, so do a lot of research before you spend your money.

[ynneb]

Meyer, you will find that there is a big learning curve. However that been said, I was similar to you in not even knowing what a CNC machine was. But I had built one in a matter of months after reading this site.

My suggestion is to make one from a plan instead of trying to design your own. ( Far less head aches)

Here are some free plans http://www.cnczone.com/modules.php?n...=viewfile&id=4

[2muchstuff]

First of all, welcome to the forum. There is plenty of reading, ideas and information to be gotten here. As for a plug and play machine, yes they can be had for a few dollars but the key is in the amount of research that is done. Before you know it you will be drawing things out on paper instead of catching speeders. Hey, I like that idea. lol