Old Marine looking for guidance

[Mjolnir07]

First Thank You in advance for your help. Well....I'm determined but overwhelmed. I am a 41 yr old former Marine, wheelchair bound, 3 kids, wife and a English Bulldog. I love making things..models, resin models, wood art, holiday decorations, add lights and sound to scale models, computers, online gaming..I like it all.

I don't have a normal 9 to 5 job, and I try to fund my various hobbies by making and selling stuff at local craft shows and or on Ebay. I recently took a interest into intarsia, wood art, drop a pattern on wood, cut out parts with a scroll saw, contour parts with a sander, glue em to a back board, and put a finish on em. Well it just struck me that if I could build a CNC machine that could cut out the parts it would streamline the process and allow me to do more.

So I am asking for your collective help in guiding me to what may help. The largest wood yard cutout I do are about 24" x 48" but I am sure as with most hobbies bigger equals more money. I probably wouldn't want to make anything that would be limited to smaller than 24" x 24" but I am just guessing here...maybe 24" and a open ended axis thing is doable so that one axis isn't restricted in product length. Other ideas that came to mind are plaques, tables and such with pictures carved into them.

So not sure which way is best, I would say wood is the number one medium followed by foam and metal...not sure if what i am looking for can be done by one machine or If I pick one make it, let it make enough cash to move on to project number two. I have read a ton on CNC, waterjet, plasma and still am not sure what is the most feasable on a limited budget.

I have a 22' x 28' hobbyshop/garage to work with as far as space goes, and a fair amount of tools i can use to make whatever. Thank you in advance for any direction. And Semper Fi to all you other jarheads floating around inhere.

[turmite]

Hello jarhead! I wasn't a Marine but I want you to know I hold you and "most" others that have served in our military with highest regard and want to extend to you my heartfelt thanks.

Now...to your cnc machine. I don't particularly like them, but a suspended gantry with the machine open on one side and both ends sounds like it might be just what you need. To do a cantelever design like this requires the frame and gantry to be more robust an ridgid so you will need to keep that in mind as well.

Do you have a cad program or cad experience? If not that is also something to consider.

Are you asking for design help, sourcing help/advice?

Mike

[jhowelb]

Well Sir, I'm not a Marine but I am a Vet. circa 1960-63 from another conflict. Let me be the first to say "Thank you" for your service and that I am so terribly grieved for your disability.
You can, as have I, overcome that disability and be as productive and valuable member of society as any and better than most.
This is an excellent hobby/industry to start rehabilitation/self employment. To that end I will offer three HobbyCNC 200oz in stepper motors at the cost of shipping if they can be of any use to you.
Bookmark my addy from the member list and I will be happy to talk with you on any subject you wish.
God bless you and good luck!!

[BobF]

As others have said, Thank you sir for your service to this great country of ours.
I think you could do what you want with Joes machine. Look at the forum on Joes CNC model 2006 and see what you think.

[JRoque]

I second the words of others here - thank you for your service.

My machine is "open ended" as you suggest. This allows me to cut material that is larger than my Y axis and it's great that I can throw in an entire 4' x 8' panel and start cutting. My Y axis can also hang outside the bed on the front end. This has worked well for those jobs on materials that are taller than my Z depth.

In my opinion, there is nothing like THK type rails and blocks. They give you accuracy and rigidity... at a price. For my 6' x 4' machine, I ended buying them directly from THK because there were not available on eBay. If you can do 24" x 24" then plenty of THK rails can be found on eBay and other. Also, look into 8020 extrusions for the frame unless you want to do heavy metal cuts.

JR

[Mjolnir07]

Well I am feveriously taking notes, I will start a excell spreadsheet of info, so I can keep track of help and guideance. All of which I welcome whole heartedly. I have been in my chair since 1990, and am very fortunate not to be one of the world owes me or poor me look what happened to me types.

My 2nd, current, and last wife is a Desert Storm/Shield vet from the Navy, and I just buried my father who was a AirForce vet in Korea. So now that the history lesson is over lol...I am handy and capable but not knowledgable which is why I am here. Tikering around and making things work has always been a blast. It just seemed wise to get alot of advice and direction before I start since many of these items are not cheap and I don't have cashflow towaste so to speak.

A heartfelt thank you to all who have offered help or advice, I have decided to chronicle this little project for the fun of it, and maybe toss up a freebee website thingy showing progress and kudos to all of you fine people. And to all that said thanks for my service, and my father and wife also, I can say, that your kind words surpass any pain we felt on our worst time in service. I don't want to sound sappy or like I am rattling a change cup on the corner, I just want to do this right and make it enjoyable and fun.

This year I carved 23 artificial pumpkins by hand...could a setup like this carve a design in a artificial pumpkin? Hehe..see how dangerous it is for me to think...I keep pushing the envelope...well night for now, talk to you all soon. Thanks again.

Respectfully,

Michael

[jhowelb]

Cutting on a sphere will likely require a minimum of 5 axes, possible but advanced. You might do better chewing on a smaller project which can also help build a larger more expansive one. (I'm a firm believer in bootstrapping as can be seen by some of the threads I've written on this forum)

Consider the simplicity of a Rockcliff style rig, easy to put together with hand tools. Up and running quickly and with smallest amount of tech grief.

Consider also, Gecko G203v drives, expensive but indestructible to be sure!

Mach 3 control software is adequate and affordable as is Sheetcam for 2.5D gcode creation. Lots of cad software out there but I personally like DesignCad.

In any case, do lots of reading BEFORE you jump something.

And no, we don't want a "pity party" but know this, you have our respect, sympathy and admiration.

[Mjolnir07]

Well starting with something that can be upgraded is a very smart idea. I'm looking forward to this, it should be fun, challenging and rewarding.

And just the type of thing that my wife has zero clue as to what I am doin and when it's done she will be doing the..."Can ya make me one of these items for such and such niece or nephew, or hey mom's B-Day is around the corner can ya go whip something up on that thing of yours in the garage...you know the noisy move around jerky one...whatever you call it...and I'll have to just smile and say "Sure babe!"

[jhowelb]

Fecn's Drawer Slide + MDF machine.

Take a look at this thread and the link he provides, he used drawer slides (cheap enough) as linear rails and bearings. Not going to make metal precision equipment with this one but adequate for a lot of wooden garage hobby stuff!

http://ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19561

[Mjolnir07]

So here are some quick sketches I jotted down on a napkin...anything promising?

Hehe......had to toss in a joke or two...

Seriously...this is getting really exciting, I'm blowing away my garage and trashing all my real junk and cleaning everything up so I can get started. I got about 200 board foot of assorted hardwood scraps from some local cabinet makers. I am going to have to buy a thickness planer of some type..have seen Rand, Dewalt, Hitachi and Delta in the local Lowes and HomeDepot...unless anyone has a descent 12 or 13" planer they wanna unload...the Rand one on Ebay is about 230.00 which is about what the Delta one is at Lowes...then the prices start getting crazy...but wouldn't the Delta one be ok to get started with?

[rippersoft]

Semper Fi from a old Navy Chief. I was in your spot knowledge-wise a few years ago. This board really provided me with alot of insight as to how and what is needed to get the show on the road.

As for your pumpkins, you can carve 2 1/2D using an XYZ CNC router. The image gets converted into GCode and the CNC software makes the motion. You can carve signs, make parts, all kinds of stuff.

If you look at the Harware Store Machine threads, you will see how cheaply this can be done.

To jhowelb - I will pay the shipping for the HobbyCNC board and steppers. Let me know how much and if we can do Paypal or you just need a check.

Mjolnir07 stand by for heavy rolls as your ship comes about, mate.

RipperSoftware

[Mjolnir07]

Very kind of you Ripper, my task for the next week or so is a thourough cleaning and tidying up of my garage. And research on what direction I will go, am looking at lots of plans and videos and such. I am humbled by all of you guys generous offers, it was never my intent to log into this forum trolling for handouts, and I don't want to offend anyone either. Just want to be successful, and since I dont have 50,000 to buy a waterjet, a budget homemade CNC Router or Plasma cutter seemed doable, and the router dosent seem too daunting. Maybe as I succeed and progress I can build others and one day can offer help, plans, assistance to other people just starting out. But I must say this is really looking like it will be fun and rewarding and a nice challenge also. Talk to all of you soon, God Bless and have a awesome day.

Respectfully,

Michael