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Thread: DIY regrets

  1. #21
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    I can definitly understand "A_Camera"! Aiming for a perfect build first thing can lead to costly investments in parts you dont need. Building a machine low end and upgrading later the parts which need better performance cost you extra money but you learn a lot and you can avoid those extra unnessesarily costly parts. Personally i am a starter - a person who has a hard time to finnish things i start. and my projects pile up awaiting final adjustments and the last finnishing things. To me it is better to go all in from the beginning because picking up an budget project and make it better costs too much personal effort so i pay the extra dollar to have the better stuff from the beginning even if its over specified. To be fair my router build is still a birds nest of wires and a controller box which mever saw the lid, on the other hand its the only project ive been enjoying for over three years without dropping it. Nature of the occupation i guess

    jfong:
    I do agree with the hardwire concept for safety but there are several other things like lights, status lights, fan, circulation pump, compressor, air assist valve/solenoide, follow focus enable etc. Depends on preferences. I think we can conclute that if you are doing more than an occational photo engraving grbl-lpc might be your choice. If you are primarily doing all the other cutting and line engraving you might be better off with smoothie. Both will grow to more mature FW:s over time and who knows they might merge in the future?!

    Still Learning..... :D


  2. #22
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    A_camera and Bx3mE, I think I lean more towards Bx3mE's approach. Once I have a working device, whatever it might be, I tend to loose interest in the build and focus on using it for it's intended purpose. From that point on modifications often involve duct tape and percussive maintenance. Knowing what I'm like, I try a bit too hard to get it perfect first time. It kinda sucks some of the fun out of it, but I know long term I'll end up with a better result. I start off all excited and very highly motivated, but that wanes pretty quick and actually getting the project done ends up being a bit of a slog for me. So if I don't have certain things in my initial plan, they'll likely never get done at all.

    Glad to hear your build was a success from the beginning A_Camera!



  3. #23
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    I think you misunderstood my point. I would not say my way of doing it was right for anyone else but me. The reason I did it the way I did it was that I was not sure I could build one, so I wanted to test my abilities to design and build a CNC. I was also not sure I wanted to keep it, and would not lose interest in using it once I built it. That was why I was not interested in spending a lot more time and money on it until I had answers to those two questions. Once I knew I could design and build one and would not lose interest in using it, the decision to upgrade was easy to make.

    My background is in software design, and electronics design and management, not mechanical engineering, which is why I was not sure I will be able to design and build a working CNC. My machine was not at all a success from the the beginning. It is hardly a secret that I failed in some parts of it, there are several posts about my mistakes on my blog. What I meant is that currently I am not planning to change anything because what I have is good enough for me. I simply answered one question: "What would you change about your own builds?" and the answer to that is currently nothing.

    https://www.youtube.com/c/AdaptingCamera/videos
    https://adapting-camera.blogspot.com


  4. #24
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    Quote Originally Posted by A_Camera View Post
    I think you misunderstood my point. I would not say my way of doing it was right for anyone else but me. The reason I did it the way I did it was that I was not sure I could build one, so I wanted to test my abilities to design and build a CNC. I was also not sure I wanted to keep it, and would not lose interest in using it once I built it. That was why I was not interested in spending a lot more time and money on it until I had answers to those two questions. Once I knew I could design and build one and would not lose interest in using it, the decision to upgrade was easy to make.

    My background is in software design, and electronics design and management, not mechanical engineering, which is why I was not sure I will be able to design and build a working CNC. My machine was not at all a success from the the beginning. It is hardly a secret that I failed in some parts of it, there are several posts about my mistakes on my blog. What I meant is that currently I am not planning to change anything because what I have is good enough for me. I simply answered one question: "What would you change about your own builds?" and the answer to that is currently nothing.
    Sorry if my post came across as negative towards you A_Camera. I totally agree, if your build was right for you, then of course you would have no regrets Some people may regret not spending extra $$$ on those mega steppers, others may regret not buying the cheap ones. My working background is as a machine setter/operator for sheet metal. I've worked an assortment of machines over the years. I have zero expertise on building CNC machines lol but I do have some experience on what annoys me as an operator/user. So for my build I'm aiming for fit-for-purpose, and how cheap can I make it whilst still being suitable. My hobbies in the past have given me an insight into heat exchangers so my first completed component will be the laser chiller. I'm glad to hear that your approach to the build was a positive one.



  5. #25
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    Quote Originally Posted by Blackened View Post
    Sorry if my post came across as negative towards you A_Camera. I totally agree, if your build was right for you, then of course you would have no regrets Some people may regret not spending extra $$$ on those mega steppers, others may regret not buying the cheap ones. My working background is as a machine setter/operator for sheet metal. I've worked an assortment of machines over the years. I have zero expertise on building CNC machines lol but I do have some experience on what annoys me as an operator/user. So for my build I'm aiming for fit-for-purpose, and how cheap can I make it whilst still being suitable. My hobbies in the past have given me an insight into heat exchangers so my first completed component will be the laser chiller. I'm glad to hear that your approach to the build was a positive one.
    Would you mind to share what parts of the machines you have been working with have annoyed you? I think it would be a niceaddition to the thread.

    On my router i can say that the time it takes to make the first cut each time i get at it is what annoys me the most. To counter this i built some scripts for setting up my tools including getting a good probe and a nice toolsetter which saves me a ton of work for every job. This is why i plan to have live autofocus on my laser from the beginning. Maybe not very nessesary but saves time every job.

    Still Learning..... :D


  6. #26
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    Quote Originally Posted by Bx3mE View Post
    Would you mind to share what parts of the machines you have been working with have annoyed you? I think it would be a niceaddition to the thread.

    On my router i can say that the time it takes to make the first cut each time i get at it is what annoys me the most. To counter this i built some scripts for setting up my tools including getting a good probe and a nice toolsetter which saves me a ton of work for every job. This is why i plan to have live autofocus on my laser from the beginning. Maybe not very nessesary but saves time every job.
    So from an industrial point of view:


    1. Biggest annoyance is having a machine that is capable of so much, yet providing documentation of little value and deliberately making it hard to learn how to bend the damn things to my will! Often there are parameters that need to be assigned a special value in order to unlock editing of canned cycles. These companies have a certain expectation of how their machines will be used, and lock users into their idea of what's best. Never mind the fact the every company has different needs, often driven by their customer's requirements.

    2. Part counter! Need!

    3. Need an easy way to trim material after parts have been cut. Untrimmed skeletons are more likely to scratch perfectly good material that they may be stored with.

    4. Software that won't produce gcode that can make the machine do the things that are in their own promotional videos!

    5. Laser head assemblies that are spring loaded to avoid crash damage. Great idea, often poorly implemented. A tiny nudge and you have to interrupt the job and recentre the beam in the nozzle, because the springs don't return the head to exactly the same position. Works sometimes, other times not. I've damaged nozzles more than once after a minor collision because the beam clipped the nozzle on the next cut.

    6. Laser head assemblies that are NOT spring loaded lol. Yes I know, they both annoy me. If the head is extremely rigid, a collision can easily result the sheet being moved. A real problem if you are cutting something like one of those decorative garden screens and a slug pokes up. Chuck out the sheet and start again.

    7. Rotary jobs where a feedrate is specified, but without specifying the diameter of the tube/cylinder in the chuck. Imagine a part has been drawn up and then post-processed for a particular machine. Dimensionally, if the correct diameter tube is placed in the chuck, the features cut or etched into that tube will be accurate. BUT, as diameter increases, the relative velocity of the surface of the tube and nozzle will be slower for a small tube, and faster for a large tube given the same RPM of the chuck. So some jobs will fail to cut through because the feedrate is too high, some will burn the edges because the feedrate is too slow and there's too much heat buildup.

    For hobby lasers, some of these problems are not really a concern. I'm not going to be cutting 100s of the same part at home, so counting parts is likely not a problem. I will want an easy way to trim the sheet though.

    And as for proprietary software/operating systems, I can't wait to get my hands on an open source package. Hopefully contribute to it in the future too.

    Plenty of other pet peeves, but I'll leave it at that for now



  7. #27
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    Thanks! the partcounter is a smart and easy integration if you have somewhere to store the information. I think i will be doing that. Another thing ive bees thinking about is nesting. I will have to look in to that. It is more likely to be an issue when using a laser vs. using a router.

    5) and 6) : Are you also concidering an live focus system? I wonder if i can use the THC functionallity for this...

    Still Learning..... :D


  8. #28
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    Default Re: DIY regrets

    Quote Originally Posted by Bx3mE View Post
    Thanks! the partcounter is a smart and easy integration if you have somewhere to store the information. I think i will be doing that. Another thing ive bees thinking about is nesting. I will have to look in to that. It is more likely to be an issue when using a laser vs. using a router.

    5) and 6) : Are you also concidering an live focus system? I wonder if i can use the THC functionallity for this...
    Nesting is pretty handy yes. Also consider if your software can make use of common edge cutting. This saves heaps of time, especially with long thin rectangular shapes.

    As for a live focus, or what I believe I would call surface following ( I think that's the same thing?) I was considering it. I'm leaning towards not bothering. Mainly because my working envelope will be roughly 900 x 450 mm. But after reading more about photo etching being so sensitive to height variation I'm not so sure. Then again, I doubt I'd ever do any large photos because of how long it would take. So I expect I'd only be doing small photo etches anyway and therefore not need the live focus? Still not sure what to do about that.



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