Have you finished a cnc machine?

[santiniuk]

I have 3 Picstep boards complete and running well on the kitchen table !

My up's and down's are on this thread :-

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7286

I'm battling with free time at the moment so bashing away building it in CAD first.

Quite surprising from the poll how many are in a similar position

[murphy625]

Working on my first.

Testing it now and exterminating the bugs.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Bubba Is one EVER done? I have just finished putting ball screws on the X and Y axis, but Now I find there are other things that I want to do to imporve it. WHEN IS DONE? Right now, it works, so some may say it is done. Now to improve it. Bubba

Bubba has nailed it. Any complex project, inevitably, is a work in progress. Even if it is in hard use, the builder KNOWS what could be done to improve it. And the lure of improvement is very strong. I "finished" a mill quite a while ago, and I'm still messing with it. I'm currently adding much needed swarf-guarding for the ballscrews and rails. If you are scratch-building a mill, router, or lathe, I HIGHLY recommend you plan on the swarf guarding from the beginning, rather than try to add it later. Once it's all together and aligned, it is a pain to tear down portions of it to add bellows, etc.

While I was building CNC mill Mk1, mill MK2 parts were also being produced simultaneously. Once set up for an operation, it is not too much trouble to produce 2 or 3 parts, rather than just one.

I'm finding out the planning and building of CNC tools is every bit as rewarding as creating stuff on the finished machine. I used to think this was kind of a waste, but really, the reason we do this at home is to have fun, and if you are having fun creating CNC machinery, then that in itself is a fine thing.

[MIKE JEFFERS]

Mini mill conversion up and producing , the blondes still not shure i should be in the house if things are running in the garage but it runs and makes money. wooohoo.
next fine tuning - better finish -ball screws- bigger machine e.t.c.
and that 600x500 gantry router.

[Jason Marsha]

Finally finished my first machine. I built jgro's machine with a few mods and it works perfectly.I used the Hobby CNC kit along with Master5 (Celeron 366MHZ). In total the machine took about 4 months with access to a woodworking shop occasionally. My second machine will be a small mill probably from JCKleinbauer.

[rrrevels]

Finished Taig Mill and it is used regularly, also have router table but I don't think it will ever really be finished. I keep coming up with changes although it is in use.

[joecnc2006]

Finished my second machine..

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10067

Joe

[MIKE JEFFERS]

As most people say its never finished but finding time to implement the
changes/developments a'int easy and imho most people move onto mk2
cos you don't want to dis-assemble mk1
by the way can we do a digi-photo forum as most of my digi pics look s**t?
mike.

[CNCadmin]

Originally Posted by MIKE JEFFERS by the way can we do a digi-photo forum as most of my digi pics look s**t? mike.

If their is enough interest in it I can, start a new thread and lets see if their is.

[tbenefi33]

I"m all most done with my machine all i need the eletronics and a few tweking i'll be done also thinking about making it a 5 axis.

[xairflyer]

Don't know if you are ever really finished, I am cutting out parts now rather than fiddling with the machine, so I caould say I am finished.

Going to change one of my all threads to a larger size so maybe I am not finished after all !!!!

[Dag-50]

Finished my third machine..