Beginner's Fabrication Reference

[lostbaka]

Something more indepth than FAQs. A section where someone who knows absolutely nothing, me, can learn the basics. Almost like having an online shop class textbook. That way when a newbie does ask a question, he\she will have at least some prior knowledge to help shape a more specific question. Even a list of essential reference and textbooks, preferably with tons of graphics\diagrams, stickied in a learning section wold be useful. Heck, a dictionary of tools would be cool.

sorry if this seems a little ranty.
frank

[rbb_UK]

completely agree with lost-baka. As a complete beginner with a scientific background, I'd like a portion of the site to take me through all the basic stuff and definitions.

Articles I'd like: what's a gantry ? G-code ? stepper motor driver basics ? how do I choose between a threaded rod, ball screw, etc... to control an axis ? and that's just for starters ...

And also, it would be nice if this could be a wiki, since then everybody could contribute to it. It could also enable collaborative CNC projects to "grow" on the site. An obvious choice for a wiki software to run on PHP would be mediawiki, the free software that wikipedia runs on (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki).

just my 2 pence

[CNCadmin]

You mean like this- http://www.cnczone.com/modules.php?name=Sections ?

[rbb_UK]

Very close, but not exactly. I don't know for lostbaka-san, but I'd rather have documentation that can be modified and extended. For example, what if I would like to add a paragraph to the top of the G-code section explaining what it is ? What if some pages were to be added ?

A very good example of this is the DIY system summary data, that has not been updated since 2003 http://www.cnczone.com/modules.php?n...warticle&id=11 . It would have been great to be able to modify it to add the *fabulous* jgro and joe's 2006 summary data.

A problem in doing this might be the integration with vbPortal, but that should be solvable.

Cheers, and thanks for the awesome site.

[lostbaka]

Yeah!!
I would just like to see more on metalwork\fabrication as well to round out the knowledge base. I understand this site's main focus is CNC but it seems you need a good grasp of machining, drafting, electronics, and other basic principles as well. Even if the review section covered books on the basics would be nice. I ended up picking up a book from local library on basic metal working but how am I to know how acurate it is?

Thanks
Frank