What's the best/easiest way to learn CNC machining?

[squale]

Are there any cheap mills/lathes, etc. that I can buy to learn cnc machining on? or how about training videos, etc.?

[cob]

Originally Posted by squale Are there any cheap mills/lathes, etc. that I can buy to learn cnc machining on? or how about training videos, etc.?

the easiest way is to ask alot of question here someone can anwers them for you,
I think the best way to learn cnc is try to work in different machine shops every one has differnt ways of doing things
for buying a small cnc just to learn how the machine would cut the part just look at ebay there are always selling small cnc all you do is get a controller (mach3) and try to learn cam software and go for it.
that would be my .02
good luck

[kenalb]

Any training videos??
Small projets

[dumptruck]

There are machining manuals or technical books that show how to calculate speeds and feeds, Drilling and tapping, knurling, bolt cirles, angles trigonometry etc. There are different discplines, mechanical, such as those listed above, mathematical, and G-Codes and cad/cam software for programming toolpaths for C.N.C. Basic mechanical and mathematical studies are the best place to start, along with blueprint reading. Then when the basics are understood, The language of C.N.C. (G-codes, tool offsets, sub-programs etc. should be learned. All great C.N.C. machinists can perform manual machining more so than manual machinist can operate C.N.C. machines. Look at your Jr. colleges then if no luck try a trade/tech. school. The Jr. College is the best bet compared to a "for-profit" Trade school. There are downloadable software for Machining. I will re-post some links when I get back .
Here: http://www.cncprogramdeveloper.com/
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/getsmepg....me.html&&&SME&
http://www.emastercam.com
www.metalwebnews.com
http://w3.uwyo.edu/~metal/
http://www.metalwebnews.com/
http://metalworker.org/
http://www.moldmakermag.com/index.html
Get ya' some !!!!!!!!!!!

[charger19690]

First off

http://www.cncbasics.com

I have written an inexpensive book for the fundamentals.

Second,

The internet has many many different tutorials video and text to learn.

Third,

I am developing an Online Video Tutorial site which I would like to start by overviewing my books, then kick in some MasterCam Basics and then some Solidworks basics, from there basic machining stuff. See http://www.cncbasicsforum.com/index.php?topic=29.0 on my forum for what I am working on.

Just read everything you can find about it. Books seem to be very expensive for this field, thus why I tried passing on some of my knowledge in an inexpensive media.

Mike in MN
http://www.cncbasics.com
http://www.cncbasicsforum.com