Any grants or such for funding a Middle school CNC course?

[moresnowdays]

I'm a Technology teacher in central New York. We have a good program for the 7-12 grade students with a nice variety of electives at the high school level. In the 7th and 8th grade our program is very hands on, and set up to meet the State Ed. mandates. In addition to our regular 8th grade program we have established an advanced Technology course that gives students a taste of Engineering. It's a short course, about 10 weeks, and they get familiar with some basics of Autocad Inventor. The goal of the course is to simply get kids hooked on Math, and Engineering.

I was thinking it would be really exciting for them to be able to develope a simple product in Inventor and then be able to produce it with a CNC setup. Could make this course that students have either really liked, while others seem to drift off while on the computer, into a course that is really in demand by students. I think the kids of this level like designing in the computer at first, but really lose interest once they realize they can't produce something to bring home. Producing tangible products in the regular Middle school courses have always kept them exciting for the kids.

We have the computers and software. We also have the space for a milling machine in our dedicated lab for this class. The only thing lacking is figuring out what CNC machine we would need to run with this, funding for it, and then teaching myself to use it.

[mhaney]

I was in the same boat as you are. I teach middle school Industrial Technology. We had mainly done woodworking in the past. I come from a metals background and decided to move more in that direction. I am lucky to have a great high school program located about 1/2mile from me and they have been very helpful. You have a couple of routes you can take. Are you wanting a full size type mill or a benchtop mill. I have a smaller sherline type cnc mill and a full size Bridgeport clone knee type cnc mill that has a centroid controller on it We also have 3 emco 5pc cnc lathe's and I pretty much found those getting thrown out from a community college they work well. I was given them both actually by local schools that were looking to upgrade or just wanted rid of them. You can look around in the state surplus. There should be a website. Also many companies in your area maybe willing to let you have an older cnc mill. It is a tax write off for them. You maybe limited though on the size of it. Novakon cnc also provides a discount to educators.

We use mastercam x2 which is pricey but it is not all that terrible for education. I have been able to find some pretty good tutorials that other teachers have made for the middle school level. My students make car tags, chess sets, meat tenderizer, ball pien hammer, punches, scribes, key chains, etc...

Where to get the funding is a tough one. I have problems because our district would prefer to put most of the money in the high schools. There are grants out there. Science and math grants can be used toward CNC stuff. Our local power company offers several. Look at those. Email me if you would like to talk more.

mhaney@haywood.k12.nc.us

[moresnowdays]

Thanks for the reply. Keeping an eye on state surplus is a good idea. I was thinking of a benchtop unit like the Taig CNC Mill. From my limited time looking around on the net Taig seemed like the best bang for the buck as far as new goes for a reasonable price range to shoot for. Used may be better, I just don't have the experience to know when I see something used if it is worth messing with.

I was also hoping that our full version of Autocad Inventor would have the ability to create a file to run a CNC machine. From reading around here It seems like I might be able to start with an Inventor file, but then would need additional program to run a CNC mill?

[mhaney]

Yes you will need some type of cam software if you want to generate code from a drawing. There are lots of choices out there. I learned with teksoft, and now use mastercam. I have seen bobcam and others. Some programs maybe be free, but have limited capabilities. Used equipment can be very problematic at times, but if you have very little money you have to do with what you can find. You may also want to go with a cnc router. you may be able to find one of those in your area for a cheaper price also.

[dixter20]

I was just reading through your thread. While I can't help you on the funding aspect, I've developed an educational "video game" on CNC basics. It presents the user with an interactive 3D interface for exploring content on CNC and Tooling. The content is supported with graphics, pics, movies, 2D animations, and 3D animations.

Perhaps it could be of use to your classroom.

It's available for free download at: http://learncnc.org/

[moresnowdays]

Originally Posted by dixter20 I was just reading through your thread. While I can't help you on the funding aspect, I've developed an educational "video game" on CNC basics. It presents the user with an interactive 3D interface for exploring content on CNC and Tooling. The content is supported with graphics, pics, movies, 2D animations, and 3D animations. Perhaps it could be of use to your classroom. It's available for free download at: http://learncnc.org/

Wow, looks like a great resource to get started!!!
Thanks

[GCMAN]

Just a suggestion, I would look at gSimple for your CAM programming. Its free and seems to be fairly easy. They say that if you read the manual, the programming falls into place. Again its free so it would be worth the time to check out.
GC