16 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

That's like being told on Christmas day that Santa got held up and your presents won't be here until New Years day.   I feel your pain, 

4D

Lol especially seeing my birthday is New Year’s Eve 

You and I belong to the one-day-off group.  I missed July 4th by 12 minutes or so, being born early on the 5th. 

You missed what around my town is the Jan 2nd news article about all the babies born on the first day of the new year, and which one was first.  

Getting a package or even just mail is a seductive attribute of modern capitalism.  I'm almost sad when I check the mailbox and find nothing came that day, Programmed I am from childhood to celebrated when something came in the mail for just me.   

 

Keep us posted on your CNC adventure. I'll start a countdown on how many days/months/years before you buy a bigger meaner CNC. 

4 minutes ago, 4DThinker said:

 

 

Keep us posted on your CNC adventure. I'll start a countdown on how many days/months/years before you buy a bigger meaner CNC. 

Yup!!  He'll regret not "upsizing" from the start.

19 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

a bigger meaner CNC. 

18 hours ago, honesttjohn said:

Yup!!  He'll regret not "upsizing" from the start.

 

 So, what's a good size machine for the space challenged? 

 

 

First of all it's good that you plan to stay earth bound.  CNCing in space has it's own difficult challenges to overcome.  To fit more CNC in limited floor space you have to consider the ceiling height.  Pick a CNC no wider than you can handle, but if you tip it up you can likely fit 8' of Y axis length between floor and ceiling.      A little tilt and the diagonal is longer than the vertical distance.

4D 

 "So, what's a good size machine for the space challenged? "

 

Depends on budget and what you want to do with it.  If you want to get serious and do more than just a few things for yourself and gifts (meaning make a few $$)  then these little Chinese cheap hobby machines will discourage you quickly.  I put $6K in my Probotix (plus Vectric Aspire) 7 years ago and started to sell things.  3 years later I upgraded to an Avid for $11K - and just bought a second one that needs to be built yet.  The Avid cuts 4 to 6 times faster than the Probotix (which is for sale).  But starting simpler gave me a better understanding on how the CNC world worked.  I still go with the notion - buy your second machine first.  Also having a firepit helps to get rid of scrap and mistakes.

1 hour ago, 4DThinker said:

First of all it's good that you plan to stay earth bound.  CNCing in space has it's own difficult challenges to overcome.  

4D 

 

 Yeah, I can imagine all of those chips just floating around and getting everywhere. 

1 hour ago, 4DThinker said:

To fit more CNC in limited floor space you have to consider the ceiling height.  Pick a CNC no wider than you can handle, but if you tip it up you can likely fit 8' of Y axis length between floor and ceiling.      A little tilt and the diagonal is longer than the vertical distance.

4D 

Maybe if I did a trestle mount for the table base so that the x-axis could be stood upright I could pull off an 8' y-axis, but I don't envision doing anything that big. Neighbor gave me a 28" X 78" X 1 1/2" Maple Butcher block top awhile back and was just wondering if one that would fit that would be a decent size to start with? 

 

The need for a large cutting area depends on what kind of jobs you'll be doing.  In the college fab lab where I taught we had one 5' x 10' Multicam CNC that rarely used that whole area accept for cutting complex parts out of large plywood sheets and occasionally hardwood furniture parts out of a long board.  What I oversaw and used were 3 Probotix CNCs.  One had a rotary axis and 37" x 50" cutting area.  One had 25" x 50" of flat space used mostly for cutting out curvy or complex furniture parts that would have been challenging to cut out any other way. The third one had a 25" x 25" bed that I mounted on a taller base and dedicated to furniture joinery clamped vertically or at any angle, or thick project boards. That one had a taller gantry and could handle thicker boards than the other two.  For furniture you rarely encounter a piece longer than 4'.  Although boards come in 8' or 10' lengths it was simple to cut them down to smaller final pieces that would fit within the 4' length. If you aren't planning on making furniture parts that signs and plaques and nameplates and coasters can likely be done within a  25" x 25" area.  If the furniture parts were simple rectangles or otherwise easy to cut out using other tools then I'd have the student do that rather than cut them out using a CNC. I only cut joinery on parts that were otherwise completely shaped.   I'd say 95% of what I've cut out since I retired could fit within half of my Probotix CNC's 50" length and none ever got close to using all the 25" width. 

90%+ of what I've cut could have been done on a 24 x 48 (or 36) bed.

2 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

 I'd say 95% of what I've cut out since I retired could fit within half of my Probotix CNC's 50" length and none ever got close to using all the 25" width. 

 

2 hours ago, honesttjohn said:

90%+ of what I've cut could have been done on a 24 x 48 (or 36) bed.

 

Thanks guys.  

That's basically what I was hoping to hear. 

18 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

 

Maybe if I did a trestle mount for the table base so that the x-axis could be stood upright I could pull off an 8' y-axis, but I don't envision doing anything that big. Neighbor gave me a 28" X 78" X 1 1/2" Maple Butcher block top awhile back and was just wondering if one that would fit that would be a decent size to start with? 

 

That butcher block can be cut into smaller pieces and carved or whatever.  I buy butcher blocks (I think they're birch) all the time from Menards (11% ) and chop them up for various things when I need the extra thickness.  They carve great.

On 3/19/2023 at 6:14 PM, 4DThinker said:

You and I belong to the one-day-off group.  I missed July 4th by 12 minutes or so, being born early on the 5th. 

You missed what around my town is the Jan 2nd news article about all the babies born on the first day of the new year, and which one was first.  

Getting a package or even just mail is a seductive attribute of modern capitalism.  I'm almost sad when I check the mailbox and find nothing came that day, Programmed I am from childhood to celebrated when something came in the mail for just me.   

 

Keep us posted on your CNC adventure. I'll start a countdown on how many days/months/years before you buy a bigger meaner CNC. 

Oh dad asked if could be the first one of the year. Doc said he couldn’t guarantee it. So at 10ish pm they yanked my out for the tax deduction lol

 

well the adventure is off to a rocky start. Bad power supply should get a replacement in a couple of days…😡😡

Sorry to hear about the bad power supply.  Likely one of those thing no one bothered to check before packaging it up to ship.  The last Probotix CNC, a GX2525, seemed fine when set up but went awry during it's first toolpath.  Trying to cut t-slots in the provided MDF bed the two steppers moving the gantry got out of sync. . Turned out it was a bad parallel cable as swapping that cable out for another one fixed the problem. My comment to Probotix at the time was an angry "Why wasn't this cable checked before sending it with the CNC?".  I checked the continuity of every pin between ends of the cable I got with my Taigtool CNC mill to eliminate it as the possible reason it wasn't working at first.  It wasn't a quick task, but if I had to check 1000 cables I'd make a quick test station that would check every lead instantly with a plug in of both ends. 

 

My birth day story:   I have 3 older sisters.  Folks were hoping for a boy.  Mom was a little drugged as I was delivered when she heard the doctor say "It's a BOY!", then the nurse said "It's a BOY!", then Dad acclaimed "It's a BOY!".  Mother's response was "Three of them?!"  We believe she'd envisioned balancing the family with 3 boys to follow the first 3 girls, and might have been hopeful she'd taken care of that with one pregnancy.    I'm the 4th kid.  My name is David a.k.a.  4D.

21 hours ago, honesttjohn said:

That butcher block can be cut into smaller pieces and carved or whatever.  I buy butcher blocks (I think they're birch) all the time from Menards (11% ) and chop them up for various things when I need the extra thickness.  They carve great.

The butcher block will be used for the base of what I hope will be a usable homebuilt CNC. 

I can't afford to buy a prebuilt machine, but have access to scrapped industrial machinery at the local recycle yard.

They sell that type of stuff by weight for a little more than they pay for scrap. Just have to be there at the right time.

You can buy a used plug and play for probably less than the cost of building one.  Not to mention the anguish and extra time involved.  Now, if you're the woodworker type who would rather make jigs than projects..... that's a different story.  For instance, my original Probotix Nebula with updated electronics could be had for a couple thousand.  Totally complete setup with it's own computer.  There's  been more and more used machines coming out for sale as people realize it's not quite as easy as they thought, don't have the time, or their original enthusiasm has wained, along with personal circumstances changing.  I bought my second Avid as used like new - it's two years old and still in all 16 boxes.   Trouble is, it's still in the boxes.  It's that darn time and energy factor. 

Edited March 22, 20233 yr by honesttjohn

On 3/7/2023 at 8:33 AM, honesttjohn said:

1st step.  Yay.  Once you start you'll wish you got a bigger one. Lol

It’s funny, because it’s true!

On 3/20/2023 at 4:03 PM, honesttjohn said:

90%+ of what I've cut could have been done on a 24 x 48 (or 36) bed.

Yeah……But I bet that other 10% was GLORIOUS!

7 hours ago, honesttjohn said:

You can buy a used plug and play for probably less than the cost of building one.  Not to mention the anguish and extra time involved.  Now, if you're the woodworker type who would rather make jigs than projects..... that's a different story.  For instance, my original Probotix Nebula with updated electronics could be had for a couple thousand.  Totally complete setup with it's own computer.  There's  been more and more used machines coming out for sale as people realize it's not quite as easy as they thought, don't have the time, or their original enthusiasm has wained, along with personal circumstances changing.  I bought my second Avid as used like new - it's two years old and still in all 16 boxes.   Trouble is, it's still in the boxes.  It's that darn time and energy factor. 

I wish like hell we were closer to each other. I’d make you an offer you couldn’t refuse. I come over weekends, you feed me, we build that thing. In the past the feeding me thing could drive you broke, but these days I don’t eat so much.

I wish like hell we were closer to each other. I’d make you an offer you couldn’t refuse. I come over weekends, you feed me, we build that thing. In the past the feeding me thing could drive you broke, but these days I don’t eat so much. ---- Artie

 

You guys could still come for a few days.  Room and Board in exchange for a little help.  You might get to "experiment" a little and even take the Probotix home at a discount.  Oh...I got a 100 watt laser in the garage waiting to be set up too.  I got it uncrated (took more than a year).  MA to MI is just a day trip.

Edited March 22, 20233 yr by honesttjohn

16 hours ago, honesttjohn said:

  Oh...I got a 100 watt laser in the garage waiting to be set up too.  I got it uncrated (took more than a year).  

A laser is what keeps trying to seduce me to buy next, although I don't really have any idea what I'd do with one.  The 2D nature of them leaves me unimpressed enough to find the courage at the last moment to cancel any order I've been suckered into.  So far anyway.