Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

Have you tried Fusion? It's not the most sophisticated but for the price it's amazing, imho.

That little mill looks pretty nice though! Stout, ball screws, linear ball bearings, aluminum table - sweet!

Of all the "hobby" cnc's I've played with they all have been limited by the rigidity of the trunnion. On bigger ones, twisting seems to be the main problem and on the little ones, side-to-side shake. It would be pretty amazing to modify one to have an ATC though!

We are currently dialing in our schools 2 x 4' shapeoko pro for cutting aluminum. It's gonna work, just sloooow.

 

You need a knee mill @Kwikvette. There’s just no getting around it. lol. One with a 2 axis controller would be even better. You’re just going to have to build a bigger garage!

 

Is a knee mill one of those smaller table top setups?

If so, yeah I looked into one to learn stuff on manually.

Only local ones I've found are those huge 3 phase setups I'd need a forklift for, and the smaller setups are all 3-4 hours away.

 

Agreed, he does. Who needs a forklift, all you need is some sort of lifting device, some pipes, and alot of stupidity. 3 phase is no big deal, just a $150 VFD solves that.

 

What he said ^^.

A bed mill or knee mill would just be smaller for your garage but still
heavy AF, think around 1500-2000lbs. I have a set of machine skates to move stuff around and then an engine hoist to help
move. I do things like an Egyptian slave quite often but a skid with forks is very nice.

Just doing aluminum doesn’t require a ton of rigidity but that is what you gain with the extra mass. Knee mill can’t handle as much weight on the table as a bed mill but not really an issue with Aluminum.

 

My goal would just be aluminum if I need to mill anything.

Why?

Because any "machine work" would be for my own personal projects. Even now I don't find myself needing anything machined so I'd want the total investment to be as low as possible.

Think it'd just be cool as hell to learn how to machine shit.

 

My bridgeport was $200. Not in the best shape but works fine.

With machine tools the heavier something is and if it is 3 phase both of those will save you money. Most dont want to deal with the hassle.

 

You are correct, I agree!

The cheapest stuff is the old school (but heavy duty as hell) 3 phase stuff.

But I gotta be realistic with my wants

Small, capable enough for aluminum, and that's it. Not even a need, just a want.

It's why I get to watch you guys use cool stuff

 

That’s because you don’t have a mill yet! Lol.
Seriously tho a Bridgeport style machine is what I’m talking about. Mine is a 70’s jet that is like a 3/4 Bridgeport. If you could find one it would probably be next to free. lol.

 

Garage is pretty full





I could chop up the island in the kitchen, it's like 16' long so it could definitely fit in there

 

Do it.. tell the wife you bought her a new industrial grade food processor

 

Well, I finally did it. Maybe now I'll bend some stuff! LOL!

I gotta say, I do appreciate the price point of the Langmuir stuff but man, the engineering is pretty... fast and loose. I can't wait to start trying to get it all square and flat. (it looks pretty close following the directions but... when do you actually square the x and y to each other?) @Kwikvette I promise to watch all your videos before I start asking you a million dumb questions.

 

Fuck yeah!

Congratulations!

So the X and Y squaring I perform as part of the frame assembly, ensuring the same distance from corner to corner.

I can also place a level on any gantry, in any direction, and all sides are also flat. This way the table is perfectly supported on all 4 feet and won't "twist" if I accidentally bump it.

You'll want to tram your Z axis while you've got your torch off so it's perpendicular to your work surface.

 

Done and Done! I got the corner-to-corner dead nuts, but I don't think that means x axis is square to 'em. With the ol' eyeball and framing square it looks about 1/16 off over 24" so that will tickle the OCD something fierce. I haven't finished doing all the steps with the power on yet, so maybe there's part of the setup that squares things by tweaking where y1 and y2 are?

Also got all the way to the limit switch and THC kit only to find that despite calling them twice to figure out what to get for torch, consumables, and 'anything else they'd recommend' to find that there is a 'plug-and-play' cable for the hypertherm that they neglected to mention. MMRRRFLLLLUGHHH.

 

Brosef, I'm the Langmuir guru!

Even Langmuir gave me the nod when they hooked me up with some shit cause they saw who I was in the FB group

 

And I will be paying homage!

 

He speaks the truth. I had a break through myself this past weekend. I was getting an intermittent issue with the z axis and THC. I was told by a “Langmuir Expert” to check the Z limit connectors. I pulled of my cover and did so but also found the copper connections were bent and contacted the z lead screw. I bought this machine used locally so I never got to enjoy the full assembly. I initially thought this was just part of the design. Last night I tore the whole thing apart since I was really losing my sh!t. I bent the tab back and then went through trimming the Z. The end result was glorious. I can now effectively get consistent cuts to dial in. I can now tweak cut height with accurate and consistent cuts. @Kwikvette saved my sanity big time.

Here is a picture of the tab that I bent back and was catching the screw.



And then a piece I made for my wife to show her the real value of all the money I spend on tools.

 

My wife told me last night she needs a bigger kitchen aid and this is exactly where my mind went.

80 rpm to 3000 seems like a good range

 

Im not cool enough for plasmatable stuff yet but I am working on making a decent run of these brackets. Customer got delayed so he just said get them done before summer.

Does removing mill scale with vinegar work well? I think thats my plan to prep before bending then welding.