Well, here goes nothing...literally.
If someone asks me what I know about CNC, I would have to answer honestly and say that I know absolutely nothing.

So why do it?

Well, I have always been fascinated by the process and I have seen some truly amazing things made with them. One of the things that really got me thinking was a piece of machined Corian with a picture engraved in it in reverse. Didnt look like much until you shined a light through the back. Then it looked like a Cameo.
It was very pretty. I have a special project in mind that will deal with using the slate that is native to my area.

Cool? Yes. What I want? Maybe not.
My first glimpse of what was supposed to be a CNC machine was given to me courtesy of some home show where they showed the Craftsman mini CNC machine. Basically just for wood, but the concept was neat. Since I have an affinity for computers I began to think about this. I have several projects that could use some dressing up and this machine looked like it could be pretty cool.
But the price was awful! and then I found out it was a knockoff of another brand. JoeChevy2000 encouraged me to build my own, but I didnt feel I had the technical base I needed to do it well.
I could buy a premade, but...

Ouch! The price kept coming back to bite me.

Then Brainchild started working on RoBLOKS and the CNC concept so I tagged along.
The concept of a machine that could do a sheet of plywood was fascinating to me, but I couldnt see where it was going to go in the shop and it looks like a beast! RAWR!
Possibly more than I need.

Then the MiCRO came along.
Wow! Thats perfect!, I thought. Small enough to bench and a tough little beast from what I can see...and the price is right!
(Its a 1/4 of what Sears will charge and I would be willing to bet a snickers bar that its better in the long run.)

My Pro's:

• Im a very curious person
• I hate spending money on junk
• I have my wife's support
• I really want to do this

My Con's:

• I know NOTHING about CNC
• Expectations could be too high
• Time is more limited than it has ever been in my life

So here goes the story of SamuraiJack and the adventure into CNC.
Most likely this will be a long RoBlog because I like to get thoughts out and keep them in a central place. You will read about my mistrials, mistakes and hopefully some triumphs and finished products. I use my blogs like scratch papers, so there will always be some extraneous information and a few stories if I feel like sharing.

Since I am approaching this from a TOTAL NEWB standpoint I'm hoping this will be good for some folks who are on the fence about it. Im certain that even if I do a total washout, I wont loose money. Im sure someone will buy it from this group. So I really have nothing to lose.
The gains could be tremendous. The project I have in mind has been on my mind since I married my wife, but the thought of doing it by hand was daunting.

My name is SamuraiJack and as of this point, I dont even know what CNC stands for.

Time to Evolve.

From the tiny amount of stuff that I've played with I get the impression that building one of these machines will be extremely easy. It'll make building a projector look like rocket science...


I wont spoil the whole thing for ya, but you can be sure one of the "C"s stands for "Computer".

hahaaa

PS "Newtonian space physics" (AKA rocket science) is simple compared to many nascent (and some older) branches of science. Hell, biology is much, much "harder" (measured by unpredictable results). Computations in non-linear space-time coordinates sounds tough, and well, it seems to be for many; yet the weather trumps the weather chumps!

SJ, The carving you mentioned resembles the great "hollow-face" illusion:

now thats a trip

Hey I resemble that remark Weather is a science of best guesses - educated and computer modeled - yet still a guess none the less.

and that illusion was awesome. great find.

Yes I love this old illusion. There are several versions about, let me see...

Did someone mention the circus?

Are you a meteorologist? Cool! (Literally; the name still references the mystic predictions brought forth by "meteor readers"). Certainly weather forecasting (and chaos physics) have advanced largely in the last 50 years, but chance will always elude prediction! Finer granularity doesn't help either; hence the butterfly flaps his wings to great effect more often than we'd like.

Hey SJ, Your roblog has become a fun place! Being first carries some liberality of relevance don't you think?

I remembered that I had some plastic masks:

Click to view attachment

Of course I made a vid:

once upon a time I used to be. Metro & oceano kind of a hybrid for various reason and functions. Was great for a while, then when I hit Pearl Harbor - it became old fast. Hawaii weather forcast from now till the end of time: 50% Chance of rain, 10 minute slater your dry. back to you bob.

I just order my micRO and same as SJ i don't have any experience with a tool like that.
But i have seen some results of CNC and i am intrigued.
I followed the micRo thread and seen what a lot of love and hard work went into it.
I have some designs in my head i want to try. My favorite design program is Sketchup. Anyone know if that is possible to convert to what is needed.

I haven't used Sketchup myself, but here's a message from another topic...

brainlock posted that quite a while ago, and nobody's replied which I guess could be a bad sign... I hope it's possible to get sketchup models machined without too much hassle...

from what i've seen... you are better off putting effort into learning a true cad/cam package..
sketchup is sweet, as i am still finding out
but i suggest you look at this thread to do it properly.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24703

and linuxcnc.org is a great resource
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl/emcinfo.pl?Cam

I found a FREE 3D cad program called CoCreate that looks like the real deal.

http://www.cocreate.com/products/pe2/ModelingPE2.aspx

You have to ask for reg and get a email key but it looks like vary nice program.

I wish someone who knows cad would take a look and tell me what you think. I have about 4 free cad programs but I don't know enough to be able to tell the good from the bad. I really only want to start off with a single simple program.

This one was so easy I was able to draw a box!! Its called Solid edge 2D

http://www.solidedge.eu.com/isapi/pagegen....es?page=free_2d

I really like the auto dimension function.

AV: Here's the real test. If I can download that sucker and draw ANYTHING then it's a damn good program!!

Seriously, I'll try to check it out. My poor PC is so bogged down I fear it's nearing time for either a new one or a reformat.

Thanks for your search efforts.

Here's another free (for personal use) 3D CAD program: progeCAD 2008 Smart!

I have not tried it yet, but I like the feature of reading/writing AutoCAD files. Makes searching the internet for usable example models easier. To see screenshots, you need to look at the professional version (not supposed to be any difference between the free and pro).

I have both installed. Solidedge is fairly easy and any machine can run it but CoCreate takes a long time to load and wants more memory but runs fine.

There is a software thread perhaps we need to start a colection and take a closer look at a few prorgams. If we get behind a few we could help eachother more.

Understatement! I thought my computer hung first time I ran it.

I noticed that the CoCreate free download was "for a limited time only".

This thread is of the awesome. Good luck SJ, can't wait to see some pics of your progress.

seriously.. this will be epic.