Here is an inspirational video that gets the creative juices flowing. I could watch this all day This would be a great OpenBuild! http://www.wimp.com/metalbutter/
OK just one little thing. Where do we get extrusions that long? I know, i know glue them together no one will ever notice. The steppers are just what NEMA-187 or such. 10 bazillion HP. Does the company list the specs that is what we need to start. Budget less than $100.00? Bob
I did notice that and even seen a few sparks at times. At first I though they did this so that we could watch the process, but then noticed that there are really no coolant ports like you see on most 'Haas' style horizontal mill. Not sure is this is always run dry but it sure does a nice job at it. This slanted lathe would be reference to start with http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCBlogJul2009.htm
I agree a small lathe would be a huge benefit to any bench-top manufacturing system The Mill, Lathe, Grinder trio is a good starting place. I'll throw in my two cents worth of "machine porn" a laser tubing notcher would potentially be quite useful as well But even more useful (in my mind) is to establish a way for all these machines to coordinate their capabilities so that complex operations can be driven by automated "templates" that perform sequencing AND operations to convert stock to parts and parts to widgets...
I agree CubeSpawn automating the process from start to finish where the machines can work together on task or independently for single operations would be fantastic, thats what I like about the CubeSpawn project you guys are working on.
Hey Guys, I've been researching for some time now, trying to get the most out of a small CNC machine and just came across a very versatile machine up to 5 axis. It was originally funded last year in KickStarter as only 3 axis. I recently watched a video on YouTube from MAKE magazine where they announced their 4th and 5th axis components. It's called HandiBot by ShopBot. www.Handibot.com I'm totally new, never built a CNC, however I really like the concepts they came up with and really want to build one like this. I believe you all are very talented and experienced, who anyone like to direct me, assist me and have all of us work on these concepts and I bet come up with some new ideas as well!? True Open Source collaboration!
I'm more in favor of this format (over heavy gauge plastic) https://picasaweb.google.com/103828779781480193226/Apr192011CubeSnaps but beyond that, I'm in! I'll be continuing to pursue the universal control stack: R-Pi-->SmoothieBoard w Raspbian/ROS/MTConnect-->SmoothieWare this architecture has substantial advantages for guys like us: Shaun Edwards is a personal friend, and a senior researcher at the Southwest Research Institute This Architecture has some long term advantages for ANYone building or using small machines and automation I'm putting together a Repository here: https://github.com/CubeSpawn?tab=repositories I'm really not a developer, so the software portion is hardest for me, Ive been working on this with increasing seriousness for the last 5 years - so I'm pretty dedicated (as long as I can eat, too!)
Big progress yesterday, I had focused on the mechanical systems during the last round of work on the system, but have neglected the electronics and software for a while... So, yesterday I spun up 3 R-Pi's under the latest raspian image, setup wireless on one, hooked up the smoothie board, established comms, and installed OctoPrint. In less than 6 hours of effort, I have 3 controllers running, and a web based, drag and drop print controller that can run the CubeSpawn Ultimaker variant. YaY open source!! Building a wrapper for the MTConnect implementation will be deferred until after the motors are connected, the bed heaters work properly and the extruder is operational, I'll be looking at spooling G-code to a second smoothie for the Mill... I'll hookup motors once the connector kit for the Smoothie shows up, and at worst, I'll have a 3D printer on hand, and perhaps a light mill... Now the question becomes: can I get a 600x20mm cube together out of whats available in the Open Builds Store? I'll put some effort toward getting a cad model together first to try things out for the "Model 620"... ;-)
