http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
Basically as photomankc said, speed is money. Sure it's not as important for a guy just as a hobby.
Newbies should go slow anyway. You need to worry more about getting a good part
than getting one fast. When I put someone new on a job in the production machine shop I was foreman,
I told them to take their time, speed will come with practice.
Same goes for CNC, you don't run your first part with the machine maxed out,
unless you're fond of crashes.
If it's a production run, you increase speed a bit after each good part.
A rotary table is a good tool to have around, lots of uses for it manually
and then could be converted to a 4th axis for CNC.
Have a bunch of links here for some educational materials.
http://www.hossmachine.info/forum/ya...n-Newbies.aspx
Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
Yeah, the rotary table is handy (well required for circular cuts without CNC) for circular cuts as well as indexing and also for angles. The way I ended up using mine most often has been for making angled features. It makes cutting at an angle a snap (after setup). Setup time is the biggest pain with them. Cutting an arc and finding a way to accurately position the table, and the stock to do so is not dead simple.
In kelings package the X and Y motors are rated 3A and 4.5A for the Z,
The driver CAN put out 7A but you'll have to use current set resistors to get down to 3 and 4.5. They show it in the manual.
Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
I have never used the Geckos before - looking at the manual, it says you need a heatsink if you go over 3A. Is that something you have to get separately?
a lot of people bolt them to an aluminum plate with a fan blowing across.
Hoss
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
I got by with a 7" angle grinder and cut-off wheel for cutting stock to VERY ROUGH dimensions. I now have a Horror Freight 14" chop saw ($90) and that helps make it less of a white-knuckle experience and lets me make a much closer cut, but the grinder worked for everything I needed to do below 1.5" thick and cost all of $30. I'll likely never have a bandsaw but I just try to chose stock that is the correct thickness and width and then cut the chucks off I need over time I have developed enough scrap cut-offs that I rarely need to buy new stuff. I have a couple places here locally that will cut metal to small lengths and sell it that way. Saves me a lot of time and shipping costs. Might look around and see if there is something similar out there in your area.
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com
In my opinion, this was probably one of the most important purchases I have made throughout the entire lifetime of my hobby. It has paid for it's $179 over and over again.
I wore out an older green HF bandsaw already. I am working on wearing out one of the newer red ones like in the picture. I have had to tweak it and replace a couple bearings as well as address the lower wheel shifting on the shaft, but now it's a fine little bandsaw.
20% discount coupon works great at check out too.
Oh yeah. It cuts steel. Even hard stuff as well as stainless. I usually buy Starrett blades for this from Mcmaster Carr at about $20 each.
Lee
My big clausing is actually kinda worn out, unfortunately, but that's ok for manual work. My knee mill is in very good shape, and I have a nice Anilam DRO on it. Just didn't seem like a good CNC conversion candidate, mostly cause I didn't want the DRO money to go to waste.
Anyway, I paid for a set of phase2 plans this morning! Looking forward to seeing them. I figure I can start getting stock together and machining parts while I wait on grizzly's backorder.
Ian
http://www.hossmachine.info - Gosh, you've... really got some nice toys here. - Roy Batty -- http://www.g0704.com - http://www.bf20.com - http://www.g0602.com