Hi,
This is my first real thread here, so please forgive me if I'm a naive.
I'm an anime (Japanese cartoons) fan, and I started going to conventions in costume the summer I got out of high school. The characters I go in costume as often times carry very fanciful objects. As a result, I had to make many of these objects, and I found that it's a great deal of fun for me. As I'd show my works to others at these events, many were astounded by my work, and it made me wonder if this would be something that I could somehow make a career out of.
Fast forward about 4 years, and I've made many more, and significantly more intricate props. I'm currently in college for psychology, but I still love doing this kind of stuff. After tying to get commissions and get some semblance of a start, I realized that what I'd need to make this sort of thing successful is a number of small objects that I could sell at a low cost and have people purchasing on a frequent basis.
The problem is that in order to make many of these sorts of things, I'd need to be able to put them out in larger numbers than 5 at a time, and I'd need to be able to do it in a way that allows me to duplicate my works in a cost effective fashion. As of right now, I really only have typical power tools (disc sander, band saw, drill press, table saw, etc.), and all the details get done by hand tools (carving chisels, dremel tool, etc). I recently saw a carvewright machine in a woodcraft catalog, and since I primarily work with wood, plastics, foam, & aluminum, it seemed like a tool that I could get for a reasonable price that would allow me to start doing this sort of stuff in a more cost effective way.
For those of you who know what one is, the carve wright can only handle materials that are 14.5" wide and 5" tall, but it can supposedly work with materials of any length. I started reading some reviews, and I found out that it's a good idea that's just too riddled with quality control issues to justify even a used price tag. That brings me to the idea I'd entertained for years of a CNC mill. But they're just so expensive that I'd probably have to take out a loan to purchase one.
Then, I don't have any experience at all with CAD or CAM software, and all sources indicated that the carvewright software was extraordinarily simple to use, making it appeal to me for that reason as well. I don't mind taking classes, working hard to learn the programs, or even the $500 price tag for some of the suites, but the price of the CNC mill itself concerns me.
I figure I'd need a 4'x6' machine at the largest. I'd like to have the ability to cut fairly deep on the Z axis too. It would NEED to be able to cut wood, foam, plastics, and aluminum. If I could get one that can cut ferrous metals as well, that'd be great, but it's not a necessity for what I do.
I contacted torchmate, and they gave me a price quote of $15,500 shipped for a machine from them, but I've seen shopbots and other machines similar in capabilities for about $8,000-$10,000.
I guess what I'm asking is this:
If I really want to get serious about making stuff like what's in the pictures below, what do I NEED in terms of training, software, and a machine?