Just a couple weeks!

We will have our new parts in a couple of weeks. I just got off the phone with our CNC guy and he's ready to rock after he finishes a few projects of his own. I look forward to our new parts arrive. Should be very exciting.... or a disaster.

Files are ready to be cut

I just finished prepping all the files. They will now be sent out to my friend who owns a CNC machine. The machine will be cut mostly of half inch MDF. There is also some half inch HDPE and three quarter inch MDF. When we get the pieces, we'll post some picts.

Lionclaw is our CNC of Choice

After weighing out all the factors we decided to go with the Lionclaw designs. We really like the design of the machine and we are able to have a friend cut out most of the components for us. This will cut down on the ammount of hand work we have to do in order to finish the build. Next, we set up our files and send them off to be cut. We are very excited. I'm not sure how soon it will get cut out, but rest assured we will post a picture of the parts piled high as soon as we have them in hand.

duh?

I continue to have n00b questions like:
"how does the stuff stay on the table?"
and
"can I draw a picture on the table and have it follow it?"

hmm... now that's not a bad idea.
a line-follower.
we can do that. I bet we can, with enough contrast and a simple calibration tool.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ooh!
and an overhead projector that puts a line drawing right down on the surface! no tool paths!
instant scaling! sketch it, route it!

look what you've done...

CNC Robot Heads

I have my friend cut these heads out for me to sell at Comic Conventions. It would be very convenient to have the table in my studio so I can experiment and create different things to sell on my site. Other plans for the table include inventing fun and innovative products.

Free CNC Router Plans

Head over to the CNC Zone and check out the FREE PLANS that are posted. You'll need to sign up and log in to access the files. It's worth it. You can look through the different plans and decide what you think is a good fit for your particular workshop situation.

JGRO Machine in Action

We've been doing some research for a few weeks here. I thought I'd post some of our findings. Here is the JGRO machine in action. This seems like a very popular build. The plans are very detailed and easy to follow.

You can grab the plans here:
click here

LionClaw CNC Gantry in Action

This is just a great looking machine with a good sized bed. I am really interested in the larger bed. I have a friend with a Gerber Sabre. It is a 4' x 8' CNC machine and can really cut a lot of stock. We will be using them to help us cut out our machine. This certainly effects our choices. I would say that the JGRO model is probably a better choice for anyone who has to cut things out by hand. Most of it is straight cuts. The Lionclaw has a lot of curves.

Blogging Our CNC Project

I've decided to blog the progress of our CNC project, since its a little hard deciding on which plans to use or if we want to build from scratch. Since neither of us have a strong grip on building designing something like this, I though it was best if we use our strength of building and use someone else's plans as a starting point. There are a lot of great sites out there. I'll list a few:

Compton Systems Lion Claw
Build Your Own CNC
JGRO (I'm not sure if there is a home page for this model)
A great resource: CNCzone.com

I will leave that here to start. For those of you who buy my art, this may be exciting news since I will be offering many different works generated from this machine. Much like my CNC robot heads at the comic conventions I attend.