[chipslinger69]

I have seen a lot of people converting manual mills to cnc. I am just curious as to what was your reasoning behind it. Did you do it because everyone else is doing it and it seemed like the thing to do? Did you do it just to see if you could? Once you got it completely converted do you use it for production work on the regular basis or do you just go out in the shop and stare at it and maybe cut a one off part every now and then? I am considering converting a ZX45 and am just wondering why everyone else converted a manual to cnc.

[luv2ride]

I haven't and won't for a while but my purpose is custom gunsmithing. No I am not a gunsmith but want to build 1911's and a long range rifle from the ground up. Will it save money? Probably not, I don't plan on making that many but the quality will be known because I made them. It also looks like great fun. My son is into trains and I may look into making some working trains also.

[eartaker]

I grew up building engines and sprint cars. I learned at an early age about metal working and a little about machining. Going through High School I ran a CNC router for my shop class and the school still calls me to this day to come work on it when it acts weird. Im 24 now, in the Army with 5 years enlisted so far and 3 more to go. I was board out of my mind so I looked for a hobby I enjoyed... I went through rock climbing, hiking, RC cars, scuba diving, and jumping out of airplanes, but machining fits me. Although I still scuba dive, play with RC cars, and jump out of planes for the Army.

I run a lot of 1/8 scale Nitro RC trucks, and heli's so I wanted to start making my own parts. I started with the X2 and soon realized if I wanted to make RC monster truck chassis parts I need more travel. I have also been making parts for friends and being paid in beer lol. I am now in the process of converting a ZX45 to let me make the size of parts I want. I have been requested to make a few cretin parts and plan on selling them soon after my ZX45 conversion.

I know what you mean... If the project is done what would you do... but machining is a hobby and with any hobby you find new projects and things to do.

[LongRat]

Like Eartaker I am into RC cars. I build cars from scratch, I did it before CNC was a possibility and when DIY conversions became cheap enough to be within reach I converted my X2. The types of parts that can be made would often be practically impossible without CNC and they can be done quickly. Makes more efficient use of spare time, which is a valuable thing. I have since also got a bigger mill, a BF30. It allows me to make bigger parts, but importantly also many parts all at once which can be an enormous time saver.

[mhackney]

I started a home based business a little over a year ago making custom fly fishing reels and kits for others to build their own reels. Originally I machined the parts by hand but as demand grew i couldn't keep up with the volume. CNC allows me to cut an entire brass reel frame in about 1/8 the time it took to do manually and it creates parts that are interchangeable. I use my profits to buy my equipment and tools and now have an order in for a larger mill and lathe. I will CNC the mill, not sure about the lathe. I do have a CNCed Sherline lathe that I use for small parts and screws.

For me, time and reproduceability were the main reasons for going CNC.

Oh, did I mention that I enjoy the machines too?

Cheers,
Michael

[chipslinger69]

That's all great to hear guys. Like several of you I have been through several hobbies. Several years ago I machined 2 silencers for my AR-15s, I have built 3 all aluminum T-Maxx big block trucks. I would really like to build a 100cc twin for an rc plane. Since I have been flying rc for about 19 years and have always wanted to build my own engine. Probably at first using production jugs, pistons and rods and machining the crankcase from 6061.

[LongRat]

Awesome. I am just starting my first engine project (planning stage).
It is going to be a 1/4 scale flat 4 engine based on the Subaru EJ20, used in the Impreza. It will be used to power a HPI Baja 5b buggy. Before this I am making a single cylinder version as a testbed, it is 7.7cc and will be DOHC and with 4 valves. I will fit it to my scratch built 1/8 buggy. Please post some pictures of your trucks if you have them!

[cyclestart]

Once you got it completely converted do you use it for production work on the regular basis

For production work I would have bought a turnkey unit and got on with the business of producing.

CNC has become an end unto itself instead of the means to an end. In other words the first CNC is being used to build more CNC machines. Other than that I cut material into interesting shapes for no practical purpose. It's cheaper than hanging out in biker bars and no more dangerous.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

[QUOTE=cyclestart;872189]For production work I would have bought a turnkey unit and got on with the business of producing.
QUOTE]

Amen to that! Had I known then what I know now, I would've bit the bullet and bought either a used VMC, or a new Mikini 1600. My converted knee mill works great, but for real production work, it's not a great solution. It has been a VERY educational experience, which I don't regret. But when I count up the hours and $ that went into it, buying a complete machine would've made more sense, despite the higher initial cost.

But, for hobby use, building your own is the way to go, provided you have the skill and patience.

Regards,
Ray L.

[TXFred]

My machine doesn't get nearly as much runtime as I had expected it would. The limiting factor is me. I can only generate part designs and gcode so quickly.

But I do put it to use and as I continue to improve it, I expect to see productivity increase.

As to why I converted it, that's pretty simple. I had it as a manual machine for about eight years, and got some good use out of it. But I was constantly fighting its small size. If I wanted to side mill an angle, I needed to put my vise on its swivel base, then put the part in the vise, then put an end mill in the spindle. By the time this was all done, I had almost run out of free space in the Z axis.

It occurred to me that with a CNC mill, I could dispense with a lot of the complicated and bulky fixtures that I had been using. Just by getting all that stuff out of the way, the mill's envelope increased.

And I was learning CNC programming at school as part of my career change. So it was logical that I should build a machine that I could use for programming practice as well as part production for me own hobbies.

I also would buy a turnkey system if I could go back and do it again. The conversion took a lot of time, and other projects were delayed because of it. And while my X2 is pretty nice, it's still small and slow.

Fred

[pete from TN]

I gotta say that it has been really cool, sometimes frustrating, amazing experience to build and now use this machine. I have used it to make money machining parts for the Pontiac Fiero Crowd as well as a bunch of stuff for the recumbent bicycle crowd. I am just getting started really and to be honest with you if it were not for the machine and the parts I made recently Christmas this year would have been pretty bleak. I recently had to have a major surgery and I am out of work recuperating since October 21 now but I have been able to at least offset my lack of work with the machine. It has not been easy to get it here but when I got it sorted out it makes parts all day long and if I knew what the hell I was doing a little more I could probably get some projects that make real money with it. It is not and will NEVER be a production machine but I have made all sorts of cool stuff with it and sold a bunch of stuff I made with it. It is very repeatable and reasonably accurate and other than a few fried Geckos most of which were my own damn fault it has been reliable. In fact I had been running the machine for months since I got it finished without drama until recently when we got a REALLY cold spell around here and my shop got all damp inside it. I foolishly tried to run the machine like that and got some electrical issues from it. I got it working again rather quickly and I keep a spare gecko around as well as other spare parts just in case now. The repeatability and accuracy of the machine make it really worthwhile to build one if you cannot afford to buy one like me. I am currently trying to find a way to buy a large CNC router or possibly a used VMC for other projects I have in my fat head. I have since found that my biggest problem is getting the gumption to go out there and warm up the shop and run the machine as well as thinking up new ideas for products and getting them setup to machine. Fixturing has been an interesting learning process especially when you want to machine many multiples of parts. The most I have made at a singe run now is like 40 or 50 but it takes the machine several hours to do that. Wish I could afford a Haas or Mazak and really build some cool stuff but that will have to come down the road I guess....

It took me nearly a year and around $2000.00 to convert this machine including the belt drive conversion and the full flood coolant enclosure as well as a complete repaint and ballscrew conversion but it has been worth it I think. It can and will pay for itself if you use it and learn how to program it efficiently. I have much to learn here and it can be pretty difficult sometimes but thanks to guys on here and elsewhere I am getting it..... peace


Pete

[MRM RCModels]

I received my mechanical engineering degree in 2004. My emphasis was in design (CAD). After college, I got into RC airplanes building kits. Then kits turned into designing my own planes. Then my RC planes turned into UAVs. Parts became really expensive. Decided to try and fabricate my own parts to save money. Had lots of trouble hand fabricating parts down to the 1e^(-4). CNC made it really easy. Then I started making the UAVs out of composites; hate sanding, so I had the first machine make a 3' x 4' plug cutting router. Now I have a CNC Mill, CNC Router, CNC lathe (next project), and a manual lathe. After three years of CNC I can finally start making UAVs again.

Moral of the story; CNC is not a cure, it's an gateway drug to future addictions.

[QSPSB]

Personally I'm converting mine over for a few reasons.... first and for most is the accuracy of a cnc mill... second is... the over all time i will save machining parts...

I too will be cnc machining 1/4 scale RC parts... Not for planes though... Cars

I plan on machining a few 1/4 scale blown V8 engines as well as rear ends.. such as,, The 9'' ford.. Chevy 10 bolt.. Sheet metal type...aka.. ProMod rearend.. as well as many other 1/4 scale RC car related parts

If i were to try to machine these on a manual mill time wouldn't be on my side... It would take countless hours to produce even 2 identical parts alone.. One thing one might consider is a DRO setup rather than a full blown CNC setup... But then again... You will still need to do it all manually,, and my guess is unless you have a steady hand the feed rates wont be the same per pass.. nor will the finish look as well as if done on a cnc machine..

Ohh and did i mention... I just love doing CAD/CAM work... It's super nice to actually be able to draw out what you want the part to look like.. Then import it into your CAM program and setup all the tool paths and then run a simulation on it....And if that all goes well then... You create the G-Code and your good to go...

As for how much time is involved on you CAD drawing goes.. Well that all depends on just how complicating the part is your drawing... I've drawn parts in CAD that take only 10 minutes or so to complete... I have also drawn ones that have taken well over 10 hours to do...

As for did i convert my mill because everyone else is...You guessed it...NO!!

[photomankc]

My other hobbies are shooting, photography and electronic and robotics and I'm better at those than machining. I have ideas for things I wanted to make in all those fields that require more than hardware store parts but it would take ages to do manually and i'm not retired so I can't just take it slow and enjoy the time in the workshop, sometimes it's a few hours here and there to do this stuff.

I wanted to make some parts that would near impossible on a manual machine with all the required fixtures, angles, and radius cuts. So I got curious about some of the CNC machines people were making and that led me here. Yeah, it almost becomes a quest. There is always something else to add, work on, remake, or improve but there is a purpose on the far side of this thing and it's been interesting getting there.

If I had a business need to make stuff I think a turnkey machine would start to look good. Making it yourself is neat and all but in that case you want to make parts, not tinker on a machine.

[chipslinger69]

It seems as though we all share a lot of the same interests. Every time I see a 1/4 scale blown v8 video I want to build one as well as a 9 cylinder radial such as the one from Ageless Engines. I could actually see me using a cnc mill for production parts for the simple reason that I have bought quite a few parts for my HD that I looked at it and said to myself that I could make this if I had a cnc mill.

Longrat; I know I have atleast one pic of one of the trucks I built, I will try to find it. I sold all of the trucks right after I finished each one.

[headsmess]

i use mine to destroy copious amounts of HSS, brass and ali

ok, my main reasons for going cnc was...

27 turns and 36 divisions, account for backlash, wind back, move over 1 mm, repeat, repeat over 20 times, lower 0.5mm, back to start, repeat, and i only got 3MM to go!

with manual, even a simple facing operation can take days, and builds mighty biceps! this tests ones patience, and stamina, especially on a 44 C day!

cnc? i can write code to face the work, with a curve at that corner. then counterbore there. then blah, then a slot, then yardah yardah....then walk away til its finished

the initial setup with cnc is for more worthwhile than wasting a LOT of time and money, and materials attempting to do something manually, that may be almost impossible to reproduce...

[LongRat]

Here's a neat comparison.
Photo 1, a suspension arm created on a manual X2 for one of my custom RC vehicles. This took 15 hours of handle-turning to make.



Next we have a similar part on a later car I made, a much more complex shape with a much better finish. This was made ON THE SAME X2 MILL, just after the CNC conversion. It took under 2 hours. Absolutely no comparison. You would have to be a pro machinist to get a similar part out of a manual mill, which I am not. CNC has the possibility to level the playing field at least a little in this respect - you can get great results with merely competence, rather than needing to be an absolute master.