[Headingwest]

Hi All,

I make campers and hand make all the cabinets. They need to be super lightweight so I use a skeleton frame and 16mm balsa ply. It's very time consuming.

I want to move to CNC cut pieces so I can cut a honeycomb out of the hidden carcass to reduce the weight and increase accuracy and reduce time. It would also allow pre-drilling of hinge holes and latch holes which would save another days work.

I only make 1 camper a month which uses 5 sheets of 16mm ply - so low use but it would save me a lot of time using CNC

My neighbour in this factory complex has a Multicam, he's offered it to rent, but doesn't have it setup for ply, doesn't have time to set it up, and I need to buy the Enroute software. I've tried to move along this path but he's just too busy to invest time in setting up for my requirements.

So is there an option for renting machines at other premises? Can I generate a toolpath and take my sheets of ply to a CNC? What software? What's does a cheap, reliable setup with dust extraction cost? My neighbour mentioned $100k for his setup.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[apilley]

Definitely worth pursuing CNC routing to produce your pieces, it will save you lots of time cutting out and you will be able to improve and go the extra step with your designs as you mentioned.

For only 5 sheets a month you are likely better off outsourcing the cutting or using someone elses machine( this is a strange area as most machine owners are precious with their investments). Drilling and routing of the sheets will be extremely fast, especially in balsa ply.

Setup and toolpath wise it really depends on whether you are doing the same design each time. If you just cut the same design files/toolpath/CAM each month then will be very simple and each time you do it you will further amortise the setup and programming time - also if possible it would likely be better cut parts for 2-3 campers at once.

I am pretty familiar with the operation of Multicam machines for cutting plywood so send me a message and I may be able to give you some guidance.