[Big-tex]

Anyone around Denton? I'm a college student with no CnC machine (no room) but many projects over the years that need one! I know about electronics and have been looking for quite awhile for someone with a CnC machine that might share my hobby. My current projects are building a UV exposure box to help make PCBs and using an ATMEGA328 (Arduino) chip to build a word clock. Anyone around?

I am in Plano 121 and Preston Rd area. 972 3 4 2 7 6 3 3 you may call me after 6 m-f sat and sun I am open unless I am swamped with projects.

[schilpr]

Just wanted to do a quick introduction.

I've got lot's of metal working experience, but very very little machining. I can weld; tig, mig, braze, acy/ox. Do sheetmetal work and have fabricated many car parts.

Earlier this week I bought a Vernon Mill/Jig borer. The machine is in great shape with no damage to any of the ways, runs quiet and smooth and comes with a complete set of collects upto 1" and a nice tool vice. Info on the mill here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/vernon/. The mill should be at my house in another week or so and then I've got the make a chip screen to keep the carnage somewhat contained. So it'll be a few days before I machine anything.

For now my plan is to mostly focus on making some parts to help with machining, t-nuts, clamps and maybe a larger vice. I've started collecting tooling, planning to install DRO soon and retrofitting the mill with CNC soon after.

Longer term I want to be able to do some milling of Aluminum, I've got a casting setup and want to be able to mill home cast custom or reproduction car parts.

I've started reading some books to get me up to speed on terminology and plan on finding a local machining guru to help setup the mill and give me some introduction lessons. If anyone reading this lives in the Plano/Richardson/Allen TX area and could help me with some in person tips I would like to hear from you.

[Mkroe]

Just wanted to do a quick introduction.

I've got lot's of metal working experience, but very very little machining. I can weld; tig, mig, braze, acy/ox. Do sheetmetal work and have fabricated many car parts.

Earlier this week I bought a Vernon Mill/Jig borer. The machine is in great shape with no damage to any of the ways, runs quiet and smooth and comes with a complete set of collects upto 1" and a nice tool vice. Info on the mill here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/vernon/. The mill should be at my house in another week or so and then I've got the make a chip screen to keep the carnage somewhat contained. So it'll be a few days before I machine anything.

For now my plan is to mostly focus on making some parts to help with machining, t-nuts, clamps and maybe a larger vice. I've started collecting tooling, planning to install DRO soon and retrofitting the mill with CNC soon after.

Longer term I want to be able to do some milling of Aluminum, I've got a casting setup and want to be able to mill home cast custom or reproduction car parts.

I've started reading some books to get me up to speed on terminology and plan on finding a local machining guru to help setup the mill and give me some introduction lessons. If anyone reading this lives in the Plano/Richardson/Allen TX area and could help me with some in person tips I would like to hear from you.

I'm in Farmers Branch, so Pm me if you would like to meet sometime.

Mike

[osphoto]

Haven't heard from this group in some time now. Any meet up's on the agenda? Any interest in doing so?

I've finally got my shop built out and I'm in production. Still in the learning curve but non the less, I'm in production! I'm learning that I don't have enough time in my days to do every thing. So, I'm starting to think that taking on an apprentice might help.

[cnewb]

schilpr

Welcome to the group. I live in Forney but still visit my sister in F.B.
Send me a pm, we can meet and I'll give you my 2 cents worth.

Aluminum Casting ?? I'm designing a blower manifold for an old Hemi motor.
How big a part can you do ?

[cnewb]

osphoto,

pm me about your shop location, need to talk.

[El_Matarife]

I'm pretty interested in the whole aluminum casting thing too. I've heard people are doing that in home shops now but it seems kind of a dangerous thing to learn without instruction.

[schilpr]

schilpr

Welcome to the group. I live in Forney but still visit my sister in F.B.
Send me a pm, we can meet and I'll give you my 2 cents worth.

Aluminum Casting ?? I'm designing a blower manifold for an old Hemi motor.
How big a part can you do ?

I'm pretty interested in the whole aluminum casting thing too. I've heard people are doing that in home shops now but it seems kind of a dangerous thing to learn without instruction.

Not as dangerous as you think.. just think before you do. Not any worse then welding, grinding or plasma cutting.

I build my own kiln, out of a flower pot, cement and thin galvanized sheet, fired with charcoal and a hairdryer. Made a crucible out of red iron pipe.

The biggest problem I have is getting the casting sand just right.. still working on that.

The easiest method is to machine something from foam (on a CNC would be great, that's what I want my CNC mill for) put that in sand and then cast it.. it would dissolve the foam and leave an aluminum part looking exactly like the CNC form. You do have to keep in mind that Al shrinks upto 7% after casting.. so allow for shrinkage.

Materials are cheap. I have lot's of old engine parts (pistons, intakes, bellhousing, water pumps) that I melt down into ingots that I make in a muffin pan. Those ingots are then used to cast my parts.

Big thing is: Do it outside and DO NOT cast above concrete (concrete explodes when you dump molten metals on it)

[jhelmstetter]

Are you looking into the cast mod for Joe's Hybrid? I am at the point in my build where I an thinking of going with the cast parts. I have already decided to do rack and pinion instead of lead screws.

I had two financial set backs this year. First was having to pay taxes. The second, my father-in-law passed away which in it self should not have affected us.

***
However, I have a word of caution for anyone who has life insurance through the Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program. This is not a normal policy. In other words, if this is your sole life insurance policy and you pass away, the funeral homes cannot use this policy to cover the funeral/burial costs. The way this program works is once the person covered by the policy passes, you contact the operator of the FEGLI policy. In three to five weeks, you should receive a form. Complete the form and send it back, along with a copy of the death certificate and in 60 - 90 days you will receive a check book for an account that has whatever the coverage was as the balance. At this point you can write a check for the whole amount and go on with life or keep the account open and use it like a normal checking account.
***

We were not aware of how the policy worked and had to cover the costs of his funeral out of our own pockets. Let me tell you this, it cost us around $7000 just to have him sent back to New Orleans and have a 30 minute viewing before he was interned. I am so glad that we had the sense earlier in life to buy 2 mausoleum spots.

But enough doom and gloom. The temperature is finaly starting to dip boiling the boiling point of concrete and I have ventured a few time into my garage. I built a rather shoddy (when compared to Joe's 4x4) 3 x 4 with a bunch of parts lying around. Okay well the electronics came straight from my 12" x 12" machine that I outgrew. So really I just had a couple linear bearings and MDF laying around. I can't wait to see this thing fail, uh, I mean run. The steppers are kind of small so I am not expecting too many IPM. If I can hit 60 I will be amazed.

When are we getting together again?

I'm pretty interested in the whole aluminum casting thing too. I've heard people are doing that in home shops now but it seems kind of a dangerous thing to learn without instruction.

[cnewb]

schilpar wrote:

"The biggest problem I have is getting the casting sand just right.. still working on that. "

Reminds me, a couple of years ago I was visiting with a fellow up in Detroit that was trying to cast a 1/4 scale Chevy engine block. First 2 tries were failures. An old-timer
foundry guy assessed the situation and said " you don't have the right mixture (of sand)."

"You need 3 parts A, 2 parts B, and 1 part C."

The young guy mixed as directed and .... Success !! Perfect casting.

The moral of this story is the essence of what CNC ZONE is all about.

Those who know, helping those who don't.

[jhelmstetter]

The great thing about casting is, if it doesn't come out right, melt it down and try again. I'm pretty sure you don't lose too much metal in the process.

[El_Matarife]

Are you looking into the cast mod for Joe's Hybrid? I am at the point in my build where I an thinking of going with the cast parts. I have already decided to do rack and pinion instead of lead screws.

I had two financial set backs this year. First was having to pay taxes. The second, my father-in-law passed away which in it self should not have affected us.

But enough doom and gloom. The temperature is finally starting to dip boiling the boiling point of concrete and I have ventured a few time into my garage. I built a rather shoddy (when compared to Joe's 4x4) 3 x 4 with a bunch of parts lying around. Okay well the electronics came straight from my 12" x 12" machine that I outgrew. So really I just had a couple linear bearings and MDF laying around. I can't wait to see this thing fail, uh, I mean run. The steppers are kind of small so I am not expecting too many IPM. If I can hit 60 I will be amazed.

When are we getting together again?

So sorry to hear about the death of your father in law. I just lost both my grandfathers in the last 6 weeks. It's pretty rough.

I hadn't considered casting the main parts of the Hybrid but I know people are doing that. Phoenix and I had talked about swapping parts to aluminum at some point but that's always been a goal for version 2.0 of our rig when we add a lathe to the front and go R&P.

I'd love to do some lunch / dinner soon. If you're still working across the street we should try to get some lunch / dinner today or tomorrow. I'll PM / email you.

We should get some larger meeting Dallas CNC meeting together again soon now that vacation season is about over, temperatures are coming down and we're all returning to our garages to get to work.

[SteveY]

Hi!

How is the user group coming?

I need a little help with my CNC.

Any CNC users on here that can help?

Thanks,

Steve

[Mkroe]

Hi!

How is the user group coming?

I need a little help with my CNC.

Any CNC users on here that can help?

Thanks,

Steve

Hi Steve. What type of help? What is your location in the DFW area? Please be more specific. I would be more than happy to help out if I can.

MK

[SteveY]

Hi!

Thanks for reply. Actually I live in Corsicana. I have a Mori MV 35/ Fanuc 6M control that I'd like to get up and running.

Problem #1 I can't get programs to load thru RS 232 port. I downloaded a set of parameters and I will check controller.

What type of CNC machine/experience do you have?

Thanks,

Steve

[osphoto]

I KNOW we've got some CNCer's in the area. And I for one have been a bit quiet lately.

In reading some of the articles on CNC Zone about how to make money with your cnc machines or rather, the lack of. Seems there are many of us with machines and not much of a means to make money with them. I know there are a few of us in the DFW area, particularly the North Dallas area that share some of the same needs/wants. IE, we are in this to pay off our hobby needs and possibly turn our hobby into a business.

I'd like to meet with like minded individuals in the North Dallas Area.

I've spoken to a few over the phone about meeting up individually and I'm still wanting to do this.

For those interested in meeting up to talk shop in a sense of making money with their shops, or talk about apprenticing send a PM or email me at [email protected]. I'm in this for making a business out of what I want to do and not just for tinkering.

So, lets talk shop in terms of creating a cash flow with it. The sooner we do this the sooner we start making cash.

Thanks for reading.

PS. I don't want to take business away from anyone wanting to meet up. I've got my own products to make money with. So I'm looking to get help in making them either in my shop or someone else's (home type shop). I'd like to share my skills and also learn in this process.

[Ed_R]

I'm in! I just bought a LEadwell V-25 and am crazy enough to put a new garage door in that's tall enough to allow the machine into the garage. When in doubt, make a bigger hole!
The door work will be done next week, I think, and then they'll deliver my machine.
Love the stuff you've done so far, and while I'm in a whole different line of product I would still love to compare notes.

[Mkroe]

Hi!

Thanks for reply. Actually I live in Corsicana. I have a Mori MV 35/ Fanuc 6M control that I'd like to get up and running.

Problem #1 I can't get programs to load thru RS 232 port. I downloaded a set of parameters and I will check controller.

What type of CNC machine/experience do you have?

Thanks,

Steve

Home built CNC router, Hurco, and an Accraloc ATC.

MK

[osphoto]

Glad to read some replies to the post on wanting to meet up.

I'm located in McKinney. Those interested and are able, how about a meet up, say, Wednesday, Sept 22 in the evening time. We can meet some place in the middle.

I'd like to get something started for meet ups sooner then later. It's a good motivator.

Send me an email [email protected] or send a private message.

My machine is a 5ftx5ftx8" all aluminum table. Hitachi router (with Precision Bit collet) with air and fluid. Some times I use my Wolfgang spindle. I do use my machine to cut what you see on my website.
Aluminum and Plastic are my main materials.
I do my own soldering of LED's and resisters, Cut my PCB's, etc. I do the entire manufacturing process. It's rewarding when the product is done. Lots of time involved.

[chimpera]

I'm in. I think somewhere in Addison would be fairly central for a lot of people.