Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Grizzly G8689 mini-mill CNC retrofit kit

Hi Johnno,

What you must understand about this group is that it is a very mixed bag of
people who just get together for the pleasure of discussing their various
CNC machining projects and trying to help each other out. Probably most of
the group members are, like me, not employing CNC commercially - or, at
least, not in any 'serious' form but we are struggling against time and
financial constraints to come to terms with this 'modern technology' and
hopefully better ourselves and achieve satisfaction in the process. Until
very recently it was completely beyond the scope of the amateur to even
consider CNC in the home workshop - largely because of the highly
overinflated prices placed on software and equipment by manufacturers. Then
along came EMC and this group and suddenly we find it is possible to
actually make and drive our own machines. I am retired on a small company
pension and I know there are others on the list in a worse financial
position than me, and so there is no way on earth I could justify paying
thousands of dollars for a piece of software just to amuse myself with.
Nevertheless, with materials salvaged from the scrapyard, free and GPL
software including EMC and a lot of 'learning hours', I have an almost
completed, quite substantial cnc mill which will allow me to make runs of
accurate parts and jewellery items which would otherwise have taken me many
hours by hand methods. Along the way I have learnt about machine design,
motor sizing, driving methods, jig design, Linux, networking, tcl, TK, Perl,
3D CAD, toolpaths, CAM, G-code and RS247 and many other things - all
marketable skills should I choose to apply them.

Commercial machines and expensive software solutions are all very well for
the major manufacturer who wants an instant solution to a problem (except
that 'teething problems' make instant solutions rare!), but they don't
provide the satisfaction and depth of knowledge that people on this group
achieve. We are very fortunate in this community in having members amateur,
commercial and professional who are willing to share their knowledge and
expertise. The amateurs gain enormously from everyone, the professionals
help each other and gain satisfaction from helping others and I am sure the
more helpful commercial members' businesses benefit financially from the
list members.

Just because a thing is cheap doesn't mean it is not accurate - I will turn
you small parts on a lathe made from 3 nails which are more accurate than
similar parts made on very expensive commercial lathes. Indeed, the highest
quality chronometer watch parts which I make are finished on a 'lathe' which
is only a fancy version of the 3-nail job. At the same time, not everyone
tries to get machining times down to the absolute limit, it just isn't
necessary and can often spoil the quality of the part. If you quote a
customer the price for making a part using the technology you have available
and he is happy with that, why bother counting your time? A properly run
business would assign the time taken to make these machines of ours as
'Research and Development'

Ian
--
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
www.iw63.freeserve.co.uk

----- Original Message -----
From: "FIK" <vrojas@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 23 October 2001 19:29
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Grizzly G8689 mini-mill CNC retrofit kit


> I see one common theme among the messages on this group and it is sort of
> like the snip below. IS everyone on this list trying to build the absolute
> cheapest machine they can get?? I am missing something but if you want
good