Re: Flashcut 9000 mill and an open question

> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 15:39:33 -0500
> From: "j.guenther" <j.guenther@...>
> Subject: RE: Re: flashcut 9000 series mill
>
> I think I am in the wrong business! Let's see, FlashCUT takes a $900
> mill/drill and converts it to CNC with a proprietary system and charges
> $11,000 for it. MicroKinetics takes an RF-31 mill/drill, upgrades it to CNC
> and get's $8995 for it. For those prices the average guy could afford to
> make the conversion, learn what he did wrong, do it all over again with
> another machine and then take the wife on a trip and still be bucks ahead!!!
>
> John Guenther

Well when you have a fully proprietary system you gotta recover those
software costs right ;-) It does raise an interesting question though
(other than "where to take the wife" on holiday that is ....).

What are the ingredients of an "ideal" comparable sized system if you
DYI and what are the total costs? No cheating here ... i.e. "first I
got a great deal on a 2-year old Bridgeport at a rummage sale for
under $1,000." Start with something "NEW" off the shelf that is going
to get converted. Here's some thoughts to get the ball rolling if
anyone wants to play:

1. If you want to start with a relatively inexpensive platform it is
a given you're going to change out the leadscrews and nuts right?

2. I would want servos/encoders/Gecko drives for accuracy and speed.

3. CAM could be cheap with EMC (BDI with PC hardware matched as closely
as I could get to a existing "working" setup with hardware that matches
the EMC compatibility specs.

4. So the CAM is "not without some pain ... nothing in Linux land
seems to be" albeit free ... now what about the CAD frontend
package and integration?

4. You've also got the interface from the PC to the all the
limits/homes/Geckos/spindle& coolant relays .... and, of course,
those switches and relays.

5. You need power supplies to drive your servos, etc.

6. ........ ????

How much? Granted .... not $11,000 but ... how much? Another related
issue is what "part" of the hobby (presuming this is strictly a hobby
project and cannot be considered a capital business investment which
changes all the rules of the game) is one interested in?

Some people, myself included, love tinkering and building the tools
as much as what we make with them, other people are more interested
in the process of design and programming (i.e. they more want to use
the tools to some other "end" purpose). How long would the DYI version
take you to put together? In the original post above the DYI'er is
"the average guy", and we'll assume to be generous, with some access
to "tools" other than a drill and a hacksaw :-)

Ken Jenkins
kjenkins@...