Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: What price all this homebrew CNC??

Dave Lantz wrote:

> this is a very good point, but do not underestimate the value of the
> knowledge that 'doing it yourself' gives you. how many expensive seminars
> would you need to go to aquire that? how much do you have to pay to get it
> fixed, when a person who built their's has an intuitive understanding of its
> workings, and can repair it themselves? how about overestimated a
> pre-built's ability, very costly! another argument about proprietary
> hardware is what do you do when the company goes belly up? there are alot
> of hidden costs here, not just an hourly wage... in my opinion.... ---Dave

Yes, the experience gained is very worthwhile, and learn-by-doing seems
to be a much higher quality than "book learning". When I started with an
ancient mill and a wrecked lathe, i didn't even know there was anything wrong
with them. I was afraid to take anything apart for fear I would not be able
to put it back together and still have an accurate machine. (Now, of course,
I know that they were NOT accurate to begin with.)

After converting my Bridgeport to CNC, I have a very good understanding of
the machine's design and how to tear it down when I eventually get ready
to rescrape the ways, etc. I just got a new/old lathe, and didn't even run it
before pulling it apart to fix the worn bed. (If I'd gotten the chuck that was

supposed to come with the lathe, I would have done some turning just
to get the feel of the machine, but I didn't want to wait.) I was able to
make measurements with dial indicators and determine how bad the
wear was, and had the confidence that no matter what was wrong, I
COULD go in there and fix it!

Jon