Introduction -

May 9, 1999

From: Roland Friestad

I have great hopes for this forum and the future of Low-Cost CNC/CAD/EDM/DRO
etc - Although one of the things I've found is that the definition of
Low-Cost varies a lot depending on who's doing the defining -

To introduce myself: I'm a professional engineer and tool & die-maker with
a background in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering. That means I can
use P.E. after my name, something that combined with anything from $0.50 to
$1.00 will get a cup of coffee in anything but the most expensive restaurants.

I was on the design staff of Piper Aircraft and was Chief Engineer of
Bellanca Aircraft - I also spent some time at UNIVAC working on the
computers used on the first moon landing craft - That's where I first became
aware of the use of computers for actually moving and controlling real-life
equpment - I've been hooked ever since

I dropped out of the corporate rat-race over 25 years ago and started a
small manufacturing company specializing in short-run metal stamping, making
parts for other companies - I have come to prefer to work for smaller
companies rather than the "big boys" who generally expect you to be suitably
respectful of their size - I could write a book about those experiences -

I got into CNC as soon as I could afford to buy my first Bridgeport CNC mill
about 20 years ago - It revolutionized my thinking about building dies and
tooling - The local Technical School talked me into teaching CNC programming
since I had the first equipment in the area - I taught for about 20 years on
evenings and weekends -

The classes were held at my shop and the students needed to get into my CNC
mills to run their projects and "smoke test" their programs - It seemed that
a die building project was always in the mills when they wanted to run their
own projects - That's when I searched for a small CNC machine to use for
teaching - What I found was equipment that appeared to be terribly
over-priced for their capabilities and size - So, fancying myself a designer
I built my own retrofits, using commercial mills and lathes as the basic
frames -

I know enough electronics to be dangerous and the assembly language computer
programming I was taught at UNIVAC is so hopelessly out of date that I
needed to find a company to provide the CNC motion - I located a small
outfit run by two guys working out of their basement and contracted with
them to build the first CNC controller for me - They have since grown into
what is now CENTROID -

The first CNC machines were successful as teaching tools and other teachers
wanted similar machines so I started building them - The project got out of
hand and what started as a sort of "hobby project" has become a fairly large
part of my small business with approximately 400 machines done up to now -
These include CNC lathes, mills, routers, laser welders, rotary tables, and
some very special custom machines -

In 1989 I started writing a series of articles for HOME SHOP MACHINIST
magazine on retrofitting these machines, providing drawings and resources
for those who wanted to get into CNC in a low-cost way - This continued for
several years but I've been sort of inactive with the articles for the last
few years - I'm working on a whole new series to be published, the first of
which is a home-built DRO for small mills -

Don Fergle and myself have presented the CNC Seminars at N.A.M.E.S. for the
last two years - It is satisfying to see the standing-room-only crowds at
these seminars - I"ve been talking to the N.A.M.E.S. directors about an
expanded program for the next year's exhibition - Will advise when they let
me know if it is going to happen -

I'm pleased to see the growing interest in these areas and will try to
contribute as much as possible - I see various areas that need work and
would hope that we can all progress together by combining efforts and
sharing information -

I feel that my own expertise is in the areas of mechanical design and
machining rather than that of programming and electronics - Consequently I
would be more than willing to coordinate and share with those who have
complementary capabilities -

One thing that I have been thinking about for a couple of years is the
possibility of hosting some sort of get-together for those who want to build
or retrofit milling machines or lathes -

I've got a fairly complete machine shop and lots of space - While I build
and sell systems to schools for training of CNC operators and programmers,
the hobbyist movement is where my personal sympathies lie -

Those of you who might want to participate in such a get together at my shop
can let me know via this forum -

I am thinking of about a week long project where you could bring your
machines along and spend time making parts and sharing ideas using my shop
and equipment -

A lot of these projects would probably be of interest also to the readers of
HOME SHOP MACHINIST and I could write them up for publication if everyone
agreed -

I apologize to be so long-winded about this - I'll try to keep it shorter in
the future but it's kind of nice to know that I'm not the only one out there
with these kinds of interests -

Roland Friestad <cardinal.eng@...>