GrabCAD South Africa

I'm not in South Africa, but the rest of GrabCAD is pretty dead this weekend, so I'll add some information to this post.

At home I have a 1940's era Bridgeport Round Ram Knee Mill. I found a photo online of one which is quite similar.

Obviously this is not CNC. But there are some advantages to having a manual mill.

It also requires three phase power (which I don't have at home), but that can be fixed with a Phase Converter.

At a company I worked for they purchased a Roland MDX-650. I'd call it more of a router than a mill, but it depends on the material you plan to work with. It was a capable machine, but the software which drove it was terrible. Before buying any CNC equipment, test drive the CAM software.

Eventually the same company purchased a HAAS VF3-SS. This is an incredible and expensive machine. The Machinist, Pattern Maker, and myself (designer) all suggested buying a manual mill to go along with the CNC. Management never understand why a manual mill is needed when the latest CNC mill is on the shop floor.

A manual mill allows for small adjustments to be easily made to parts in minutes. Programming the same small changes to occur on the CNC takes 10x longer, plus ties up an expensive machine with operations which could be done faster/easier on a less expensive tool.

I know this is not a full definition of a CNC but I have a R10K CRON CNC for Woodworking in the garage and a DIY CNC built based on the CRON.

I have an Isel gantry mill with a custom built 2kw brushless spindle for those slightly tougher jobs. At the moment it is standing at my workshop, but used to be in my wife's laundry / machine room. Currently it is not operational. The PC decided to go on permanent vacation and have not had the time to re do all the settings. I also have a laser cutter that I purely bought for parts and a Prusa I3 clone 3D printer. Hoping to add a cnc plasma table with rotary axis soon.

Quick update! Looks like I will be getting my cnc plasma in the next week or so. Getting a CNC Clearcut 2500 x 3000 with Hypertherm 45. Sadly no rotary axis yet. Getting more exited as it gets closer! Makes me a little nervous at the same time. It is a pretty expensive addition to my shop, but I am optimistic!

These mills and CNC and 3D printing machines are a bit overpriced for my blood...

So I opted for designing and building a desktop version of the CNC as well as 3D printer myself.

I will post the files once I am done. p.s. all parts are locally available.

Hi

I have NV36 4 axis cnc milling machine and 640 cnc 3 axis lathe in my den, also 600 x 400 4 axis router I built that can machine wood, plastic, aluminium etc

I am not into manufacturing anything for production purposes, just bought these machines so I can do anything I need to do.

Purpose is to have a well equipped workshop or man cave with all the tools, and enough materials to do anything

If there is anything I can assist anyone with in sourcing parts or materials, feel free to contact me as I know where to find right materials.

i have a optimum MB4 milling machine,i have replaced the lead screws with ballscrews,a have used 1:3 gears on all the axis. x and y has 9 Nm nema 34 ,z axis has Nema 43 12 Nm. as a controller i use Linux cnc with a regular breakoutboard. i also made a cooling system and now i’m building a cabine and a system to change fast the tools. it works very good,i am milling regullary steel.