[Woodworkers] Hey Royce

Tue Apr 28 15:56:57 PDT 2020

 Hey beamer, it's higton your famous plain tool swap buddy. I was wondering if you ever finished the mini CNC I followed the build on You Tube a few years back and, always wondered if you ever finished it. I'm still using my branding iron that you built me and, still loving it! Take it easy bud I talk to you some other time.                                                                                                                                                                                                  Dave Higgins
P.S. What ever happened to woodworking chat, I couldn't get on anymore for some reason just wondering if it's even a thing anymore.
    On Tuesday, April 28, 2020, 12:28:01 PM PDT, Jason Beam via Woodworkers <woodworkers at lists.sawdusters.org> wrote:  

   Not to pollute the memorial thread for Joe, I thought I'd start a new one to answer your question...

 Royce so succulently said....

Speaking of topics to talk about....has anyone took the plunge into CNC stuff? and how is that working out for you if you have?

I have looked and am thinking about making my own...might not know what I am getting myself into, but looks interesting if nothing else.

To which I alluringly reply....

Yessir. Around 2012, I designed and built my first CNC router. Fillmed some of it back in the day and put it on YouTube. At first it was just to tinker around and such. I would occasionally cut stuff for other folks but nothing super serious. Then in 2016, I had enough workin' for the man and quit my lucrative programming job. Spent the rest of that summer living the good life sitting on my ass doin' nothin. Ahh, memories.

 My machine was built of mainly an MDF torsion box for the table and a bunch of structural aluminum shapes (channel, angle, etc). To my surprise, it also did an okay job cutting some metals like aluminum and brass. That summer I freeloaded, someone asked me to make 'em a branding iron and I figured what the hell. Brass is pretty easy to cut, why not. 

 Well little did I know what lay before me. After some gentle nudging from friends, I listed a branding iron on Etsy and what a shock. I woke up the next day to 3 orders. Just like that. Holy dang. So I listed a couple more designs and that first two weeks turned out to be my highest earning two weeks in history. Better than my lucrative programming job! 

 Well, I says, looks to me like I found myself a way to earn a living without actually needing to wear pants. It's been  3-1/2 years now. I've since designed and built a dedicated CNC machine to do irons and free up Ol' Bertha to get some much needed love. That first machine ran hundreds of hours of irons for the first 3 years. I'm shocked it still works, frankly, seein' as how I'm the knucklehead what built it.

 Anywho - Yep - CNC is within reach. If you're a tinkerer, building one is quite a lot of fun and challenging. I'll give you the secret to building a good machine: Don't cheap out and make rigidity your priority. You'll thank me later. 

Anywho 2, Electric Boogaloo ... If'n you wanna dig into it - hop in our chat room, or jump on that same network and join #cnc and I'll blather endlessly until you decide to just buy one ready-made. 

HTH

 -- 
Jason Beam
Sacramento, CA _______________________________________________
I want to be one of my friends for a day so I can see how cool it is to hang out with me.
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