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Not to pollute the memorial thread for Joe, I thought I'd start a
new one to answer your question...<br>
<br>
Royce so succulently said....<br>
<p><font color="#cc66cc">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?</font></p>
<font color="#cc66cc"> </font>
<p><font color="#cc66cc">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.</font></p>
<p>To which I alluringly reply....</p>
<p>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.<br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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! <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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. <br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>HTH<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Jason Beam
Sacramento, CA</pre>
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