Thread: Dumb CNC questions (probably)

Nooooooooooooooooooo Don't go lol.

Born and bread shire boy I am, from Cronulla left about 9 Years ago came to Brisbane for a IT job with NEC left after paying off most of my house and looking to move to Coffs its getting a bit busy up in Brisbane starting to turn into a mini Sydney.

Well building one of these machines can be a hobby in itself and I ain't the best with tools either but do love my lathe but its been gathering dust so I will be selling it.

you may have seen my post on the green man? you can do so many fun things with a CNC well I find it fun anyway,

All is good when ya ready or want to talk more the guys on this forum have a crap load knowledge and you will see it build over the months.

Sean

Actually CNC's are very simple. 3axis machines only move in 3 directions x, y ,z. X and Y are north, south, east west and z is up, down. A dxf is created and tool paths are assigned, tools are set-up etc. This info from the dxf (or the design) is then passed through a "post" program that converts all this info into code (g-code usually) specific to the machine. Most machines will come wil some with software that you can use to do this manually too.

Nesting has taken cabinet manufacturing to the next level by having all the parts from the design software carry intelligence that will assign operations to the parts (such as a dowel hole or a dado or adjustable shelf holes) and all the operations from all the parts get assigned automatically and the parts are "nested' onto the correct material. This means they are places on the material ready to be cut out to achieve the least amount of waste possible .. it will look like a jig saw puzzle. There is NO MORE manual programing needed. The software does it all.

This programing cannot be achieved manually within a reasonable amount of time. In the old days we would put single parts on cnc's for processing and a programer would program each program for each part.

Please feel free to fire any questions at me you have ...

Bruce

Hi Bruce welcome to the CNC forum,

Can you give us an idea on what type of bits you use whom you buy them from what you cut them with etc.

Also what do you Cad Cam packages do you guys use in the trade to create your work?

Thanks in advance

Sean

Hey Sean. Onsrud seems to have a good selection but there is so many tool suppliers out there .. I cant keep up with them all. With the work I am involved with we use drill bits, downspiral cutters, compression bits ( for outline cuts) and profile bits for making doors.

There are quite afew Software packages out there .. but very few good ones. I have many years experience with Planit software . but I know there are other good ones out there. The key is to have "seamless" movement from design to cutting.

I have worked with and integrated most of the main nesting cnc machines you will find out there. They are not that different for each other.. just how the controller works.

I am actualy in the process of moving back to Australia and and looking for work right now.