CNC Router and Machinery Advice

**Marcus Bamford** · 24th August 2003, 10:08 PM

Hi All,

I run a small speaker kit manufacturing business and currently outsource the manufacturing of our MDF panels to various wood machinists.

I'm thinking of setting up a small factory and bringing the manufacturing back in house (we originally started building all our kits on my Triton gear!) for quality and cost reasons.

The panels we use in our kits are MDF ranging from 12mm to 25mm in thickness and from 30cmx20cm to about 100cm x 40cm in size. Volume is small though growing, probably about 20 panels of each type a month and we would have 80 different panels all up. The panels have rebates, holes and cutouts in them and need to be better than +/- 1mm.

So, what equipment would I need to do this? I have been looking at some second hand CNC machining centres as well as a beam saw and some dust extraction but my tool experience is all on the small side and I can't tell whether a $15000 used machine will do enough for me or if I need a nested $100000 machine.

Anyone have any suggestions as to 2nd hand machines or what to look for in order to produce accurate panels. I have a total budget for machinery of about $50,000 but this includes a forklift!

Thanks,

Marcus

**chris_hewett** · 26th August 2003, 04:38 PM

G'Day Marcus,

Sorry this reply is a little off topic and does not answer your question... I am just about to start building a pair of Lynn Olson's Ariel speakers, so when you mentioned speaker building kits you sparked up some interest from me! Do you have a web site for your company? Always interested in seing what the "local" industry is doing.

Good luck with your search,

Chris

**Marcus Bamford** · 26th August 2003, 05:16 PM

Chris,

Our website is www.theloudspeakerkit.com

If you are going to build Ariel's I assume you have good woodworking skills

Try the MKV versions, although in truth none of them have very good bass but their midrange is superb.

For a transmission line with better bass (but not quite the same midrange) try our TL6 kits.

Marcus

**echnidna** · 27th August 2003, 08:00 PM

For the volume of work CNC seems a big overkill, but if you get it cheap enough...

You could makeup separate jigs for each panel from some mdf. Get several cheap routers each with the appropriate cutter for its particular job so each router is virtually permanently set up at the correct depth etc.

So you just drop each router in a slot (or recess) in its own jig to machine a particular panel or process.

Make sure all your routers are the same make and model so if you have a failure you can still maintain production without making new jigs or messing around.

**Marcus Bamford** · 27th August 2003, 08:47 PM

Bob,

Yeah, that's pretty much how we started the business but the volume (and dust levels) now justify the CNC machine. Heck, we spent something like $60,000 on MDF alone last year.

I have been speaking to the guys at Tekcel machines in Perth who reckon one of their T model flatbed routers (about $40K used) will do the lot without the need for a separate beam saw so I might take a look at one of them.

Marcus

**echnidna** · 31st August 2003, 08:00 PM

Hi Marcus,
Sorry I didnt read the quantities correctly.
Make sure youre fully advised by the machine supplier as to just what is involved with installing and operating this cnc machine.

The machine youre looking at is a big heavy machine that may need specialist installation. The big machines also often need a high power rating electricity supply as do the large dust extractors that usually service this type of cnc equipment

At your existing production volume you could consider a brandnew new shopbot at around us$6000 which takes a fullsize sheet thus eliminating the beamsaw.
see http://www.shopbottools.com/

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