Thread: FNQ Cairns-CNC BBQ-20 July 2013...Bigger and Better !!!

Anybody staying at the Gateway?

Yes, Dorothy and I will be staying there for three nights.

We will be there Friday and Saturday nights
Maybe going to the Cairns Show Friday night to have a look for any exhibited woodwork.

I have been trying to get my new machine finished for the BBQ, but unfortunately I have just run out of time, so I will be bringing the old faithful along. Here's hoping that it holds together for the drive there, lol.

Russell.

List updated, another from CNCZone...

Epineh (Russell)
Chich2
Allen McFarlen
Cold Turkey (Dave)
madDog 62 (Tony)
Jim
SAISAY (Wolfie)
WoodPleb (Peter)
Cliff Rogers
Bob Willson and partner (Dorothy Watson)
zap2me (Ray)
Smirkin (Craig)
Lee Wills
Andrew(babinda01)

You still have me on the list, I won't be there, I am currently in Brisbane.

Arg the list on CNCZone must have you still on it and I copied it from there...my bad

Epineh (Russell)
Chich2
Allen McFarlen
Cold Turkey (Dave)
madDog 62 (Tony)
Jim
SAISAY (Wolfie)
WoodPleb (Peter)
Bob Willson and partner (Dorothy Watson)
zap2me (Ray)
Smirkin (Craig)
Lee Wills
Andrew(babinda01)

Maybe next year.

Not long to go now, I guess Bob and Dorothy will already be on the road.
Safe travelling.

I have a few more names from the local woodworking clubs...


Epineh (Russell)
Chich2
Allen McFarlen
Cold Turkey (Dave)
madDog 62 (Tony)
Jim
SAISAY (Wolfie)
WoodPleb (Peter)
Bob Willson and partner (Dorothy Watson)
zap2me (Ray)
Smirkin (Craig)
Lee Wills
Andrew(babinda01)
Don Dunne
Joe Venables
Rodney Flint

That was a great day !!!

Very tired now, just got the machine back into the shed.

Great bunch of people, it was good to put names to faces.

Many thanks to the sponsors, there were a lot of happy BBQ'ers.

I am sure there will be some photos to follow.

Safe travels to those heading home.

Russell.

Yes a big thank you to all that organised the day and the very generous sponsors.

It was a great day.

Craig

What a great day we had.
It was wonderful putting faces to the names. Great bunch of people too.
Thank you Russell for organising it, hopefully we can get back to that fantastic place again, already looking forward to the next one
Next time I think the name should be "FNQ Cairns Workshop" instead of BBQ, I learned so much in one day, that my head is buzzing.

Went back to our accommodation and fell asleep almost immediately, woke up a couple of times then went back to sleep again.
Drove home today and still dead tired.
Wonder how long it will take us to raise $30,500? I want one of Andrew's machines

Dorothy and I just got back last night .. exhausted.

It was certainly a great day and a few people had gone to extraordinary lengths to show us what they and their machines were capable of.

Absolutely stunning work by Dave (Cold Turkey) who seems to have neglected to notice that it requires a microscope to see the things he can see with just his eyes. He was using a 0.2mm bit in the chuck. I just measured one of my hairs and was 0.05mm thick, so he is working with a bit just 4 times larger than one of my hairs.
I didn't get one of Dave's cards, or I would direct you to his website so that you could appreciate the stunning jewellery he makes using a crappy old Chinese CNC machine

Alongside him, we had Russell (Epineh) with a moving bed machine that he had managed to cart all the way there and then had to take it all back home again. He gave us a demonstration on how to inlay. His example used a couple of geckos nose to tail in a line. The day wasn't quite long enough to finish the piece, but we all could see how it would finish up looking. Great stuff and something I aim to try out as soon as I recover sufficiently.

We also had a walkthrough of the Aspire software from Andrew and he also told us of the merits of BobCAD. He assured us that he isn't getting any commission from BobCAD but that he actually likes the program. I have no experience of it one way or the other, but a very good piece of advice he gave was "If you are going to buy BobCAD then buy it at the end of the month". Apparently, at the start of the month, the sales people have to fill a certain quota of full priced sales. Once that quota is filled, they can sell the product for whatever they can get for it.

Andrew also designed and built the CNC machine that is going to be used by the St Mary's Trade Training Centre. Everything there is brand new and mostly unused as yet (except for the CNC machine). The machine has a built in ATC and Andrew made all the little chucky tool holder thingys himself. (What are they called?) This machine is made out of solid steel and moves aside for nobody and nutin.

Huge thanks also to the sponsors who donated some very nice prizes. I think just about everybody won something that gladdened their hearts.

I would also like to thank Main Roads Department for their input as they tried to ensure that I would have the leisure to contemplate the countryside from a static pint of view rather than just rush headlong past all that interesting grass and trees and such like. They managed to rivet our attention on these things for well over three hours on the total journey.

It was nice to see old faces (Craig) and to see and meet new ones - Saisay is shorter than Dorothy, so don't believe her if she puts herself in the same height class.

Dorothy had expected to just turn up there, say hello and then go walkabout, but she stayed the whole day as she found you and all you were doing so interesting. A big thank you from her too.