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Grizzly G0704 CNC Conversion

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tjschweizer

Plastic
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Location
Ames, Iowa
Hey everybody, first time poster. I am a sophomore at Iowa State University in the Mechanical Engineering program. I have just started a project to convert a Grizzly G0704 into a CNC machine. To fund my project, I launched it on a crowd-funding website. Basically, on a crowd-funding website, you can propose a project, and if people feel it is interesting, they can donate for a reward. But, I am having trouble bringing traffic to my website. If you have any advice on where to market this project to capture the public's attention better, please let me know. Otherwise, if you want to know more about the project, or feel like donating (even the smallest donations are widely appreciated) visit my website at Home - Mechanical Engineer & Machinist. Thank you very much for your time.
 
Allow me to offer a few pieces of tough-love from one student to another.

1- Loose the Russian bride ads on your website

2- Check your website for grammar

3- Trying to start a business with donations is unprofessional and I doubt any member here, many of whom have reputable businesses, would donate money to fund a zero-experience competitor.

4- Your school has a machine shop- utilize it. They won't allow you to profit from parts made for free on thier machines? This should have been your first moment of reflection on exactly what it is you're trying to accomplish. You might try finishing your degree and having machinery at home to tinker on rather than make it a stressful enterprise.

5- No Gr*z*y products are to be discussed on this relatively professional forum.
 
1. It is a free website host, I can not prevent the ads they post. Adblock plus can.
2. Lose was the word I believe you were looking for in the first item. If my website has grammar mistakes, instead of calling me out on it, how about pointing out where I made mistakes, and how to correct them. That would be one example of the kind of advice I asked for in the main post.
3. I apologize if you feel that way, however, there is actually no way for me to know until I try the project. If you do not feel this is an appropriate project, please, keep these opinions to yourself and just don't click the "donate" button. I am going to use all of the resources available to me.
4. My school has machine shops that students are not allowed to use. I am at a University, which does not teach technical programs i.e. Tool and Die, so there is no need for a student-accessible machine shop. I am slightly confused as to the point you are trying to make with this item, but I believe you are implying the machinery is too expensive for a student to be able to operate. However, if you would have spent some time looking at the project before offering your insanely pessimistic reply, you would realize I only need $2000. This is not a huge amount of money.
5. Finally, I am not sure why you could not fully spell out Grizzly, nor do I understand how Grizzly products are inferior. Are they not professional? If you have any mills you would want to suggest, please, make a suggestion! I'm looking for advice. However, I am not looking for a reply of your nature. I have done extensive research on this and I have decided that this is the most practical and economic tool for the applications I need.

All in all, I would not consider this "Tough-love". I would consider this a pessimistic, counter productive, and generally annoying reply. Constructive criticism is essential in a project like this, and I welcome it. But there is no room in this post for negativity such as yours. Honestly, this has been a waste of my time, but I had to set the record straight for sake of this forum.

I would also like to mention that I am off to a good start and I am grateful for all the support I have received!

Thank you for your time.
 
I was going to mention, once the thread got rolling a bit, that I admire the fact you're willing to put your full name on a website for any project. This is indicative of dedication, something to be commended for.

In your "extensive research", you have failed to find that this website is not the place to discuss sub-par machinery such as that from Grizzly, nor is this the place to solicit charity. Do some more of your diligent research on the quality of Grizzly machinery to gain your needed understanding.

Also, forgive me, but I have never been to a reputable university that does not allow their engineering students access to their machine shops. Even those in graduate programs in biomedical and electrical engineering (an entirely different faculty) are welcome with open arms into the mechanical and aerospace machining laboratories at my university. I didn't even have to provide evidence of prior industry experience.

Additionally, you can minimize the time you waste by reducing the number of redundant adjectives in your insults.
 
Have you considered getting a job, saving some money and buying what you need instead of researching and begging?
Bob
 
I only need $2000. This is not a huge amount of money.

My free advice to you is this: find all the engineers you know (your parents age, etc) and network with them to see what you can do about a summer job. When I went to school, classes ended May 1st. Time's 'a wastin'!!! Save your coin, live at home, with hard work you will have $2000 by the time school starts again.

Keep in mind the majority of people on the forum are with 10-40 years' experience ahead of where you are in life, and are generally trying to give helpful advice although it isn't always going to be wrapped in fuzzy pink candy, I thought ToolPost made excellent points and was honest without being derogatory.
 
Also, forgive me, but I have never been to a reputable university that does not allow their engineering students access to their machine shops. Even those in graduate programs in biomedical and electrical engineering (an entirely different faculty) are welcome with open arms into the mechanical and aerospace machining laboratories at my university. I didn't even have to provide evidence of prior industry experience.

I've contacted the Lab Contact for the Boyd Lab in Hoover Hall at Iowa State University and was informed the lab could not be used for personal projects. How many universities have you been to exactly?


As for the research, that sentence was directed at the amount of research I have spent searching for the correct mill, not on the rules of this forum. Also, Grizzly is not the manufacturer of the G0704, but we don't need to get into that. I was not aware that this forum was quite so exclusive to quality machinery, I just took that part of your list as a personal stab. I apologize for the confusion.

And as for soliciting charity, again, I was too quick in joining the forum that I did not thoroughly read through the "Terms and Conditions", and apologize for making the mistake of posting on this topic.

And finally, I do apologize if my replies are too lengthy. It helps in English classes. :D
 
Another Iowan here - I live over in Ogden about a half hr west of you. Good luck with crowdsourcing, although I think you might have better luck on those "other forums" than you will here, same goes for more accepting attitudes towards non-production grade machines regardless of make or country of origin. That said I think you'll quickly outgrow a grizzly's capabilities and a benchtop machine's travel and size limits almost immediately after you get it. I also think $800 is not going to get you anywhere near as tooled as you are going to want to be, especially when you consider that cutting tools don't cost much compared to the measuring tools to tell how good a job you've done. I could go on further but don't want to contribute any more to the get-off-my-lawn attitude already hard at work in this thread. You also might have more luck networking at the ames makerspace Ames MakerSpace (Ames, IA) - Meetup

I am currently undertaking a mechanical rebuild and electrical/drive retrofit on a Lagun FTV-3 CNC, quite a bit bigger machine but a lot of the concepts are the same, just scale differently. Have a couple of ME/EE friends at ISU who are also interested in CNC, complex electrical systems and machining, if you PM me your phone number maybe we could get together for a brew at OMBC or my shop in Boone.
 
To the OP, I had to go wash my hands after looking at your website... To generic in your goals, reposting others videos, begging for money on each page made me feel dirty (in a bad way).

As said above, get a job where you can work towards your goal (not necesarily as the arse end of a production machine packing boxes for $7/hr).

I will say welcome to the site and I think some time spent here reading through many threads will help you get a better understanding of what you are trying to do and maybe even understand the 'pessimistic, counter productive, and generally annoying replies' you will earn and recieve.
 
Maybe you're only seeing the bad and ignoring the positives?
In contrast to your observations, the 2 minutes I spent looking at it because I was board, I saw a
bit of a video......the kids wearing a suit and tie, 'recent' hair cut, no baseball cap on sideways or backwards...if you get my drift....
Looks to me like he's making an attempt to appear sincere and professional, if a bit green.

Were you ever a green machinist Mr. Ranchero50 ?

dk


To the OP, I had to go wash my hands after looking at your website... To generic in your goals, reposting others videos, begging for money on each page made me feel dirty (in a bad way).
 
I've contacted the Lab Contact for the Boyd Lab in Hoover Hall at Iowa State University and was informed the lab could not be used for personal projects.

The stipulation usually is that you cannot use the shop for personal projects if you're not going to pay the shop rate. My school's shop has an hourly rate, and what I am able to do is draw a part/assembly, come up with a material and operations list, and then pay the shop rate to complete my own projects. The rate is discounted because you would be using the machinery yourself.

This type of arrangement prevents someone from going to school and running the machine shop for profit while they're there. See if you're able to make such an arrangement with your shop supervisor. Do not send an email or phone him; talk to him in person and show up with a proper drawing.
 
You will find another website with many hobbyists who do their own machine building, I doubt anyone does that here. Can't even mention the name or the censoring software will edit the mention of the site out. They are the place to ask for help, not here. Use google I am sure they will turn up.
 
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