Where do the amateurs post?

[JohnnyB]

I'm a typical hobbyist ... I have an old BP, a cheap lathe, TIG, MIG, Gas, some bending equipment, good selection of tools, raw materials etc. Been messing around in the little 32 x 24 shop for 30+ years, maybe doing a half dozen jobs a year, mostly fabrication of railings, stairs, furniture etc.

Anyway, over the years I've picked up some knowledge but in general I know just enough to be wrong, break things etc. but usually get the job done. I've recently built a miniature CNC 3 axis mill, (picture below), basic setup, Teensy 4.1 32 bit controller, grblHAL, 2.2kw water cooled spindle .. all the usual garbage hobbyist use to construct something like this.

I'm wondering if there is an appropriate area to post my basic questions rather than annoy professionals with my stupidity.
Excuse appearance of the machine ... still under development.

 

[plastikdreams]

Try cnczone.com

 

[i_r_machinist]

A lot of good info in cnc zone without all the asshole comments from the "old boys" you get on here. Industrial professionals tend to be grumpy old dickheads. I know, been in the biz for 42 years. Cole from OK. And Teachmeplease from Florida are a couple of the young crowd willing to give good advice.
Good luck.
i r machinist

 

[Rickyb]

Home shop machinist web site

 

[plastikdreams]

I mean, by all means post here...you will need thick skin as there are some guys that just don't play nice with the hobby guys. I welcome them though.

 

[i_r_machinist]

I mean, by all means post here...you will need thick skin as there are some guys that just don't play nice with the hobby guys. I welcome them though.

What he said!

 

[Milland]

Speaking as a grumpy, irascible old fart - that doesn't look too bad. My philosophy is that rigidity is king when it comes to cutting machine design, so if you want to update what's there at some point I'd stiffen the base, the vertical column to base junction, and the bearing blocks to spindle connection on Z.

Aside from that, come up with a way of protecting the exposed bearing blocks and ball screws from chips. The ball screws and linear rails look decently sized, weak steppers aren't that impactful on this sort of machine, and if nothing else this will be a learning exercise at limited cost.

 

[CarbideBob]

Many here will not like this and it is sort of banned to keep out tons of hobby BS stuff and that has worked.
Maybe add some drive screw covers like bellows or the long springy things. (Never leave your nuts exposed to the world )
Have a few of those same spindles that everyone here hates. No good down at low speed but great with grinding pins or micro sized endmills.

 

[Scruffy887]

Grow thick skin and you can stay. Ask questions about you BP or welding and in second paragraph say something or ask about your home built CNC thingy.
Most of the welds look pretty good and you can say that a metal shitting chicken broke into the shop one night to explain the other welds.
Please note that I have a metal shitting chicken on staff, looks just like me.

 

[JohnnyB]

Thanks folks. I think every suggestion you guys made is in the works already This build was indeed intended to just be a learning experience so I limited it to the stock I had on hand, mostly 3/4" 6061 plate and 1/2" mild steel, and a cast iron table stolen from an XY table. For me this is about learning the software, plenty of CAD experience, no CAM experience. To be honest ... to me, a machine like this has no real value except a learning tool. I can think of no instance where it would be worth it to set it up to produce a one off part that I could most like machine on the BP in way less time and effort.

In the unlikely event anyone is curious ... pictures of the column below. With the column mount attaching screws seen in the back ground. TIG welded where it shows, MIG welded where it doesn't 20mm rails, the higher torque NEMA 23 motors, gas spring soon to be installed on the Z axis to lessen the load there. All the final shielded cables, covers etc. yet to be done.

Picture of the portable controller almost finished ... and milling the column base on the BP ... that's the only way I could figure to do it with my tooling ... with the ram way out and the spindle turned about 30 degrees to the side.

My questions here would be mostly about CNC best practices ... not so much about this POS machine

 

[rons]

I'm a typical hobbyist ... I have an old BP, a cheap lathe, TIG, MIG, Gas, some bending equipment, good selection of tools, raw materials etc. Been messing around in the little 32 x 24 shop for 30+ years, maybe doing a half dozen jobs a year, mostly fabrication of railings, stairs, furniture etc.

You've got a hell of a lot of things going on there. A lot more than your typical judgement court here. They don't like educated people. Makes em look bad.

 

[JohnnyB]

I have a pretty common story .. Jack of all trades, master of none. Every time I dip into learning more about machining I realize I probably don't have enough years left to learn 1/2 of what there is to learn. Just finished this project which was taking up a lot of my time .... pretty much since I bought it in 1976

 

[Ultradog MN]

I like the advice about learning to have thick skin here.
I'm a natural born son of a bitch so that part has been no problem.
I just wish learning the machining part was as easy.

 

[EPAIII]

The link:

General - The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop Magazine's BBS

This forum reserved for general machining discussion. Off topic threads are allowed, but will be closed if they go too far off track or become too numerous. Please add “OT” to the title of any off topic thread. Discussions on religion or politics are not allowed.

bbs.homeshopmachinist.net

But don't let them stop you from posting here. Just don't mention imported, Chinese machines by name.

Home shop machinist web site

 

[jatt]

Couple of suggestions for amateurs/ hobbyists:

Mad modder - pommy site.
Metalwork forum - Aussie site

But look lots of interesting stuff here - Just gotta watch out for the hostile natives :-)

 

[Trboatworks]

You are already doing nicer work than I do in my "pro" shop.
I would say carry on- if you get grumped at tell them to stuff it.

 

[Cole2534]

A lot of good info in cnc zone without all the asshole comments from the "old boys" you get on here. Industrial professionals tend to be grumpy old dickheads. I know, been in the biz for 42 years. Cole from OK. And Teachmeplease from Florida are a couple of the young crowd willing to give good advice.
Good luck.
i r machinist

Supposing you mean me, thanks for the kind words.

The philosophy of posting here is quite simple- keep your questions generally of the professional level. That means you're expected to have a certain level of knowledge, or have done some prior research, and be able to succinctly ask a technical question. It has no real impact on the question if properly phrased.

Ex-
1) will you help me design a base for my mini-mill?

2) What's the best way to true up a weldment after construction? Any best practices in design to help prevent distortion?

Its largely the same basic question, but #2 is more focused and avoids the verboten mini-mill. With that in mind, you can ask all sorts of dumb shit. =)

 

[Volitan]

People sometimes rag on this place for not allowing hobby talk but I do appreciate being able to come here and learn things without having to wade through posts of someone asking why can’t they use an endmill in their drill chuck.

Having said that, I think this place would be better for allowing hobby guys their own sub forum.
First of all us “career” guys could drop in and offer advice if we felt like taking a break from work talk.
Secondly we could all learn from them. The best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else, generally because they come up with questions and ideas you might never have thought of, we all know we need “fresh eyes” on a blueprint when we’re not seeing something right? The same thing really applies to everything else really.
I personally picked up a trick of holding parts down with painters tape and superglue from the NYCNC YouTube guy that I’ve amazed my coworkers with, and it was for a prototype that we predict we’ll sell tens of thousands of eventually (obviously we won’t go in to production that way lol)
Seriously, how can we not see by letting these guys have a playground won’t help us all? We’d all be better for it.

 

[rons]

I have a pretty common story .. Jack of all trades, master of none. Every time I dip into learning more about machining I realize I probably don't have enough years left to learn 1/2 of what there is to learn. Just finished this project which was taking up a lot of my time .... pretty much since I bought it in 1976 View attachment 384942

Today watch Counting Cars.

Schedule - Defy TV

www.defytvnet.com

 

[JohnnyB]

You'll notice my membership here started 20 years ago .... about the time I needed some advice on the 1957 BP. I've done a lot more reading than I have posting. I don't get out much ... up on a mountain in upstate NY ... so I get a bit too chatty on occasion. Sometimes my topics lose focus, I'm interested in everything. I'm 64 years old .... but I try to remain flexible ... mentally and physically.
So with that, I'll thank you for the great suggestions, and take to heart the advice.