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Beginner needs advice

RogerH58

Plastic
Joined
May 28, 2020
Hi all,

I'm new here and new to CNC.

I'm building a flight simulator cockpit in my shed and have come to the stage where I'm making the panels. I can buy these indivually at £30 a pop, but there are over 50 in the cockpit (it's a 747-400).

For the cost of 6 panels I can buy a cheap Chinese 3018 CNC machine and cut/engrave my own.

My question is - will a cheap Chinese machine have the accuracy to cut them?

The panels will be from 3mm (1/8") acrylic/perspex and will usually be around 150mm x 50 mm (6" x 2")

Here's an example.

XPDR.jpg


The square holes would of course have radiused corners, I know. The writing is around 3 - 5mm high (1/8" - 3/16").

I would cut and paint the panels first, then engrave the letters though the paint.

So - would a cheap 3018 from China do the job? I am prepared to accept some innacuracies, as cutting by hand is not an option. My attemps remind me of the old saw "measure with a stick, mark with a crayon, cut with an axe"... and in any case with over 50 panels to make I'd be somewhat older by the time I'd finished.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Just to be clear - I'm not looking for ultimate accurqacy here. An example of what I can buy for £30 is this:

HispaXPDR.jpg

My gut feeling is that a cheap Chinese 3018 would produce reasonably good quality, but before laying out for it (I'm on a very small income and it's a big expense) I need some reassurance as to whether I can expect to be reasonably successful.

Many thanks,

Roger.
 
I tried to find information on bagain brand CNC routers here and got no/few replies.
I'm now thinking that $2,000 USD and up might be the low limit for a useful machine..
But If this thread is not closed do let me know what you discover.
I'm still looking and trying to find information.
Here find the small machine you are thinking about a 3018 for a couple hundred.
..light duty machine took 6 hours to do this job.
Still it may work and you will learn s little about CNC...that alone may be worth the cost.
Online flight simulator GeoFS - The Free Online Flight Simulator

Your part may also take a long time. I don't know how many you wish to make ..but for much production you may need a heavy duty machine..for only a few making them by hand might be a good choice, but yes you said that is difficult.


a cheap 3018
YouTube
 
Just Google "Chinese 3018' that will get you to forums where people use those machines. I doubt there are any owners here.
 
Just Google "Chinese 3018' that will get you to forums where people use those machines. I doubt there are any owners here.

Which is exactly what the OP wanted you to doo.....:D

The Op should simply farm out the work to a local vendor with a laser.
 








 
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