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.
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:
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'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.
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:
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.