r/CNC

Hi there, just wondering if anyone has any experience with cheap chinese 5-axis machines from alibaba/aliexpress etc, in the 1000-2000$ range.

Are they completley worthless for a ocasional user? I am mostly interested in the hardware side, the software side is something that i am able to tinker with.

I would like to be able to machine at least aluminum, maybe even soft steels.

I am a lathe programmer set up for company that needs one and I had no training no nothing they needed someone who can do the job effectively and I have been and I’ve been pushing their parts out creating processes. They recently hired a guy and he’s getting paid 1/3 less than me. New guy has situated himself in the shop yet and he makes his way towards my machine and wants to know all about them. Figures. Days go by. Today he asked me if for some reason my boss would come up to me and ask to train him on the machine would I? I responded that I wouldn’t like to awnser him on that and that I only speak to my boss for orders. So given that thought. Are they planning to enact this idea? They would most likely replace me if he somehow knew everything I know. There’s only 2 machines and my coworker is on the other one.

How would I go about this situation? They hired me for my experience and now I’m exploited

I am fairly new to 3d modeling and the piece of plastic that holds my gaming chairs footrest snapped so i made it in blender and prepared to have pcb way machine it but because i made it in blender it wont let me use the model is there a way one of yall could make it in a software that that pcb way likes? Here is the model on thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7356747

Hi all, I’m new here and hope to get some advice please.

I run a 5x10 Phantom Reaper CNC mill with a vacuum table. We are having issues with our spoil board preparation process. We use three-quarter inch MDF. Our process has been the following:

1. Surface the old board and keep it attached.

2. Put the new piece on. Fly cut the backside to reveal the porous layer.

3. Flip it, cut the bolt holes. Remove the old spoil board, bolt down the new one and surface the top side.

This method has given us inconsistent results. The MDF tends to warp when we are cutting the first side.

I would greatly appreciate anything the would share their best practice for doing their spoil board?

Thanks

Hi, i do allot of 3d printing and cad work and 3d printing is great but watching machining channels has me wanting a cnc. i see allot about the makera z1 and as a complete idiot to this area whats yalls thoughts on it? I mainly want to produce my own Rc vehicle components but i also know ill end up making a bunch of other stuff for work and family. so if anyone has a better recommendation for a cnc around the same price i would appreciate it. and last question with the z1 what kinda of metals would i be able to work on?

Hey everyone!

My brother is graduating high school and was seriously looking to getting into CNC. I was thinking about getting him something as a present but don't know to much about it. What was anyone's first introduction into CNC Tooling?

This year will be the first year I get to go to IMTS, what are some tips/tricks if the trade show? What to see, what to avoid? I have ~18 years in industry counting school. Going mainly for prototype work, and scope out whats new to try and implement into the day to day.

Hi everyone,

I’m working on an MVP for CNC and mechanical workshops and would really appreciate feedback from people who quote jobs regularly.

The idea is not to replace estimators or generate fully automatic quotes.

The problem I’m looking at is earlier in the process: customers often send incomplete or unclear RFQs, and shops have to spend time going back and forth just to understand what the customer actually wants.

The MVP is a website-embedded RFQ intake agent.

A customer comes to the shop’s website and describes the part/job. The agent asks follow-up questions to collect the information a shop usually needs before quoting, such as:

• material
• quantity
• dimensions
• tolerances
• surface finish
• deadline
• use case
• threaded holes / clearance holes
• uploaded files, sketches, photos, STEP, PDF drawings, etc.

At the end, the shop gets a structured RFQ package with:

• customer summary
• extracted technical requirements
• uploaded files
• missing or unclear information
• suggested follow-up questions
• assumptions made
• a “quote readiness” score
• draft reply to the customer
• an automatically generated .STEP prototype

The system automatically generates a first .STEP prototype from the customer’s description and uploaded files. For the MVP, we’re focusing on common workshop requests such as mounting plates, brackets, spacers, hole-pattern parts, and similar mechanical components, but the goal is to support more complex parts as the workflow improves.

The generated prototype is meant to help clarify intent before quoting and is clearly labeled as a communication aid, not production-ready CAD.

The goal is:

>

A few questions for shop owners, estimators, machinists, and engineers:

1. How often do you get RFQs that are too incomplete to quote?
2. What information is most commonly missing?
3. Would a guided intake form/chat on your website help, or would customers avoid using it?
4. Is a “quote readiness” summary useful, or just noise?
5. Would an automatically generated .STEP prototype be useful for communication, or would that create more risk/confusion?
6. What would this need to do for you to actually use it?
7. Would you pay for something like this if it saved estimator/engineering time?

I’m especially interested in criticism. If this sounds like a bad idea, I’d like to understand why.

Thanks!

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I am trying to help the small shop where my dad works research this CNC DAEWOO 10HC FANUC O-T. It's been sitting for a few years. My guess is the battery is bad and will need to have the parameters reconfigured. I'm in IT sysadmin/cybersecurity) and know my way around a computer but wanted to get everyone's take on how difficult it may be to revive this.

The shop owner didn't get any documentation with the machine when it was purchased. My guess is the parameter manual would have been part of such documentation.

Supposing the battery is replaced how easy would it be to get that parameter sheet?

Thanks in Advance for any assistance.

[Siemens 840D]

There is an, by the manufacturer programmed, alarm that activates on a specific trigger. If the trigger is gone the machine moves according the program but the alarm message stays visible on the HMI.

On this specific event I want to trigger a subprogram to write $AC_PARAM variables to a file so the values in these variables does not get lost after the necessary reset before we can start again.

I modified the PLC so that there is an $A_DBD variable that gets assigned a value when the alarm is triggered. I use this variable to check for the alarm and to check functionality I have written a value to an R parameter when the variable changes. However, if I replace the R parameter for a subprogram the machine does nog execute this subprogram and says it's not possible.

Is there a different approach to solve this?