r/CNC

I'm just curious... Anyone else out there purchase airweights vacuum table systems and absolutely regret wasting their money? I hate this system, I've wasted so much time trying to make things work (while emailing and having phone calls with AW) and it's just costing me production time and ruined parts.

While I have a 5x10 CNC, I've been using just the 4x4 size or as a 2x8 size at times. Now I'm researching pumps I can support in my shop (single phase) to just do a proper table.

i want to make a cnc machine not for cutting but for other purpose but it has the same structure as the cutting machine with some changes, i wanted to start in the design, but i dont which program should i use, i dont know much about mechanical designing but i have a little knowledge on 3d modeling, So i will need some tutorials online (free), so what do u guys think is better and easier?

Hello, I’m not sure if this is the right subreddit to post this in, but oh well, (i also posted this same thing in the hobby cnc subreddit)

I’ve been looking for a CNC router mainly for robotics use and maybe as a way to make money selling stuff. I’d like to use it to cut plates and other parts out of wood, polycarbonate, nylon, abs and aluminum.

I was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace and this CNC router popped up. It seemed like it could be a pretty good deal and would fit within my budget:

CCNC router - Routers - Albert Lea, Minnesota | Facebook Marketplace | Facebook

I don’t really have a specific budget since I was just browsing Marketplace, but if I had to put a number on it, I’d probably like to keep the total cost of the project under $1,000.

The machine is currently listed for $500, but it was originally listed for $800. Since it is unfinished and been listed for a little bit, I was thinking about offering around $350–450 for it.

I’m wondering if this would be worth buying and finishing to get running, or if I should just save up and buy a newer machine. I’m just a high school student, so I don’t have a huge budget to spend and don't have much experience. This machine possibly seems like a pretty good deal compared to a lot of the other used and new options I’ve seen. (but idk much about cnc routers and stuff)

I don’t know a ton about CNC routers yet, so I’d appreciate any advice on whether this seems worth picking up, what I should look out for, and what it would take to get it running.

The seller said it should have everything needed to get it running. I don’t think any cutting bits are included, though, and I’m not sure if it has all the collets I would need. If I end up buying it, I’ll ask if they have any bits or other accessories they could throw in. When i asked the seller if it would come with every thing to get running, he said it should have everything except r20 collets 1/8, 1/4, 1/2. (but he said he might be able to find some)

I do have some people who could help me with it. I’m involved in FRC robotics at my school, so I have some friends on the team who have experience with CNC machines and could help me get it set up and running.

I also have some CAD experience from robotics and 3D printing. I’m pretty comfortable modeling parts, but I don’t know much about CNC CAM software. The most CAM software I’ve used is a pretty basic PlasmaCAM program for our school’s plasma table. I also tried using VCarve with our school's woodshops large CNC router to cut some plates for our robot, but I had trouble getting it to work properly with the files I was importing from On shape. For CAM software like what would i need, do i need a dedicated computer to run the cnc/cam and would like using Onshape CAM or Fusion CAM work or would i nee another program?

So, I’m mostly wondering if this machine would be a good enough starting point for someone who is willing to learn, or if I’d be better off saving up for something newer.

Thanks in advance.

Hello fellow CNC folks. I've got a question for anyone that is willing to read and contribute. I've been programming for about 10 years now in Mastercam, and I've come across something that has me wishing for more options. That's where you guys come in - I may be missing something that is completely obvious. Pictured are 3 different toolpath options I have for a guitar neck. For context, I'm using a 1.5" ball endmill on a 3 head FAGOR router. I have seen people run guitar necks with parallel passes perpendicular to the neck, but that is not an option in this case. The goal is an efficient toolpath with minimal lifting, and a surface finish that requires light sanding. This is a production environment, so the lower the run time the better. Let me know what y'all think. Additional context in each photo

Edit: I forgot to mention that the first two phots are Raster paths.

This is two toolpaths - one for each half of the neck angled at 0.875 degrees to follow the taper of the sides. This gives the ideal surface finish but includes a lot of lifting in the center of the neck. Ideally there would be a toolpath that could achieve this result by selecting the full neck, adjusting the outside angle on both sides and stitch together the center without lifting. The last photo achieves this with a scallop path, but additional context there on why that path is not an option. The old school guys here would program half the neck, save the path as wireframe, mirror it and stitch the center together by hand. Ideally, I don't need to do that...

This is one toolpath with the whole neck selected running parallel to the center line of the neck. Since there is a taper on the sides, all of the lifting moves to the edges. This looks great toward the center of the neck but leaves less than desirable results on the sides that would require heavier sanding.

This scallop path is my ideal choice. One entry, no lifts and follows the taper on both sides. Unfortunately, the machine this is running on is a FAGOR router and is unable to achieve an ideal surface finish with this path. As the tool runs down the neck on one side and up the neck on the other, it leaves a hump right in the center where the two halves meet. There is about 0.002 if backlash in all axes on this machine that I have to navigate around, so this ideal scenario is not an option.