Homebuilt CNC in Tokyo

[Milland]

beryllium structure, etc etc.

Oh yeah, lots of surplus Be left over from the A-bomb work...

[cough]

 

[EmGo]

Oh yeah, lots of surplus Be left over from the A-bomb work...

[cough]

Had to toss that in, it's a fantasy daydream of mine But the intended point was, if he were doing something interesting and advanced (screw them hiwin linears, let's do hydrodynamic box ways !), this could be a good topic. Yet Another Hobby Gantry Mill, less so.

btw, what did happen to the metal-matrix-composites thing ? That was all the rage a few (geologically speaking) years ago ...

 

[Orange Vise]

I making this thread so that I can keep tangential discussion about the CNC I am building out of more specific threads where I'm asking for targeted help (and am trying to keep everyone from getting side tracked.) If this is the wrong place to put it, let me know and I will recreate this in the proper location.

IMO your best bet is to document your entire build but wait until it's completed, and then post everything all at once in a new thread. In-progress build threads tend to get cluttered very quickly and the actual content gets lost in the fray. Not to mention, a lot of CNC builds never get completed and it's a tease to those who are actually paying attention.

The challenge of doing all this in metropolitan Tokyo offers a nice twist to the story. I'd encourage [a lot] more info and photos with regards to your locale.

 

[Milland]

btw, what did happen to the metal-matrix-composites thing ? That was all the rage a few (geologically speaking) years ago ...

It's out there, just pricey at puck, hard on tooling, more difficult to control mixture homogeneity than other structural options, etc.

[Old man hat on} I made some Al/Al2O3 particulate tensile specimens for a Material Science student ages ago when I was still a space-science tech at the 'Tech. I did have to show her that the extensometer grips went into the nice, purpose-made grooves in the threaded section of the sample, not clamped to the tensile test diameter...

 

[Vancbiker]

Oh yeah, lots of surplus Be left over from the A-bomb work...

[cough]

The A-bomb reference makes me think of the days when a moderator would have nuked this thread before it was more than 5 posts long. The downhill slide continues.......

 

[EmGo]

The downhill slide continues.......

There is a life cycle to internet forums. After you have exhausted every way possible to discuss double-start left-hand 7 pitch acme threads, what's left but a-bombs and hobby gantries ?

Such is life

 

[bastarddsm]

Telling people to discuss it at another website seems a little too hostile, but I will abide by the moderators wishes if they so instruct me.

9/10 times he's a jerk. Regardless, do whatever you can to make it as stiff as possible.

 

[Milland]

The A-bomb reference makes me think of the days when a moderator would have nuked this thread before it was more than 5 posts long. The downhill slide continues.......

Que? It's a factual reference, what's your issue?

 

[Bakafish]

As I said before, my main point for this thread was to try and keep another thread 'on topic' as I was trying to get some scraping advice from Mr. R. King, and suspected that the good natured interest in the overall project was distracting from the question itself, so I wanted to spin up a more appropriate thread for that. I can totally understand why keeping this forum isolated to 'factory built' and truly industrial machines would make sense, I should have read through the existing posts better, the forum rules didn't seem to preclude this kind of post.

As I hinted earlier, Mr. King somehow decided I'm a specific troll of his posing under another name as I "go on and on" in my writings and am "married to an asian lady." He then blocked me. So help from that quarter seems unforthcoming, although I did receive some helpful advice from others. Never meet your heroes I guess...

As for this thread, I'd request the moderator to just lock it so it can die a gentle death. I have a much more extensive documentation of the various challenges and idiosyncrasies of being a home machinist/DIYer in Japan on Garage Journal if anyone is interested in long winded prose (and better pictures.) I also go into depth on strange zoning laws and miraculous toilets.

Anyway, this isn't goodbye cruel world, I appreciate all the support and will be posting more focused questions more appropriately, thanks again.

 

[Vancbiker]

Que? It's a factual reference, what's your issue?

Locking/nuking threads on machines of this sort used to be quick and appreciated. That this forum used to focus on quality machine tools was its strong point. The forums that have all the retrofit knee mills and diy routers are swamped with posts by blue sky dreamers. Great place for them so that folks with discussions about quality machines could hang out here and avoid all the chatter.

 

[EmGo]

Locking/nuking threads on machines of this sort used to be quick and appreciated.

I guess so but that Haas Office Mill thing ? That started out at twelve five or something, considered a toy, but then people doing tiny work found it so now Haas gets $50,000 plus ? For the same machine ?

Amatoors really could make something like that. In fact, you could make something better (without having to go to beryllium).

I'd like to see that. If'n I wuz younger ...

 

[Milland]

Locking/nuking threads on machines of this sort used to be quick and appreciated. That this forum used to focus on quality machine tools was its strong point. The forums that have all the retrofit knee mills and diy routers are swamped with posts by blue sky dreamers. Great place for them so that folks with discussions about quality machines could hang out here and avoid all the chatter.

Ok, I get your general issue. But on this site we also have a (now long ongoing) thread on a guy using a wobbly drill press to drill a hole through a steel tube and being unhappy about the burrs on breakout.

We also have threads on fridges, dugout "hide from the tax man" shelters, flour mills (as in, baking flour), truck power steering lines, etc., etc.

This guy is using properly sized components, including ground ballscrews, not the 16mm rolled "ballscrew-like-devices" of many home-brew gantries. And he's a (claimed) engineer, not just a dreamer.

I'd much rather see threads like this than many of the others. So while I appreciate your point, it's not aimed correctly. And I hope mister Dumbfish will actually keep this thread alive, I'm curious how he does.

 

[Big B]

You're living in the past. Doesn't work that way no more.

Besides, what kind of mad scientist doesn't have giant knife switches that dim the lights in his house when he puts power to the monster ? Pfffft.

So far, not going in a particularly advanced direction. I could ship him a complete machine that's about what he's describing (less the laptop for the control) for a grand. Maybe $50 shipping.

That's kinda where this is going, a tabletop toy.

Have to think that a really nice tabletop toy would be an interesting discussion tho. Could start with epoxy granite base, linear motors, beryllium structure, etc etc.

Pretty much what I was thinking. Why not just buy a desktop cnc router?

 

[Milland]

Pretty much what I was thinking. Why not just buy a desktop cnc router?

Because he's specing with much higher quality/sized components than what you find on Alibubba DTR's. If he follows through it shouldn't be compared....

 

[EmGo]

Because he's specing with much higher quality/sized components than what you find on Alibubba DTR's. If he follows through it shouldn't be compared....

His stuff is basically what I've seen for a grand at various tool shows. You have to supply a laptop for the OS but otherwise, similar quality.

I think a hobbyist on such a small machine could really design and build a very nice mill, but not starting out with an old surface plate and some aluminum extrusions. That'd be a fun conversation (to me, anyhow).

 

[Big B]

Because he's specing with much higher quality/sized components than what you find on Alibubba DTR's. If he follows through it shouldn't be compared....

After reading your last post I agree that he should keep going and post the build. With the fact that he's doing it in Japan in a small apartment that makes it more interesting and maybe he can bring the cnc router technology up a notch too.

 

[EmGo]

... maybe he can bring the cnc router technology up a notch too.

I doubt it. There's a sign store about every three blocks in any Chinese city and they all have routers for making plastic signs. Give them a pdf and a size and get your sign in a few days (mill the text and graphics, chamfer the edges, put a colored backing layer behind, looks nice.)

I was shocked at the quality, for a very reasonable price. The machines look a bit funky but definitely sturdy and do a great job. And they don't cost that much.

 

[Bakafish]

Because he's specing with much higher quality/sized components than what you find on Alibubba DTR's. If he follows through it shouldn't be compared....

And I'm in JAPAN, which I tried to make quite clear. Even if there was a cost effective way to ship a commodity unit from the states (because I assure you there are no competitive machines made locally) I would still have to deal with the power requirements and incompatibilities of our voltage standards. All parts and warranty support would be weeks or months away and via expensive international shipping and quixotic customs and import duties.

Yes there are "real" industrial machines made here, fantastic ones you may be operating in your own shops, but I assure you the price we pay locally is far far far more than they sell the same exact machines for in a competitive environment like the states. I could literally reverse import one, pay for shipping and tariffs and pay half the price. They of course would refuse to support it and refuse to sell me any parts, and it could never be resold (not that we have a viable used equipment market anyway.)

Japanese have a completely incurious "just the cost of business" attitude which combined with an support level expectation that you would never understand, that makes them never look outside the country for products and makes everything here incredibly expensive. Like many cultural idiosyncrasies you would not understand unless you lived here and deeply involved in these industries. Oh, and they are all 3-phase, which will never happen in a residential building.

I'm building this because I have few other choices unless I want to fully commit $50-100k on a machine for a business that doesn't yet exist. I'm not going to pay $5k for a domestic toy that can barely cut aluminum, and I'm not going to pay thousands to ship a US machine that has limited support and I have to rebuild to reach my goals anyway. I'm pretty sure I'm not an idiot, despite the name, and weighed my options carefully before deciding to undertake the difficult path of building it myself.

 

[Bakafish]

After reading your last post I agree that he should keep going and post the build. With the fact that he's doing it in Japan in a small apartment that makes it more interesting and maybe he can bring the cnc router technology up a notch too.

I actually am lucky enough to own my home, which is considered quite large by Tokyo standards, but is likely much smaller than some of your garages. You get used to living small, but for things like this it can really make things challenging.

But clearly this is not the right place to document such a build, although I will absolutely be documenting it elsewhere as indicated above.

 

[triumph406]

Locking/nuking threads on machines of this sort used to be quick and appreciated. That this forum used to focus on quality machine tools was its strong point. The forums that have all the retrofit knee mills and diy routers are swamped with posts by blue sky dreamers. Great place for them so that folks with discussions about quality machines could hang out here and avoid all the chatter.

Why don't you complain about the plethora of OT threads that Milland pointed out? Why this one?

Evidently those meandering threads don't offend your sensibilities, but this one does? don't understand.

If you don't think a post or thread is appropriate, ignore it, move on.