I have been having a look at Design and Makes CraftCNC and thought it would be a great side project as I have a Proxxon (German version of the Dremel). I thought it would be nice to have a small unit to play with to expand my skills without having to go the the workshop to do it.
I just got a price for cutting the 10mm parts in acrylic for which the dxf is set for a 600 x 400 laser. Would you believe they wanted $NZ265 for just those 2 sheets cut and there would be more for the other 8 sheets in 3mm and 5mm. At that rate it would be close to the cost of an S3 by the time I have printed the 3d parts as well.
At this stage the project is on the back burner unless I can get the dxfs converted to cut on the S3 - beyond my skill at this stage.
I am following the project on the Vectric site as there seems to be a few folks interested in the idea and one who has a build underway.
Maybe one day I can fit a Laser to the S3 and at current rates make my fortune:wink:
The DXFs should load pretty much automatically. If they don’t, please send them in to support@carbide3d.com and we’ll do our best to help you with it.
Thanks Will but its not the loading but the changes required to be able to cut them on the S3 - they are drawn for a laser cutter. If I just cut them with an end mill I won’t be able to get the square corners and the spacing of the individual parts probably don’t leave room for tabs using an end mill.
Once I get my S3 running and am a bit more confident I’ll see what is involved in changes to make them capable of being cut on the CNC instead of the laser…unless someone beats me to it and puts them on CutRocket:wink:
The files themself are available free on the Design & Make website - both for the laser cut acrylic and the 3d printed parts.
Bought all of the bits for it (stepper, webcam, mdf, etc) before I had much of a clue. The laser cutter I had intended on using (local Makerspace thing) died, so I needed to get creative.
Recreated the models from scratch using the CAD program I was into at the time, suitable for cutting on the S3 (eg dog bone holes on things). After going through all of that… it turns out the software for running the Fabscan didn’t actually work (grrr!), and the hardware design itself was terrible.
That being said, going through the exercise from start to finish (minus working software) was good for learning and practising, so it wasn’t a waste from that point of view. You’ll probably gain useful practise from your challenge here too.
It will be a while before I get good enough to tackle anything complex. I have to learn Carbide Create, Inkscape, and Vcarve in the coming days/weeks/months as well as keep my wife happy by doing the chores she has lined up.
Gotta get a few done today so that I can get on to tramming my S3 this evening.
I have now retired TWICE and am back at work again 2 days a week…why did I do that??? They say madness is hereditary… you catch it from your kids
