C’mon… Is this real?
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Did I black out and wake up on Reddit?
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If nothing else, this thread made me seriously consider radial arm saws at the local auction. They are cheap (maybe for “reasons”). 
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I have 2 radial arm saws if anyone is looking for one
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Come on guys. @CNCNewbie is engaging in a serious discussion. Are the sarcastic comments really adding to the discussion?
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Just some more thoughts:
Not so sure about that. There were moulders around a long time ago. Basically a device with a spinning thingie in it, mounted in a table like structure. Just another name for it.
Which is fine. If you feel that’s what you want to do, do it. But it is not a use case by the manufacturer of the CNC and therefore you’ll be very likely on your own when it comes to insurance claims etc. It won’t matter how many people thought it was a good / bad idea.
I feel the drill press and chisel are the right tool, your argument is just about convenience / comfort in this case.
A CNC is intended to move. Anything that moves will be less rigid than something that does not.
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Agree the thread may have gotten a little bit off track and mostly I hope you do not feel like this community is a bad one because for the most part I’ve found it to be very supportive and helpful.
To be transparent with you I’ll share that I’ve also had this thought cross my mind when I first got my Shapeoko Pro however in the end I decided against it which is why I suggested not to pursue the idea. That said instead of just suggesting against the idea I’ll share why I had personally opted not to pursue the idea and maybe you can consider this into the thought process if you decide to carry on.
I considered the spindle to be a high RPM/torque device and in past work experience I’ve worked near high RPM/Torque (mining and exploration) and have huge respect and caution around anything that moves in this way. I’ve seen people with loose clothing get caught and pulled into such things ultimately getting mangled pretty badly. This is why I like seeing safety guards and limit getting things like my hands close to such machines.
When safety guards are not possible then I consider the work envelope the machine operates in. Agree a workshop is full of these type of things but most are either static or operate in 1 or 2 axis. For me this is where the CNC machine differs form a drill press, router table, miter saw, etc… and likely why Shapeoko like most/all CNC manufacturers will strongly advise against putting limbs/hands within the working envelope of the machine while in operation. So if the controller is driving a program or the spindle is just turned to push stock through the spindle my hands/arms are likely going to be in this space. I could not predict everything and accidents can always happen but with most of these machines I control how I operate them and can put my limbs/hands in locations that if it will grab my stock or the machine becomes dynamic under it’s own power (ie. mitter saw), although scary hopefully my hands will not be pulled into the moving/spinning parts or the machine will not move in a direction where I am in the way. As for my Shapeoko it operates in 3D space which means if the static spindle/router (static because of stepper motors are holding it in place vs screws/bolts) then I could not predict how or where it would move if it somehow became a dynamic object.
For example when driving the machine using the controller you control the feeds and speeds, tool engagement, etc… with the high precision the machine is capable of which you’ve already pointed out. However when hand feeding stock I could not be as precise and would be manually push material through the machine and possibly losing steps possibly making it go dynamic moving unpredictably within the work envelop of the machine. Although I think lost steps wouldn’t necessarily send my spindle flying to the end of an X, Y, Z axis uncontrollably is would still end up with wasting my stock/project. That said I’m more concerned with the circuit my controller is on (stepper drivers) tripping while my spindle breaker is still live. This last scenario is super scary to me because the steppers would then offer zero resistance allowing the spindle to move unpredictably in any direction (X, Y, Z). This meant if I was to pursue this idea I would have ended up figuring out a way to secure/lock the spindle in place essentially making it static like in a router table. Also in doing so would I cause any premature wear and tear on my linear rails (or v-wheels) depending on the how this would be done (ie. pressure perpendicular to rails/axis thus my linear rails). So for me I would have to lock the spindle in place which meant to make any fine adjustments on the fly I’d have to turn everything off, remove or loosen whatever locking/blocking I’d use on the spindle to hold it in place and so on (EDIT: Locking the X,Y,Z axis using some blocks/fastners).
In my application this would have been to cut a profile down a straight edge so instead I opted to use a long fence which I align against the left Y-axis (aluminum extrusion) and milled the other side with the Shapeoko. I then position my stock against this fence and run my gcode/macro which drops the Z-height where I want it (Z-Zero set before running the program) and comes into my stock from the side and then runs front to back as many times as needed. Once the program is done running I then slide my stock back, secure it in place and rerun the same program until I get the full length done.
That said for my use case I found using the fence and sliding my stock back and running the program as many times as needed met my needs (edit: while keeping my hands outside of the machine work envelope while in operation ← this includes spindle on). If this does not work for you I agree the world needs inventors so if you pursue this idea which in the end is entirely up to you then I’d like to hear about how you “would” do it.
Final comment in the end I was simply answering the following from your original post.
The price of this router table is way cheaper than the price of an emergency room visit.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-Universal-Router-Table-A25RT03/300234859
Use your CNC router to cutout an adapter to attach your spindle to a table, and be done. Your fingers will thank you for it.
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Hi everyone,
I think we can all agree not to beat a dead horse, I’ll close the topic now.
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