How many people here have access to or own their own a CNC?

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So I bring this up because I’m helping out with a one piece CNC pulley for the Kegel and Flywheel for a group buy and I was considering making another series for these as well, for those who would like to CNC their own pulley’s out of aluminium/stainless steel, nylon, exotic hardwood or whatever material.

Could also make it so the portion that gets inserted is it’s own component and the pulley portion is inter changeable. I wouldnt get a chance to do this until after the semester and exams are over, Dec 16th and onward, but if it’s something people could actually use and do themselves or send off the files for CNCing then I’m down to create the series for the kegel, flywheel cores and the 107s.

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If I had the access I was thinking of a aluminium inner core for what ever wheel and then abs or pla plastic adaptor for the belt which should just bolt to the inner core but I only have a 3D printer no cnc. Would allow nice sturdy bolt hold on the wheels and then a softer wearing pulley and cheaper than a new aluminium pulley all the time.

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I have a CNC at home. Maybe make a poll?

i have an x-carve, but i’ve only used it on wood so far. I keep meaning to tweak it for aluminum, i have the info to do it i just haven’t yet.

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I cut denser steel with my x-carve a month back with great results.

I used this bit:

With a feed rate of 500 mm/min, plunge rate of 228.6 mm/min, and Depth Per Pass of 0.1 mm

I was able to cut a tool I need to press the small bearing off of @hummies motors. it was a 10mm thick piece of steel.

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So a few people have them, I didn’t think they be common to begin with but okay. How would you rate the X carve overall? I have liked it for a while but I just don’t know how if it’s actually very practical in many applications. I do like to woodwork once in a while though so I was thinking later on in a few years possibly getting one.

Im fairly happy with my xcarve. I used it for wood, plastic and alum. I have it modded quite a bit with stiff mods, aluminium t slot bed, etc. Now, if you’re really going to be cutting a ton of metal you might be better off with a small cnc mill like the one @chaka bought.

@chaka Is a small CNC mill even on the same price point as an x carve?

Close, but of course a bit pricier. But the difference is HUGE, comparing a vertical mill to a gantry style router is like comparing a bicycle to a 4x4 lol

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I’ve seen a small mill for about $1000 and then figure $200-400 to mod into a cnc with steppers + ramps its pretty comparable to an xcarve price but with real precision/speed… i think this is something like what ollin is using… https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_category.php?category=1387807683

I also started another redesign of the flywheel pulley because I was thinking of looking into forged aluminum. it would cheaper to mass produce and stronger than cnc’d…

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I was just drooling over the Nomad 883 Pro Desktop CNC. Perfect device for our needs. I wish I could afford to have this in my garage.

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We’ve got a 3-axis CNC VMC. Plus a knee mill, lathe, 3D printer, laser cutter, etc…

I made one-piece aluminum pulleys for genuine Abec 11 wheels. Kegels would have been even easier

I own a xcarve and use with aluminum but mostly 2.5D parts like motor mounts. @JuniorPotato93 give it a try at developing your idea and I think some of us can come with a way to build it :slight_smile:

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My university has a few very nice cnc machines (the one I’ve used is a 5 axis beast that takes up a small room) that I can pretty much use at will.

Overall, I’m quite happy with my x-carve. I thought I was going to use it more than I do now, as my methods of creating boards have changed quite a bit. But it can still be useful at times. Now I just need a 3d printer… With a cnc and 3d printer, the world is your limit :slight_smile:

You will quickly find out that they become symbiotes lol! You start printing parts for the xcarve and cutting parts for the 3d printer, never ending loop!

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Haha that sounds awesome. Soon enough I will get my hands on a 3D printer.

But I don’t regret buying the x-carve in the least. It is accurate enough to do almost anything I need from it. There’s just some things that are better 3D printed instead of carved.

I have a cnc milling machein and some regular mills and a leathe.

I have an Xcarve as well just like LHB and have used it with some pretty thick aluminum. made some mountain board mounts as seen here:

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I do. > http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-CNC-Router-Engraver-Milling-Machine-Engraving-Drilling-3-Axis-3020-Desktop-/121547655589

Mostly do fiberglass plates but starting to mess with aluminum. 200W is really marginal for metal.

BTW, I’m currently upgrading the stock brushed motor to a hobby grade 1200W inrunner brushless motor.