Friday, January 28, 2011

Decisions, decisions

The CNC book arrived quicker than I expected. It was a fun read, flipping through the pages and figuring out the design mechanics. That got me started on a lot more reading and Googling. Turns out there are actually a lot of different DIY CNC plans floating around the internet, and whole forums dedicated to their construction!

To summarize an entire evening of Googling and reading into the wee late hours, I stumbled upon the Solsylva CNC plan site, and purchased a set of plans for the Solsylva 25x25 CNC machine. This came in the form of a very large PDF file filled with great-looking instructions and plans for what seems to be a very solid looking machine. It was basically between the Solsylva and the "book" machine, and what it came down to for me was that I was far more comfortable working with dimensional lumber than drilling countless bore holes into pieces of MDF. That's just personal opinion.

Of course at this point everything is still very theoretical. I've done a lot of reading but haven't actually, you know, built anything yet...

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

DIY CNC?

I haven't posted much to the blog because I promised myself I wouldn't be that guy who always posts "sorry I haven't posted to the blog" posts. There just isn't that much to talk about.

This week, however, I started making the first steps down a road that could potentially be worth blogging about:

I want to build a CNC machine.

This is possibly the biggest impulse "I want it!" I have ever had, besides this and this. I stumbled on MAKE magazine and saw a feature article about some guys that published a book about how to make your own CNC machine using little more than MDF boards and aluminum angle. It all just clicked. Woodworking, robotics, motors, computer control: it's all there!

I promised my camp colleagues that I would create a bunch of signs around the campsite. I had previously looked for router letter templates or instructions on how to route the signs freehand. With my own CNC machine, I could just program the design into a CAD/CAM package and let it rip!

But really, that's just a justification. I already know I want to do this. It's a great excuse to get my hands dirty again. I've always loved playing with electronics. I had one of those Radio Shack project kits with the sproingy terminals that showed you how to create, like magic, your own radio, or sound maker. As a kid I had all kinds of designs for robots I was going to build -- one day. In high school I sketched out a schematic for a Z80 based computer -- from scratch. I built my own digital clock, one chip at a time, on a breadboard in first year university -- just for fun. My fourth-year project in university was a pan/tilt camera controller for a robotic vehicle. But I haven't touched any of that stuff since then -- 10 years ago.

It's time to get busy again! I've already ordered the book.