Additional equipment

I would love to make bigger, thicker things and have been considering adding a CNC carving/cutting machine to my GF. Been drooling over one that hasn’t come out yet and that I can never remember the name or manufacturer of…

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Good luck. I haven’t used my CNC router since I got the GF.

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Depending on what you want to do, don’t forget that the glowforge, thick draftboad or acrylic and a trim router will take you a long way.

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I happily use both. I have a Shapeoko (my second) and I find it incredibly useful for the area size and depth I can work with.

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I just purchased a Shapeoko 4 to supplement my GF.

Try making this on a GF…


Upcycled a Corian cutting board to a shower caddy.

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If you’re a lunatic, you can also make a pen holder and use the CNC to write the entire text of the Tao Te Ching, in the shape of a Yin/Yang with magic markers on a 30 inch square piece of GatorBoard.

But maybe that’s just a me thing… :crazy_face:

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I’ve got a OneFinity Journeyman (48" x 33" bed). But with tiling I can run infinitely long by 48" wide stuff in it. Lots of things I couldn’t touch with the GF like furniture, guitars, stone (soap stone carves very well with a router or spindle and carbide bits)…

Once you’ve got your CNC router, it’ll be time for metal - I have a CNC plasma for 2D work (& 3D thru bending and welding). My next metal adventure will be a CNC mill. I’m still thinking about a Tormach like doc’s but there have been a couple of new options out there for the hobbyist/pro-sumer market that might be the ticket. Just waiting to have the new shop space ready.

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Two layers of acrylic and weld-on. Two layers of bamboo with titebond III.

But I get your point :wink:

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This was a replacement for a two-layer acrylic tray as you described. It tended to grow mildew along the seam between the layers.

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:rofl:

You. Definitely you.

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Well, sounds like I’m going to have to try it once they decide that it’s definitely a tear in my meniscus and I survive the surgery.

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That much quality and effort deserves marble at the least. Though even now I am trying to figure out what of my precious varieties of woods deserves to be sacrificed as a proof of concept to the Magic Canvas (if we use it to simulate a carpet, will that make it a Magic Carpet? Carpet seems a much better upgrade than plain canvas.)

I’ve got a few different types of 3D printers, a 4-axis benchtop “knee mill” (like a big milling machine scaled down, the 4th axis lets me turn pieces so I can kind of use it like a lathe if I need to) that’s good for precision work and cutting metal, and a 3-axis “gantry” router type machine that’s good for larger workpieces like wood, plus of course, a Glowforge. (been jonesin’ for a Wazer water jet cutter, but the consumables are too much trouble to deal with as a hobbyist).

What do you want to make with a CNC? How much money do you want to spend on a CNC?

These are the two questions you must answer, first.

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I just got the same CNC. Haven’t had time to set it up, but hopefully in the next month I’ll start that learning curve…

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The good thing about this stuff is the same SVG files can be used on any of the machines with just the toolpathing being modified from one to the other. I often do a mockup (sometimes scaled down) on the GF with a project that I then bring into Sheetcam to path for cutting in steel or VCarve to do wood or plastic that exceed the GF’s abilities. A lot of design-once, cut-many across the machines.

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That’s very nice. What did you use for the cuts? I find cutting Corian to be very difficult on my Glowforge.

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I used a .25" upcut end mill for both the pocketing and the contour cuts.

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The only router I have at the moment is the Dremel attachment one.

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Keep an eye out at the home improvement stores. Sometimes you can pick one up for 60-70 bucks. Add a guide bit and a template made on the Glowforge and you are in business.

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I was looking to have something like that which would use my Flex shaft. I bought the Dremel one thinking it came with the motor but sent it back when it did not. The Dremel one can only use the Dremel motor.

I also got one of these…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XLGKG5N/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?pd_rd_i=B09XLGYHXH&pd_rd_w=pAg0H&content-id=amzn1.sym.d81b167d-1f9e-48b6-87d8-8aa5e473ea8c&pf_rd_p=d81b167d-1f9e-48b6-87d8-8aa5e473ea8c&pf_rd_r=G44KFB0EQCQ2KDX20GFJ&pd_rd_wg=M70u6&pd_rd_r=1f5613bd-454f-4155-968e-7c3d6ab0ed67&s=hi&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&smid=AGQ767B04WA76&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzU1ZVRVZYTUFDTTVYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjgyNjcxMjMwUFg2UDdOSU8wQyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTMwNTM3MlFIM09BTTJUWVVHOSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

Great for what it does, but limited.

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