alt Hacker NewsI went Yak shaving.
For my 3D audio project I need an affordable way to make plastic cases. I felt like injection molding services are way overpriced, so I decided to make the molds in-house. Turns out, CNC milling is overpriced, too. As are 5 axis CNC mills. So in the end, we built our own CNC machine.
And like these things always go, I found an EMI issue with my power supply and a USB compliance bug in the off-the-shelf stepper control board. But it all turned out OK in the end so we now have the first mold tool that was designed and machined fully in-house. And I learned so much about tool paths and drill bits. Plus it feels like now that everyone has experienced hands-on how stuff is milled, my team got a lot better at designing things for cheap manufacturing.
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There was something in this video about not being able to get moulds made in America:
That's a pretty big yak to shave! Building a 5 axis that gives good results a big task. How long did it take you to get that working?
Why do you need to make so many molds?
Would love to see your machine! Any pics or write up?
Great to get experience in CNC! I've been working on how to market my GatorCAM for CNC. So I'll give you a copy! 2 birds!
It is easy to select multiple holes/pockets at once so if you iterate, you don't spend time redoing CAM! It does traveling salesman to solve for efficient paths which even the expensive packages don't get right. Calculates v-bit paths too.
On me: https://sites.google.com/view/gatorcam/home