Used CNC Machine Prices Skyrocket Despite Economy

Came across an interesting article on Practical Machinist talking about how hight the prices on CNC machines have gotten. It’s interesting to puzzle it out. The posters seem to feel that shops are busy right now, and there is a real shortage of new machines available, so the used ones are fetching a premium right now. There is also a sense of lots of new small shops are cranking up.

If this is all true, then things are good for manufacturing right now, despite the number of people still out of jobs and the problems in other segments. Of course there is also a bit of a feeling that the machine tool manufacturers are very leery of having much inventory after having gotten over extended in 2008. They may be keeping a whole lot less inventory on hand and building as orders come in, which would also slow things down and create a certain amount of artificial scarcity.

If you don’t read Practical Machinist, check it out. There’s always something interesting going on over there!… Read the rest

G-Wizard Editor is getting Markers on the Backplot and a lot of other cool features!

We’ve added a lot of new features in the latest release of G-Wizard Editor and Simulator (that would be release 0.400), so I wanted to share some with you.

First up, we’ve added Markers to the backplot:

Markers show where the g-code starts, where it ends, and the position of the currently highlighted line of g-code.

Got a little bug where it’s showing 2 markers for the current g-code line!

I’ve outlined the markers in red so you can see them in the screenshot above. The g-code program drops down to X0Y0Z0 and then draws three sides of a square. You can see there are three markers. The first is a red down arrow marked “Start”. It shows where the g-code begins. Along with the “Start” marker we have a green up arrow marking the end of the g-code. Lastly, in while is a marker for whatever line of g-code is currently highlighted over on the text side. You can move the text cursor around and quickly see what part of the backplot corresponds to that g-code.

The markers always say the same, relatively small size.… Read the rest

A Tale of Two Crankshafts: 4th Axis Machining Videos

I came across these two videos by accident while researching something else, but they’re interesting. Crankshafts seem like the poster children of less-than-obvious machining work, so here are two different examples at radically different scales and costs of how to go about it.

First up is a German Golmatic CNC mill being used to machine the crankshaft for a model of a Boxer 6 cylinder engine:

Machining a crankshaft with a 4th axis…

I couldn’t find any more information on this interesting project, so I don’t know if the engine was ever completed or not. Perhaps a reader knows and can pass along a link to the overall project. I really enjoyed this 4th axis work, and found several intriguing aspects to the video. Perhaps the most interesting was how the throws were done via eccentric workholding rather than by g-code. I’m very curious whether this was thought to have some advantage or whether the CAM software being used was just not up to the task otherwise.

While looking at the video of a hobbyist’s project for a model engine, I thought it would be fun to see a professional’s job for a real engine.… Read the rest

CNC for Knife Makers

John Grimsmo is a G-Wizard trial user who recently sent me links to his blog and YouTube video channel. Some very cool stuff up there for folks who’d like to be making custom knives with their CNC’s. That’s a project I hope to get to at some point (never enough time!). Anyway, here is a composite video showing a bunch of the steps for a set of custom aluminum scales (the handles of a knife):

Custom knife scales with a hobby CNC…

John’s machine is a nice straightforward conversion–the kind that isn’t too costly and is within the reach of most any hobbyist. His work shows off what’s possible with these kinds of machines. My one critique for others who’d like to emulate John’s work would be to use a collet chuck instead of a drill chuck for the cutters. Drill chucks are dangerous because they’ll come off the taper with much side force and they will also have more runout making for a rougher finish.

You gotta love the work though!… Read the rest

CNC for Knife Makers

John Grimsmo is a G-Wizard trial user who recently sent me links to his blog and YouTube video channel. Some very cool stuff up there for folks who’d like to be making custom knives with their CNC’s. That’s a project I hope to get to at some point (never enough time!). Anyway, here is a composite video showing a bunch of the steps for a set of custom aluminum scales (the handles of a knife):

Custom knife scales with a hobby CNC…

John’s machine is a nice straightforward conversion–the kind that isn’t too costly and is within the reach of most any hobbyist. His work shows off what’s possible with these kinds of machines. My one critique for others who’d like to emulate John’s work would be to use a collet chuck instead of a drill chuck for the cutters. Drill chucks are dangerous because they’ll come off the taper with much side force and they will also have more runout making for a rougher finish.

You gotta love the work though!… Read the rest

One More for CNC Knife Makers: 3 Color Anodizing + Vinyl Cutting Drag Knife

Some great stuff in this John Grimsmo video on 3 color anoziding. He uses vinyl stickers cut with a shopmade ball bearing drag knife to do the masking:

3 Color Anodizing…

One of these days I need to set up an anodizing line and play with the results!… Read the rest

Good News: Flash Player 11 is Out. Please Upgrade!

Adobe has shipped a new version of Flash Player, FP 11. That’s great news for G-Wizard Editor as FP 11 provides direct access to your computer’s graphics card, which makes graphics code up to 1000x faster. GWE does a whole lot more than just graphics, but this will really help GWE’s backplot to be smoother and faster. Of course, there are some things that have to happen first. Specifically, I have to do some major updating on GWE’s backplotter code to make use of the newfound power.

Unfortunately, once I make that upgrade, GWE will only work with FP 11 or later–FP 10 stops working. Rather than inconvenience very many of you who may be a tad slow to upgrade, I must therefore wait until the audience of FP 11 users is large enough before I make the change. The way I intend to do that is by monitoring visitors to my web site. Google Analytics tells me which versions of Flash my visitors have installed. Just this weekend, FP 11 was the second most popular version, with around 21% of users.… Read the rest

CNCCookbook will be getting a Kindle Fire

Without too much thought, I ordered a Kindle Fire from Amazon. Why? The price point was compelling. At $199, this is the best deal on an Android Tablet that I have seen–$100 less than the nearest other competitor. True, the screen is much smaller than Apple’s $500 iPad (7″ vs 10″), but that’s also a selling point for me. I have an iPad, and I’m interested in exploring how well the G-Wizard Calculator will work on tablets. Having both the iOS iPad at 10″ and the Android Kindle Fire at 7″ lets me check out both two different platforms (iOS vs Android) and two different screen sizes. This will help me to ensure that any products developed for these devices will have a screen layout that makes sense on a variety of other devices.

I’ve had a lot of customers ask whether I can make G-Wizard work on their iPhone or Android Phone. While it is possible, it would require a huge amount of work. Making everything fit on the tiny screen of a phone essentially requires a complete rewrite of the user interface.… Read the rest

Have Your Tried Additive Machining? The Ideal Harmonic Transformer

I’ve been fascinated for a long time with articles about the world of Additive Machining. In this approach, materials are added to make a part as opposed to conventional machining which removes material by turning it into chips. Recently, I found this beautiful project to build an “Ideal Harmonic Transformer”, which is essentially a mechanical analog computer for trig functions. Long time readers will be familiar with my obsession with astronomical analog computers in the form of elaborate clocks with orerries that show the position of heavenly bodies in the night sky. I like a number of things about this project. It is an interesting project for starters, at least given my interests. It has a wonderful Victorian aesthetic that shows that machines need not be simply a matter of function, they can also be things of beauty and ornamentation.

Lastly, I think this project shows how powerful additive machining can be. I wouldn’t trade my lathe and mill in for a reprap machine, but I would definitely like to add a 3D extruder to my arsenal of tools. Click through the link above for more on the project.… Read the rest