- Joined
- Sep 28, 2022
- Messages
- 33
So I tend to approach things rather differently, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I look at a horse pulling a cart and ponder ways to have the cart before the horse because during the exercise you identify the problems others before you found out and avoided that scenario.
I weld but I am not a welder, I can operate a backhoe but I am not a backhoe operator, I can drive a semi trailer but I am not a semi trailer driver. I build hydraulic/air systems but am not a hydraulic/air specialist. Up to this point "plus or minus" an inch was close enough.
So I am slowly forcing my garage into a field I have not been before and "plus/minus an inch" left the building with Elvis.
I built my own plasma table which was great fun. I did a 2 foot by 2 foot knowing full well that the 2 foot by 2 foot would be used to cut the parts for a 4x4 foot.
I am in the process of a design and will document my screw ups here as I build it. But, thats not the reason for this post.
I was on ebay and I have been looking for a milling machine, so I can join the ranks of a guy operating a mill, but not a machinist. (That may come later)
I selected "ending soonest on Ebay's list of milling machines and found I was suddenly confronted with a Grizzly 0761 that had a bid of $1300 with 3 minutes to go. I immediately went into Tim the toolman Taylor mode and started walking around like an ape puffing up my chest and making the appropriate noises.
This mill was to be mine, no matter the cost and no matter the fact I had no idea how big it was. It was shiny, looked big, had steel filings laying around as if it did magic and thats all that mattered. I rushed in for the kill and won the mill. I never suffered buyers remorse because it was another stallion to be housed among the other horses that were pushing carts in my garage.
When it arrived, I had four of my fellow nuckle draggers in the garage with me. We took turns eyeing this mystical piece of man stuff uttering grunts of approval and pointing out the shiny stuff like it was kryptonite to superman! It sat in the center of the garage for 2 days as my fellow apes approached it causiously in fear it may be a spaceship from another planet and a trapdoor may open at any moment and an alien with long fingers may give us the middle one!
Once the shiny novelty thing wore off and the beer kicked in, my fellow primates started prodding this mysterious apparatus gaining confidence as the day wore on. It is now 4 days later and of course were all experts. The fact the wire thingy did not come with a plug seems to have temporarily stopped us but one of us occassional picks up the wire and makes motor sounds so were pretty sure we are heading in the right direction.
So by now you are probably wondering how we intend on moving on from this position. We are not foolish or foolhardy we know when releasing the beast it should be caged first. We will jam the raw ends of the wire into the electrical panel with a 10 foot pole to avoid the burning sparks that always ensue to see if we can supercede George of the Jungles simulated motor noises with real ones.
So for those that have done their own DIY milling machine Cage, (commonly referred to as a Beast enclosure, do you have any do's don'ts before caging the beast?
I will be adding NEMA42s etc to control the beast and the launch of stuff across the garage so will document the CNC part as I digress.We are a colored picture group only so don't confuse us with math unless its +/- an inch! Thanks for your time, have a GREEEEET DAY Mates!
I weld but I am not a welder, I can operate a backhoe but I am not a backhoe operator, I can drive a semi trailer but I am not a semi trailer driver. I build hydraulic/air systems but am not a hydraulic/air specialist. Up to this point "plus or minus" an inch was close enough.
So I am slowly forcing my garage into a field I have not been before and "plus/minus an inch" left the building with Elvis.
I built my own plasma table which was great fun. I did a 2 foot by 2 foot knowing full well that the 2 foot by 2 foot would be used to cut the parts for a 4x4 foot.
I am in the process of a design and will document my screw ups here as I build it. But, thats not the reason for this post.
I was on ebay and I have been looking for a milling machine, so I can join the ranks of a guy operating a mill, but not a machinist. (That may come later)
I selected "ending soonest on Ebay's list of milling machines and found I was suddenly confronted with a Grizzly 0761 that had a bid of $1300 with 3 minutes to go. I immediately went into Tim the toolman Taylor mode and started walking around like an ape puffing up my chest and making the appropriate noises.
This mill was to be mine, no matter the cost and no matter the fact I had no idea how big it was. It was shiny, looked big, had steel filings laying around as if it did magic and thats all that mattered. I rushed in for the kill and won the mill. I never suffered buyers remorse because it was another stallion to be housed among the other horses that were pushing carts in my garage.
When it arrived, I had four of my fellow nuckle draggers in the garage with me. We took turns eyeing this mystical piece of man stuff uttering grunts of approval and pointing out the shiny stuff like it was kryptonite to superman! It sat in the center of the garage for 2 days as my fellow apes approached it causiously in fear it may be a spaceship from another planet and a trapdoor may open at any moment and an alien with long fingers may give us the middle one!
Once the shiny novelty thing wore off and the beer kicked in, my fellow primates started prodding this mysterious apparatus gaining confidence as the day wore on. It is now 4 days later and of course were all experts. The fact the wire thingy did not come with a plug seems to have temporarily stopped us but one of us occassional picks up the wire and makes motor sounds so were pretty sure we are heading in the right direction.
So by now you are probably wondering how we intend on moving on from this position. We are not foolish or foolhardy we know when releasing the beast it should be caged first. We will jam the raw ends of the wire into the electrical panel with a 10 foot pole to avoid the burning sparks that always ensue to see if we can supercede George of the Jungles simulated motor noises with real ones.
So for those that have done their own DIY milling machine Cage, (commonly referred to as a Beast enclosure, do you have any do's don'ts before caging the beast?
I will be adding NEMA42s etc to control the beast and the launch of stuff across the garage so will document the CNC part as I digress.We are a colored picture group only so don't confuse us with math unless its +/- an inch! Thanks for your time, have a GREEEEET DAY Mates!
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Where in Alberta are you located ? Ah , Lethbridge , just went thru 3 weeks ago . 
