CNC Routing

[Steve B]

What is the price range for CNC routing? I mean the type of routing that is done by a sensor that touches/reads the pattern, then transfers it to wood and carves out what it senses. Or that follows a CAD type program. Are there any pantogram types of apparatuses that do this manually rather than by CNC?

Thanks

Steve

[Morris Dovey]

| What is the price range for CNC routing? I mean the type of | routing that is done by a sensor that touches/reads the pattern, | then transfers it to wood and carves out what it senses. Or that | follows a CAD type program. Are there any pantogram types of | apparatuses that do this manually rather than by CNC?

Steve...

I believe that there are copy machines that more or less fit your pantograph description; but I'm not familiar with them.

CNC routers start around US$5000 (see

but note that the price doesn't include shipping, which could be close to the price of the machine). At the other end of the spectrum are machines with six-figure pricetags.

ShopBot

sells a probe that can be used with their machines to sense the shape of an object and save the data in a file that can subsequently be used to cut a replica of the original part. I have one but haven't needed/used it. I would expect that other manufacturers offer similar accessories for their machines.

I have imported photographs into my CAD program, traced the photographed objects, deleted the photographic image, saved the line drawing as a DXF, and converted the DXF to a part program. The tracing can be fairly tedious if there's a lot of detail, but has worked well for me.

I'm in the process of building a 3-1/2 axis CNC machine that'll be used for joinery. It's small enough that I'll be able to stash it under my workbench when it's not being used. I think I'll have a final cost under US$2K (not including the PC) and it'll be capable of cutting all of the flavors of dovetail and M&T joints that can be done by any of the passive jigs, plus a few joints of my own design.

If you're not in a big hurry, you might even consider building your own machine. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Frank Ketchum]

I just happened to see an episode of the New Yankee Workshop (I believe it was part of the 2005 season) where Nahm goes back to the sign shop that made the NYW sign. They had a cnc router set up with a v groove bit cutting letters in large signs. It used a computer program to set up the job and transfer it to the cnc. Norm asked how much the setup cost and the guy said $10,000.

Frank

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 22:20:47 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "Steve B" quickly quoth:

About $5k-$500k off the rack. Custom systems can go much higher.

These apparati exist.

the site is a portal, NOT a site for carvers.

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[CW]

Your first description is not CNC. The tracer type machines have been around for a very long time..

[Owen Lawrence]

Go to

You can get all your questions answered there, and probably pick up a deal on something, too.

- Owen -