Robotic tools?

lol :P no I use autocad to draw parts etc and I have always wanted to be able to make the parts. I was thinking about using stepper motors and a dremel for the mill that way I could use different cutting bits. The lathe I don't really know how to build.

Justin

Metal cutting lathe slides are best made from soft iron running on either cast iron or induction hardened cast steel. It really would be so much easier to buy a lathe and then add motors. You can get almost any size of lathe you could possibly want.

I had trouble getting the shape out of AutoCad and into the lathe, ended up plotting it out to file as HPGL. This conveniently reduced complex curves to a series of straight lines. Do you have a cunning plan?

best regards

Robin G Hewitt

Let me know how you go, I was contemplating something like this a couple of months ago but didn't know where to start.

Nico

There are numerous plans and kits for automated CNC milling machines, most using, as you mentioned, stepper motors and a dremel. Google should give you plenty of places to start.

Chris S.

Just> lol :P no I use autocad to draw parts etc and I have always wanted to be

Would it be posible to convert a wood lathe into a metal one? A wood lathe is that only thing I have access to as there aren't many machining places in my area. There is a program I read about that loads in autocad files and makes them into files a cnc can use. Not sure if it was freeware or not. CAn't remember the name of it either but if I find it I'll post the name.

Justin

--Check out rec.crafts.metalworking; guys over there are full of projects like this. If you're thinking of buying small commercial units there's a website up that compares apples to apples, so to speak, at:

Well I know the idea i had has already been done (sort of) have you heard or seen the three dimensional printers that make 3D objects designed on a CAD program out of soft plastic then hardened with a laser. My idea was to have something similar but to be able to carve it out of wood.

I paint statues as a hobby but would like to start making my own statues to paint then sell but I'm shocking at sculpture. So I thought if you could get some sort of a rotating base to turn the wood in degrees depending on the different angles of the design on the CAD program. Then have the dremel attached to a motor to raise it vertically. Also have the wood be able to move in towards the dremel until it makes contact and starts carving (naturally this would also be dictated by the difference in the horizontal distance from the front of the CAD design if that makes sense).

But thats as far as I got with my idea cause I'm not an engineer and couldn't program my way out of a paperbag... LOL

Nico