[HN Gopher] Guerrilla guide to CNC machining, mold making, and r...
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       Guerrilla guide to CNC machining, mold making, and resin casting
       (2015)
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2021-06-26 20:36 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lcamtuf.coredump.cx)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lcamtuf.coredump.cx)
        
       | dls2016 wrote:
       | Timely... spent the day machining a mould for a foam windscreen.
        
       | SavantIdiot wrote:
       | Wow, really short section on gears. But there is so much to cover
       | I can't blame it.
       | 
       | If you've ever dabbled in robotics, you've probably found it is
       | an enormous step function from kits like Actobotix [1] to custom
       | parts. It is infinitely easier to use kits or frameworks that
       | have already taken a LOT of the guesswork out of gears, linkages,
       | motors, compatibility, etc. Especially gears, they are an
       | enormous pain in the ass to source online, and even when you find
       | the right gears, you still need hubs and axles, and then you hit
       | min volume issues, non retail sales, overseas... I even have
       | access to a phenomenal machine shop, but what I don't have is a
       | _machinist_. (There are a few that mill around (pun intended) but
       | they are mostly introverted decent guys that don 't really want
       | to help a noob.)
       | 
       | [1] https://www.servocity.com/actobotics/
        
         | paulgerhardt wrote:
         | Having spent a million dollars making gears, my ultimate
         | conclusion is it's the sort of thing you machine from brass
         | gear stock unless you want to spend a million dollars.
        
           | SavantIdiot wrote:
           | For what 99.99% of makers are doing, Actobotix is fine. But
           | if you want to make your own fancy differential or a
           | hypercycloid linear translator, yeah, you're gonna have to do
           | it yourself.
        
           | failwhaleshark wrote:
           | What dimensional scales, materials, turn-around, volume,
           | and/or processing?
           | 
           | Breaking tools and getting G-code just right seem like the
           | perpetual headaches of modern machinists. Other than
           | occasionally being bitten by a bitchy blade-like chip begging
           | to fillet your grizzled knuckles one last time before
           | banishment from the bench to the backyard becycling bile of
           | betal bits.
           | 
           | If electricity were cheap (or the electric meter rewindable),
           | would multiple beam concurrent FDM be a consideration if the
           | materials and metallurgical characteristics allowed it? I
           | think at some point, it's easier to print complex shapes
           | additively than machine them subtractively, and that needs to
           | be part of structured cost decision-analysis for
           | manufacturing.
        
         | jalgos_eminator wrote:
         | In case anyone wanted an approachable introduction to machining
         | your own gears, there's a This Old Tony video about it:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-XOM4E4RZQ
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-26 23:00 UTC)