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For those who are interested, I just completed a poll on what the market share is for the various CNC Controllers. You can see it on my blog here: http://blog.cnccookbook.com/2012/08/02/cnc-control-market-shares-what-are-the-most-popular-controls/ Cheers, BW

I got tired of keeping up with spreadsheets, notes of various tips I'd learned, and links to all sorts of manufacturer web sites. So I started writing G-Wizard, a machinist's calculator. It's in the testing phase at the moment, but you're all welcome to try it out. G-Wizard looks like this...

Some of the stuff that gets made with CNC in a home shop just amazes me. Take this hypocycloidal gearbox for example: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cnJCWX2nr4M&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param...

I thought this was an extremely cool article and video on the future of prosthetics: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=16186 Kamen is quite an inventor, and his New Hampshire workshop with all the CNC machines was cool. It's good to see the government is funding things like this. Best, BW

One of the things I love about my newly CNC'd mill is that I can do a thing or two while it chugs away on a part. It's no wonder the pro CNC shops always look so clean! In any event, I had a couple hours in the shop Sunday, so I decided to try my hand at vibratory deburring. A machinist...

This is probably not strictly a CNC thing, but I discovered it CNC'ing. I was working on parts for Team Build 2, the Comber Rotary. I'm doing bearing blocks. Here are two proto-blocks (not ready for production!): I got to measuring the parts and discovered they were off by several thou in...

I just found a copy of Tom Lipton's new book, "Metalworking Sink or Swim", at Borders. I liked the book. It has sections for machinists, welders, and fabricators. The book is thick and filled with lots of nice color pictures. Chapters are: - Diving In - Brain Food: This is all about drawings...

What's the first thing you'll be doing in your shop for the New Year? For me it's finishing up the wiring of my CNC electronics enclosure for my IH mill conversion. Right now I'm at the debugging stage! Cheers, BW

I just posted a note on my cnccookbook blog about a YouTube video that I think is very cool. This guy Hoss does a lot of amazing things and videos most of them. He's built a little Sieg X2 mill into a complete vertical machining center with rotary toolchanger, flood coolant enclosure, and the...

Lately I've been doing a lot of sheet metal work to build chassis and other components for the electronics of my CNC mill conversion. I needed a fixture to do the work on the sheet metal panels, so I whipped up this simple one: It's a 12" square piece of cast aluminum tooling plate (means its...

After making a series of modifications to increase the rigidity of my IH mill and add a one shot oiling system, I'm now turning to the conversion of the mill to CNC. I'll be working with an Industrial Hobbies "mechanicals only" kit and using my own servo motors and electronics. Let's start...

The ubiquitous HF tool grinders are handy beasts around the shop. I've been very happy with mine. Periodically, folks like John Stevenson have been on about how to use a universal vise to make a simple T&C grinder out of one so you can sharpen you end mills and drill bits. Here is the HF...

With so many wonderful CAD drawings displayed over on the other CAD thread, I thought it would be fun if we had a show and tell thread that is nothing but the CAD drawings you think others would find interesting. So, bring 'em and show us! Cheers, BW

I spotted this one on the Chaski board and loved it: More details available on the original post: http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=79793&highlight= Best, BW

http://www.ggls.org/ I noticed that the GGLS site has some very nice articles in their Tips section on things like check valve design, steam pressure regulators, and a really neat gate valve. Check it out! BW

I'm doing a CNC conversion on an IH Mill and needed to thread the Z-axis leadscrew bracket to take the ballnut's 18 TPI threads. Pretty straightforward, but I hadn't cut a thread quite this large or coarse before, and in fact, it had been probably 18 months since I did a single point threading...

If your're like me, you have a day job to attend to and the shop work is "just" a hobby. You'd like to spend full time on it, but it just isn't in the cards for this stage of life. Worse, your day job can sometimes leave you feeling too exhausted to make your way down to the shop and show any...

Model steam engines require a plethora of little plumbing fittings. Firebird was asking about "clack valves" (I love that term for what I know of as a "check valve"), for example, on his bopiler thread. I've seen a variety of small valves that John Bentley has on his Engineman web site. What I...

I was thinking about fixturing on the commute in to work today. Something simple that would make it easy to locate the key items, maximize the opportunity for any symmetry on setups, and simplify the rounding over on top. Here is what I have so far: The fixture is just a base plate with 3...

I was taking another gander at the magnificent photos on John Bentley's (The Engine Man) site when I decided to have a go at modeling a similar steam engine. Bentley's engine is loosely based on Stuart Turner's No. 1, so I thought i"d call this design exercise "Bob's No. 1" as well. It's amazing...