Anyone know anything about CNC machines (bonus points for 3d printer knowledge too)...

I want to buy a metal-capable CNC as well as a 3D printer to supplement it. Mostly to do random projects. But could use advice on what to purchase.

I am also curious about the software side, ideally id like to get a CNC that is easy to work with from a software level and bonus points if i could somehow use the same software to design for both CNC and 3d printer since parts for any particular project are likely to come from both.

#3dprinter #3dprinting #cnc #fab #manufacturing

@freemo making the models is probably going to be the same CAD/STL software, but finishing them isn't. you need a slicer for the 3d printer, and god knows what for the CNC (path tracers/calculators i think, and there are some simulators.)

@meowski does the CNC thing.

@freemo @meowski wrong fuckin' meowski my bad

@icedquinn

Thanks, yea thats kinda what i figured on the 3d side.. though im not clear how you go from a CAD design to the slicer. Presumable a cad design consists of multiple parts in one design fitted together. The 3d printer, as well as the CNC (depending on which part) will handle the parts indivudally.

So I presume there is some way in the CAD program to break up your design into files where each file represents a different part in a single design. Then you send the 3d ones off tp the slicer, then the CNC ones off to whatever handles that.

Also, like you, I am less clear on the CNC side than the 3d side (though im not all **that** clear on the 3d side either except at a high level, where you seem to have worked with it more).

@meowski

@freemo @meowski Slicers accept 3D model files. They analyze the model in layers, which the 3D printer works with, and then compute a path to move the tool head on that layer while extruding filament. So anything that produces a 3D model works.

A lot of people use Blender (or try to) for cosmetic 3D prints. I always tell people not to do this, although if you're using something like Sverchok then it's basically a CAD program at that point.

CAD software usually has a button to export to a format like STL or OBJ.

I would assume you import finished STLs in order to make use of finished parts from elsewhere in a build. But it probably depends on the software you use.

@icedquinn

I havent used blender in many years, but from what i know of it, specifically the work flow, it would seem more suited for 3d models and animations than for physical machining. Machined objects usually have a lot of symmetries and uniformity to their design since they are functional more than aesthetic. It just doesnt seem what blender is intended for. Blender feels more like working with clay making arbitrary shapes where CAD feels more like working with a straight edge and technical drawings...

It would be like doing a blueprint of a house in blender. Sure you could do it, but man that seems way more convoluted than doing it in CAD software.

@meowski

@freemo @meowski Sverchok is a plugin for precision, procedural models. https://github.com/nortikin/sverchok

@icedquinn

Does Scerchok enable things like solids of revolution designs? One of the thing that was nice about fusion 360 is you could basically just create solids from 2d sketches by applying things like a solid of revolution to it. I presume for blender to be useful it would have to do the same, perhaps this plugin adds that?

@meowski

@freemo @meowski freecad extrudes 2d sketches (with support for constraints on the sketches.)

i would be surprised if sverchock didn't, since blender already has a screw modifier which does exactly this.

@freemo @meowski i don't really know what you are trying to build though.

i used freecad a couple years ago. i was able to reverse engineer some parts with calipers and then re-create the constraints, although i wasn't ever able to print it (the part was just too small; would had to have redesigned it for something a 3d printer can actually do.)

@icedquinn

I am not trying to build a single thing. Thats the problem. The projects ill need to build will change as quickly as the direction of the wind as I have diverse hobby and professional needs.

For example one thing i need to build is the framework for a cryogenic cooling system, which will mostly be done with the CNC cutting out metal struts and such. Another thing I'd like to build is a smart chess board and chess pieces, yet another is a peltier powered near-cryogenic liquid-cooler (basically a 3 or 4 level stacked peltier configuration)...

so yea, ill be building all sorts of things and thus need a pretty versatile setup.

@meowski

@freemo @meowski well.

freecad works the most like inventor. i think its meant to be aping features from it but i never used inventor or 360.

openscad is all code. pain in the ass a lot of the time, but if the shapes you need are algorithmic then it's pretty easy to just give it a formula for hex faces and then have it dump out a pile of screws or something.

haven't used sverchok. i should though.

@icedquinn

hmm openscad sounds interesting, but "all code" sounds restrictive. Would be nice to see some sort of cross where you define the shapes in code and coordinates, it renders it in a 3d image to see, and you could manipulate it with it hte mouse to tweak the coordinate values.

The nice part about all code would be that it would be git/merge friendly (huge plus), AND would make it way easier to dynamically change the design if you needed each print out to be slightly different. For example if i did an arduino case I might need to 4 different designs depending on how many stacked modules are on the arduino. So instead of designing 4 different cases that were similar and maintaining them all in parallel I could just design it once and have the height as a parameter.

So yea openscad or something similar in nature sounds appealing, but as you said also sounds tedious if you really have to do it **all** in code.

@meowski

@freemo @meowski yup, it's all code. there was a fun talk where someone used clojure to generate openscad code though, and that's how the Dactyl keyboard was made.

'tis why i said its really only worth it for things like screws. if its a heavily technical part like IC casings, bolts, brackets and the like, where the model is simple, but parametric, and probably needs a lot of variants, its great.