View Single Post
  #23   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 27-10-2014, 06:00
techhelpbb's Avatar
techhelpbb techhelpbb is offline
Registered User
FRC #0011 (MORT - Team 11)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Rookie Year: 1997
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,624
techhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond reputetechhelpbb has a reputation beyond repute
Re: CNC Machining Bearing Blocks

I think it is admirable to have interest in making something yourself.
Hence I side-stepped the issue of 'working smarter' until now because it expands the topic beyond where I think it was asked to go.

One should consider that merely having CNC experience and CNC access does not mean that the job will be as efficient as possible.

One might not have the correct tools for that CNC machine and therefore the job might take longer or buying the tools might drive the cost of a job way up.

CNC machine tools are full of consumables in the form of coolant, tools and sometimes fixturing and all those should be considered in the costs.

One might not have the experience to operate the machine themselves and are therefore burning a mentor or donor's time to make these items. If you are asking for someone to give you time, materials, possibly tools and labor it can quickly become very much not in their interest to make something they could more cost effectively buy.

I certainly will not discourage the adventure of learning but there are important lessons in efficiency to be had here.

I would be interested to know how long it takes teams to perform this manufacturing process that have done it themselves. In the past I helped Team 11 make much less complicated bearing mounts and it took a few hours to turn 6 of them out. In that case these parts needed to be custom as it was an after thought and the design was not made with these commercial alternatives in mind.

Brainstorming here - I would love to see a gallery that shows some of these CNC jobs and some simple details like the time and expendables needed to make them. I think it might help those learning set expectations more effectively.