So due to covid-19 our season is over but our school district is allowing us to use the money we had set aside for championship towards other equipment. We current have all the basics like bandsaws chopsaws, drill presses, a lathe, and we are already getting a cnc router. What would you get in our situation excluding raw materials. Thanks in advance.
PS we have about $7,500 to spend.
It might be worth investing in a 3D printer, it could provide some custom parts that can’t be easily machined. Depending on how often your team uses 3D designed parts, it might be worth it to order more than one as some prints take a while
look at this thread
Two possibilities:
a 3D printer with reinforced parts. You can get a Markforged Onyx One for about $5,000, which would give you some serious 3D printing capabilities.
a MIG welder. With a full setup for welding aluminum (including a spool gun), you can get a decent MIG for about $1,000-$1,200. This allows you to do things with mechanism and frame parts that are simply impossible any other way. Welding is also one of those basic mechanical skills that can really benefit your team members. I learned when I was teenager, and it has been a constantly useful skill throughout my life.
Sadly, only the Onyx Pro and Mark Two have fiber capabilities. Onyx Pro can print with only Fiberglass, Mark Two can print with All fibers.
They are 10K and 20K respectively.
But the Onyx One still makes incredible parts, just without the fiber.
an xcarve and a bunch of Polycarb seems like a good idea, 6mm and 3mm are the most commonly used.
The Onyx Pro and Mark Two have continuous fiber capability, but all Onyx printers have reinforced parts. The Onyx One uses the Onyx material with chopped carbon fiber, which definitely qualifies as reinforced.
Yes, let’s look at that thread (and close this one). 