First post. Thinking of trying my luck at CNC for machining aluminum. Looking at the Openbuilds C-Beam Platemaker. Thought this would be a good place to start to introduce myself to the world of CNC. With some of the modifications I have seen, looks like this could be turned into a nice little machine. Super Sized C-Beam Plate Maker Would like to make/modify molds for pouring jig heads for fishing. Molds halves would be ~ 4” x 10” x ¾”. Once I have mastered the C-Beam, will use the knowledge I learned to make plates and add electronics to convert my mini-lathe and mini-mill to CNC. Plan to buy the entire kit with all options. Thinking this would be the most trouble free path. Any thoughts, recommendations or other considerations would be appreciated. Dan
Welcome! We've got quite a few fishermen on the forum like @MStillman1966 who is going to be making lures according to this POST Look forward to following your journey!
I plan to make jig heads with mine too, but I just haven't got around to it yet. I have made several mounting plates for rod holders out of aluminum. I also made a custom "fish squish" board for pressing coho salmon fillets when making lox. Not the best picture, but it works.
Cool... I am assuming you have the Plate Maker. I already pour my own jig heads, but want to modify current molds and have ideas for new ones. This is example of my final product. Just need to place order.. doing a lot of reading right now before I pull plug. Will probably order everything Monday. -dan
Cool. Looks like a steelhead jig. My cnc is my own design similar to the Ox but I used large leadscrews rather than belts. It works great on aluminum.
Kit ordered. Everything except controller. Found a CNC Shield kit for $20 including Uno board. Thought I would play with that for a while. Excited...
Kit arrived last Friday. Haven't had a chance to open box. No place to work. Plan to clean out a space in garage then purchase work table. Will inventory all parts first. Received a Chinese and a real Uno. Also go a CNC Shield and speed board. Anyway, looking forward to getting started.
Finally have a few (4) days off and plan to start putting recently purchased C-Beam Plate Maker together. Box has been sitting in living room floor since it arrived almost a month ago. Going to make a little room in garage and open box to start inventorying parts. Question: If I want to document my build, do I just "Submit a Build" and go from there?
Ok... So I got everything unpacked this morning and checked ends of extrusions for square. I would say most of the pieces are cut with a slight angle in one direction. Suspect angle of chop saw is off. I added pic to show angle I'm talking about. (Don't think you can see the error in pic.) Do I proceed and see how build turns out or should I find solution for "squareness"? Dan
I would first check with a fixed square, instead of an adjustable square. (Many adjustables are not accurate enough.) And yes, I would correct for squareness and equal length before building.
