Category Archives: Technology

Alexa, please turn on game room

After a kind Christmas gift from R, to get me started, (how did you know?

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CNC – another satisfied customer

This is a 6″ wide, 3 foot long chunk of the side of some old barn that someone tore down and left the pile “free wood”. The planks are a foot wide by 10′ long or so, I have to … Continue reading

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CNC – a much needed repair

I decided that I absolutely wasn’t going to cut anything else on the big CNC before fixing the Z nut. The hack I made to get it installed in the first place has never worked properly, but it was really … Continue reading

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CNC – Put the horse to work

I’ve been trying to get a CAD solution that doesn’t require me to be sitting at the computer in the shop, which for me means it has to run on Mac. I tried out LibreCAD, and I’m starting to get … Continue reading

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CNC – Hello, G-Code.

The scripting language that CNC machines use is called G Code. There are lots of commands, said Google. But the first few are about moving the machine. G0 – rapid move (linear) G1 – controlled speed move (pass Feedrate in … Continue reading

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CNC Build – And that’s how we do that.

Today, I decided that I was ready to start making some sawdust again. I had gathered and sorted all my endmills last night, and I found the one that had tried to kill me all those years ago. By the … Continue reading

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CNC Build – Back in the game!

I decided that I was going to figure out the sensor cable today, once and for all, one way or the other. And, spoiler alert, I did. I cut the zip ties and looked at the way the port is … Continue reading

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CNC Build – Stupid cables

Connecting the new sensor cable is tough — it’s a “real” RS232 cable, so the female end has two protruding female studs, so that two cables can be bolted together. This totally doesn’t work with the way I attached the … Continue reading

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CNC Build – Courage is the first virtue

Well, as per normal in the way my life and hobbies go, it took two months to get back to the CNC once I’d determined that the cables fit properly. I decided that I was going to push forward today, … Continue reading

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CNC Feeds and Speeds

Now that I have router speed control, it’s time to start thinking about the actual cutting speeds I should be using, rather than just running everything full-out. I searched around, and this site had a pretty good rule-of-thumb for calculating … Continue reading

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