Complete Newbie thats me - Wellington, NZ
 

Heya
im seriously cotemplating creating a mechmate
and im wondering if its possible for it to cut right through a 3/4 inch piece of 12 ply and if the dimensions of the table could be changed to within 5ft by 2 ft

im planning to make longboard decks as i constantly break mine :P
and i plan on gluing ply together bending into shape using clamps and then using the mechmate Cut the board to shape and Route the edges flush

any help would be much appreciated
L

ps
i also quickly glanced at two routers?
i could cut a whoolleee lota decks rather quickly then if they worked in opposite of eachother
one does oneside
the other does the other

ty in advance :)

It is certainly possible to cut through 3/4 ply. There is a range of choices depending on the size of the cutter you use. You could comfortably cut it in three passes with a 1/4" cutter, in two with a 3/8" cutter, and possibly in one with a 1/2" cutter. The power of your router or spindle, the density of the material, and the feed rate need to be taken into account.

Rest assured that it's very common to use a CNC gantry to cut in multiple passes. It can be faster and more accurate than chugging through in a single pass, and it can also give you the opportunity to leave tabs that hold cut pieces in place.

As for two routers, it has been discussed, and it's possible, but you might want to start with just one. You may be surprised at how fast a CNC machine is. You will likely spend more time setting up and removing the workpiece than cutting.

I considered building a 4' x 2' mechmate ala the ShopBot Buddy, but eventually worked my way up to a full size machine. As a very rough approximation, you'll need an extra two feet in both dimensions(*), so a MechMate for 4'x2' would occupy 6'x4'. For 4'x'8' you end up with 10'x6'.

(*) See the drawings, and make your own calculations; don't forget to add some access space around the machine as well.

Leif,

Welcome to the site.

Download the plans and start looking them over. I was going to build a smaller machine but decided to build one that can cut 5x10 sheets.

Take you time on deciding how large to make the table. It is your first major decision in my opinion.

hey thanks guys
 

Just wondering roughly how much its going to cost to build this beast? (please include currency your using otherwise it gets confusing :/)
im quite experience in using the manual function of cnc but not the scripted cutting
I plan on belting out a living as a student on this thing
thanks again :)
L

ps we new zealanders use metrics
this going to be a problem?

Leif,

If you haven't heard, about the only country in the Universe that isn't using Metircs is the USA.

You will be fine.

i guess but still
 

plans are gaurenteed to be in imperial before metric

and i mean come on
they still sell 40 gallon drums
we will never escape the imperial system
*waves fist at the horrible I.S. *

back to the cost side?

btw Liberia, Myanmar and the United States.
are the three countries in this universe that dont use metric as standard

Price changes due to the amount of material you can get for free. Steel, beg and borrow also helps. I got 4 x Gecko's for free, and the steel for the table was also free and I still had to fork out about R 22 000.00 (South African Rand ) for old BBB. Also I used an old Makita router and an old computer. At that time the exchange rate was about R 7.00 / dollar US. Now we are around R10.00 / dollar so it will cost more to build right now in South Africa.

Leif, you should have seen the plans by now, and I don't think that imperial comes before metric on them. ;)