| Author |
Message |
    
Doug Boyd
Registered
Username: Decibel
Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 02:27 am: | 
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Hi, firstly a quick intro. I'm Doug, living just north of Auckland in New Zealand's North Island. My company manufactures pro-audio loudspeaker cabinets and flightcases.
I'm currently looking at moving on from the standard tablesaw/router template method of cutting components from sheet ply and have been investigating CNC machines, which has led me here. I'm looking at building a 1300 x 2500 minimum bed size for up to 25mm ply.
Are there any other New Zealand builders wanting to take the plunge that want to band together to get the laser cutting components done?
Gerald; an excellent project and forum that seems to have most of the answers : ) Well done.
Doug |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 1316
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - 07:28 am: |
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Welcome Doug! There are surprisingly few Kiwis among the 1300+ that have registered for this forum 
Thanks for the comments on the Forum. I am going to convert to vBulletin in about 2 weeks time and things are going to be very rough for a while. Apologies in advance for the disruption. |
Euan Stewart
Registered
Username: Sp_euan
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 03, 2007 - 11:43 pm: |
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Hi Doug (and Gerald, great site by the way!!)
I'm Euan, another Kiwi, I'm based in Christchurch (home of the mighty Crusaders!!) and am looking into building one of these machines. I'm surprised more New Zealanders aren't into this as we are the worlds best Do-It-Yourselfers (self proclaimed of course)
I'm looking at building a mammoth Mechmate for cutting 4000x2450x38 board, so will have to customize it somewhat to maintain some stiffness I'm sure, although the 2450 gantry is not a whole lot bigger than some machines (will be posting queries about this at a later date).
As far as combining the laser cutting goes I don't know whether it will save us any to combine. Seeing as we live on different islands I'm guessing the freight cost will eat up any savings we make by combining. I'm in the process of getting a few quotes for laser cutting, will also enquire about freight and keep you in the loop.
All the best, maybe it can be a race to build the first Mechmate built in NZ!
Regards
Euan Stewart |
Gerald_D
Registered
Username: Gerald_d
Post Number: 1330
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 04, 2007 - 07:26 am: |
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Welcome Euan! I didn't think a 4 meter board would fit on your little island - and then you say that transport charges are high?? 
For your 2450 [8'] gantry, I think you will be fine with 100x50x3mm rectangular tubes and geared x-motors...... |
Thomas M. Rybczyk
Registered
Username: Rypper
Post Number: 14
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 04, 2007 - 01:51 pm: |
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Hello Euan,
"I'm surprised more New Zealanders aren't into this as we are the worlds best Do-It-Yourselfers"
I just watched The World's Fastest Indian on Showtime here in the US and after seeing what Burt Munro did in his little shed, it would be hard to argue with your statement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Munro
Quite an amazing story.
Good luck,
Tom |
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