CNC Engraving and Cutting

An Excellent presentation today at the West of Scotland Area Group today where Chic and Jim share their experiences of using CNC machines for different uses.

Covering both laser and spindle based equipment, it was amazing to see the flexibility of these machines for making PCB's , cutting card models and engraving wood and perspex.

The session was recorded and will hopefully appear on the WOSAG website soon.

Suitable software for creating design files was also discussed. These included DesignSpark, FreeCAD and Eagle. For drawing, the Open Source InkScape software was highly recommended.

Having just started using this particular software a few weeks ago myself, I can support the recommendation. I had no idea however, of the range of extensions available for this free software. One included a .grbl output ( pronounced Gerbil in the UK) that would translate your drawings into the machine code file required for these CNC machines.

Chic showed a few circuit boards he had made as one off prototypes. Sending these to a PCB company would incur lengthy delays and multiple boards that may not be required, so manufacturing on a CNC machine is very economical.

Jim showed us some of his Ink-Scape designs fabricated in 3mm card from his CNC 3018 machine.

Having now seen what these machines can do, all I have to do is persuade my missus to let me buy one.

Many thanks to Chic and Jim for a very informative talk.

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