CNC MILLING MACHINE Denford Micromill

Fair comment, Jelly

Presumably David knows how his local council is interpreting it …

and for the rest of us ‘a rose is still a rose’

MichaelG.

If I was David I wouldn't worry too much about the local council's expectations (which can usually be "shaped" quite easily as long as you articulate things in a way which allow them to say they have met the objectives they've been set)...

It's ensuring that the first batch of members are aligned to the agreed interpretation and that as further members join, it remains clear and isn't subject to chinese whispers.

I suspect having council oversight will make that less painful than it would otherwise be for volunteers like David, but it's definitely something to go into with your eyes open.

Also maintaining control over storage of materials and projects (as well as "Projects" which anyone who has been a user of a shared workshop (commercial, community or otherwise) will know is a potential stumbling block.

John

What happened about the epoxy or concrete mill you were making a few years back?

It appears things have improved somewhat in the current iteration then, as this definitely wasn't my experience of Denford's older machines (which credit to them are extremely well built, just with awful control units).

Ultimately if there's now independent and commercial support available for their products it does make them much less limited, and removes a lot of my objections.

I would still be a bit concerned about service support and planned obselecence though, as compared to a home workshop or school DT department setting, I would expect a machine in a Makerspace to get comparatively heavy (and sometimes clumsy) use, a bit like how hire cars and company vans get a very hard life compared to personal vehicles.

.

I would also still agree with the initial thrust of David's argument that the specific model of mill proposed is a bit on the limited side though...

Moving up to the Denford VMC1300 (if the supplier is a sticking point, or an equivalent Haas, Syil or a secondhand industrial machine) would be an excellent "anchor tool" to draw in unwitting future volunteers members, which can really help a project like this get off the ground.

However without knowing the full scope of the councils budget and ambitions, we can't know if they haven't planned for other such "anchors" with their initial group of organisers which are seen as relevant to know local demand.

Edited By Jelly on 06/04/2023 17:55:16

The person in charge of setting up the Makerspace has little practical experience in workshops and has formed a group to help to find what is needed and the building has had a design done by a company which I believe is involved in school workshops. He has asked us what we think of the layout and equipment that they have proposed as the building is going to be gutted and new spaces for each area are to be formed in the shell of the building and any room sizes changed by the architect before the end of this month. There are to be textiles including sewing, machine embroidery and printing. Woodwork including power saw, planner and shaper and CNC router. Metalwork pillar drill, bench top lathe, larger floor lathe, bench top milling machine and CNC milling machine. Electronics section and a CAD drawing section. 4 seats of software etc. There will be a small charge to use the unit on a monthly basis.

There is a substantial amount of money available for the whole prodject but I am not able to say the amount but it is part of a government Grant for the area which can only be spent in such local prodjects and if not used would have to be returned.