TwoFeetDown

I'm just another old retired guy who enjoys working in his shop.

I've always built jigs to simplify construction, and in 2015 decided to build the 'ultimate jig' (in my opinion anyway) and the result was my CNC 1.0. I built it using as much stuff from my junkbox as possible including an old 1/4" drill that served as a spindle of sorts. My primary intent was to make cribbage boards so drilling was high on my list. (Ended up wearing three drills out :) The machine is a permanent resident of my rather small shop, as it is build on a wall so it does not occupy very much floor space. Being oriented that way has its challenges when mounting a workpiece, but I like the fact that sawdust missed by the dust collector just falls off.

In early 2019 I decided to update the machine and the results can be seen in my Buddy icon. 1/2" aluminum replaced plywood, ball screws replaced threaded rods, a variable speed spindle replaced the drill(s), and I added a 1 watt laser.
I run the machine with two computers, one running LinuxCNC and one running LaserGRBL.

I just 'finished' a 24" thickness sander that I started building 14 years ago. (Really!) It initially had no feed belt so was of very limited use. Then I discovered our old, unused, NordicTrack WalkFit treadmill and adapted it to serve as a feed belt. That worked much better, but this year I decided to add pressure rollers, and that has made a huge difference. I also added electronically controlled thickness adjustment just because I thought it would be neat to have.

Oh, and just in case you have ever seen or heard of the now world famous 'Decorah Eagles' you might be interested to know that we can see their current nest from our home. Their Internet live stream has been widely watched for years. You can find them here:
https://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/index.html

Jim

-- Jim, Iowa