– Today, id like to talk to you about the two sides to get started with CNC; the light side and the dark side. (dramatic music) I want to go over all
the struggles I've had with learning the CNC. What's went wrong, the things I don't like
about it, that kind of thing. So here's the deal the video was going to
be about 40 minutes long if I did both positive and
negative in the same video. So what I've decided to do is split these videos into two parts. So this part is the
negative, the dark side. You're going to get that first. Be sure to hit that subscribe button, click the bell icon, click it all so you get notified of
all the new content. That way when my video comes out with all the positives you won't miss it. This video is brought to
you by 731Woodworks.com go check our store out we have
easy to follow build plans as well as products and
merchandise for you to check out.
That directly supports us and helps us make videos like this. – I think on the negative side is I set myself up for
failure more than anything. I thought that I would
get this CNC in the shop, I would set it up and then
I could just pick up files from online somewhere, put it on the computer and
tell it go and let it go.
That's not the case most of the time. Carbide has a website called Cutrocket. There's not a bunch of them. You run out of files to use very quickly. I bought several on Etsy and then when I get
them they're just SVG's. I thought they would be Carbide 3D files. And when you get a SVG file you've got to program everything in there just like your building your own. So you have to set the tool pass so that everything knows
what bit its using, what feed its using, how deep to cut. The whole 9 yards and
the only thing you've got is basically the outline of the project. Someone out there one
of these CNC companies, Carbide, anybody, would be
miles ahead of the other ones if they could come up with a way to say, "Okay, here's a piece, here's a file.
All you have to do is set the thickness of
your material and go. That would put them miles
ahead of everybody else because that's one of the things a beginner wants to do,
you want to make stuff. But, you don't want to learn
how to program the files, personally, and all that. You just want to take the file, put it in the machine let it go.
CNC companies where you at? Y'all gotta get this going and get some files readily
available for your users to actually start making products and not just 3 or 4, or 10 or 15. A good 100, 200 different projects for them to start working
and building things would be phenomenal. I've had multiple failures as far as, I didn't program the CNC to do what I thought it was going to do. If you're proficient with software you can overcome those things. If you have a hard time struggling with computers
and figuring out things, programs things like that, your going to struggle with this as well. I feel like I'm fairly
proficient with computers and I've struggled quite
a bit with this thing and a lot of times it's
I didn't understand why the CNC was gonna do certain things. For instance, the thickness
or the depth of your material has to be programmed in even if you get a file from the internet and tell the CNC to cut.
You've got to set those
parameters on every project. That's where some of my
failings have come in, is the first several
projects that I was cutting I didn't realize how important that was or that the file that I was
getting from the internet had to be tweaked. Its probably very obvious
to a lot of people but that's something
I kind of skipped over and didn't realize. I have broke a couple bits so far and those bits are $20, $30, $40 a piece. Not programming the depth correctly or not realizing that is was going to cut into this aluminum here and it would actually get down in there.
When it started making
the curve or whatever, it would break it off. I still haven't put a spoil board on top. I'm still using the one that came with it. You can see the grooves where
things have been cut out. Its waste board its
supposed to be that way. These are easily replaceable
with 3 quarter inch MDF. I'm not concerned about it. Another thing I didn't
realize was in the software it has various materials and
they all have the sames bits. So you would look at MDF
or hardwood or softwood and it would have 1 eighth inch end mill and you would have to pick that and I just thought 1 was 1. But no its not, because each material has a certain feed rate or speed that the CNC's going to be operating at and you want to set that to
the material you're using.
So hardwoods its going to be slower. MDF, things like that, will be faster. If you don't know the Shapeoko 4 uses Carbide Create software. There are other softwares available that you can use to write
code, to run the CNC on but, they are very expensive. Carbide Create's free. You can download that
right now and play with it. Theirs an upgraded version
that adds a few extra things but, for the most part you can do most things
with the free version. So you take Carbide Create and that's where you
set all the tool paths and what you want the machine to do, and then you save that into G code. Its basically a language that another program can
read called Carbide Motion. Carbide Motion is what
I have on this laptop and that basically tells
the CNC what to do.
If everything does what its supposed to everything should work right. However, I had one glitch
on a mallet I was making. I bought some files
from Two Moose Designs. Excellent files, excellent
mallets they make. You can check those out.
Link in the description. Everything worked good
for the first 3 files. The first 3 mallets I
made come out perfect. I used the same file, everything, like all I did was push start
again to make another mallet and about half way through it the machine actually just
drug the spindle across at full depth of cut through purple heart. It made some of the worst
sounds that you can imagine like it sounded like a
car crash just screeching and the spindle was screaming out, "Please help me, please help me." Because it was putting
some hard tension on it.
I was pretty frustrated that it destroyed a piece of purple heart. I re-set up everything
and I started again. Exact same thing happened
on the second time. I wound up unplugging everything and then re-plugging everything back up and doing it again on a new piece of wood. It worked perfectly fine. Somehow on the fourth
rendition of the same file, using the same G code,
something happened in there where it didn't retract the spindle when it was moving to start a new cut. I don't know why. I've reached out to
several people with CNC's and its just kind of one of those things that happens sometimes. Which is another reason why you can't leave this thing alone. Another thing that I was sadly mistaken on was the speed at which this thing cuts. I thought that I could lay
a piece of material up there tell it to cut 5, 10 minuets later I've
got a finished piece. And that's not the case.
It takes sometimes hours,
or a couple of hours. This is half inch MDF. I cut out 14 of these on
a 29 by 29 piece of MDF. It takes almost 2 hours
to cut out 14 of these. And speaking of Carbide Motion or any 3D modeling
software its actually 2D unless you upgrade. If you have the time to sit
down and study the software theirs a bunch of videos on YouTube going through all of the software. You can certainly do that and probably learn at a lot
faster rate than I have. Another dark side of the CNC is I actually had a spindle failure while operating this thing. And that's one of those things where you think you're going to be able to set this and forget it but you can't because that's an electrical appliance that's up there running.
It'd be like you
shouldn't leave your house with the dryer going
or something like that. It just not good business So I actually had a spindle
failure as you see here. Sparks were shooting out
from the bottom of it as well as from the top. I was in the shop when it happened. I had earphones in, or ear protection on, but you can still hear the pitch change. I heard the pitch change I looked over and saw
the sparks, I shut it off and I turned it back on for a couple times to see what was going on. Now, to Carbide's credit,
I reached out to them and told them what was going on they suggested I change the brushes which is extremely easy. You just take this little covers off with a flathead screwdriver
and they drop right in.
As that still didn't help,
I did see that one brush was extremely burned up or used up and then I changed the brushes
it was still doing that. they overnighted me a new spindle and that's the one you see in there now. I changed that out. I did pick up a Makita spindle just in case this one goes out. I think it was likely my fault because up until that point
I was running it on number 6 which is full speed on everything. I thought pedal to the metal all the time. That's not the case. It actually works better if you turn it down to
the recommended speed which is usually about a 3 or 18,000 RPM.
It cuts better. It cuts cleaner. Also, another issue I've
had with this Shapeoko 4 is sometimes when you
initialize the machine it will actually go to the back right and when it gets there sometimes these homing
switches on the side won't activate correctly and it will start bumping up against it and making kind of a grinding noise and then on the computer
screen you'll see it say, Failed Initiation or something like that. This is kind of a dark side
but kind of positive thing so I'm going to throw it
in here in the middle. You need a bit setter. Its extremely well worth the money because once you put the bit in it will come over and touch off of this it knows where its at in
the Z axis at that point so if you change bits during a cut it will come back over and touch off after you have changed the bit.
This thing will save you tons of time and make your cuts lots more accurate. I wouldn't want this machine
without a bit setter. So be sure and check those out. Another dark side. This is a clamp that comes with the thing and while they work extremely
well most of the time they get in the way. Sometimes your spindle or
actually this dust collection boot will hit the thing and then
cause you some problems. I've been using double sided tape and I use a lot of it. This is just regular double sided tape Ill put a link in the description
below to some good stuff. This works extremely well. I've had no issues only
using double sided tape.
I've seen some people use
masking tape with CA glue. I can see where that can
get fairly expensive. I think this stuff a couple
dollars a roll or so. It's very inexpensive and it
holds the work extremely well so long as your just cutting out trays, templates, things like that. Another dark side of CNC that
is not talked about a lot is dust collection. Right now I'm using a shop vac. This is a Rigid ,I think
its 13 gallon or 14 gallon shop vac over there. It works well but it
does get a little static build up in the hose. You can actually come up and touch it and it will kind of
shock you a little bit.
Its a little concerning that there's static building up there. I've got dust collection
in route from Laguna. I ordered a big dust collector that will be here, Lord
willing, in November or so. But for now I'm using the shop vac and it works extremely well even cutting MDF things like that. You just have to keep it
cleaned out fairly regularly, you just keep and eye on it.
Cost of entry. I didn't buy this. Carbide 3D sent this to me
after I pitched them the idea that I wanted to make
a video series on these and I reached out to multiple companies and Carbide was the only
one that agreed to do it. So I would like to thank them and their link to their
website is in the description. They put no stipulations on anything. I'm not getting paid by them monetarily. I'm not an affiliate with them or anything like that at this point. So, this is just my thoughts
and feelings on the CNC. But the cost of entry
to a CNC is fairly steep at about 2,500 to 3,000 for one this size with everything you need to get started.
However, we will talk some more about that in the light side of things because you can actually make
some money with this thing if its working. Its no different in if you
go to work, you make money. If this thing's sitting in the corner its not going to make you any money. But, that's part of getting started. So you need to probably, if you've never used a CNC, my advice is to expect
the first month or two to not make any money while your learning to use the machine and the software. The cost of the bits to get
started is fairly expensive. I think I paid a couple hundred dollars for a starter kit from Bits & Bits. I've got a discount code if
you are interested in that down there to get you started.
The most used bits I'm
using are 1 eighth inch and quarter inch end mills or they're just straight bits basically and they'll just cut things out. So they'll cut things out like this where they cut trays and cut out things or contour as the software calls it. You can get cheap bits. They're not going to last very long. I prefer the the Astra
coated from Bits & Bits. The ones that I've bought
initially are still going good. I've cut ton of stuff, hard
wood, this is I think Mora its extremely hard wood. Its still cutting these out great. For the MDF and things
I've been cutting out it cuts out super clean and
they just they work well. I also use CMT bits on this thing that I get from Taketools.com. They work excellent. I can get you a 10%
discount code on those. If you are interested I'll put that in the description as well. I really like both bits. I prefer the Astra coated, but the CMT bits are a
little less expensive and they work extremely well too. Another thing you need to consider is where you're going to sell
this stuff that you're making or if you don't have a business
plan or a plan of action on where you're going
to sell these products they're just gonna stack up on you.
And I don't know about
you but I don't have room for a bunch stock in my area. I had figure out what we're going to do. We're gonna make these one at a time. What type of projects we're gonna make so that we keep stock when we need too and then also not fill up. So like these mallet templates they don't take up a whole lot
of space, so that's awesome. And if you notice in the
background on a lot of my videos this shelf over here that
the paint and stuff is is gone now. I actually moved it into the studio and then I consolidated the paint down to only what I needed, and
this freed up a lot of space. Not only in here but
it also gave me a place to stock items in the house or give me a place to stock this stuff.
And then you're gonna have
to ship this stuff somewhere, if .you're not selling it locally. Shipping supplies are extremely expensive I don't know if you know that or not. I went to Uline and was
gonna buy some shipping boxes that would just fit these and while the boxes are
like 90 cents a piece, which isn't terrible, they wanted like $120
to ship me 100 boxes. I'm like, "I don't think so." Its not cost effective. I can't operate like
that as a small business. What I ended up doing was getting these bubble
mailers from Amazon. Tape's cheap, bubble wrap
is fairly inexpensive. If you're interested in any of that stuff I'll put links in the description to the bubble wrap, bubble mailers. I'm using USPS for shipping. They pick up here locally a my house I just schedule the
pick up for the next day so I don't have to go to
the Post Office every day. That makes it extremely easy. But the cost of your shipping projects has to go into the cost of your product.
I actually had somebody email me and complain about the
shipping cost on a mallet. They saying, "Well I'm $13
for the mallet template. Why am I having to pay for shipping?" Well, shipping anywhere in
the United States from here cost between $8 and $12
depending on where they are at. And so even the state over is $8. From Arkansas to California is like $12. My website automatically
calculates the shipping depending on where you're at based on the size of the package I told it I was going to be shipping. Shipping costs so if I sell the template and then I also don't
add shipping on there, if it's free shipping then I'm going to be losing money by the time I add packaging
and all that stuff. That's why there's shipping costs. I could add "free" shipping, but the cost of this
would go up to $20, $22 something like that. So that's just one of those balancing acts you got to try to figure out. Whether it's worth charging shipping or raising the cost of the product to include shipping and
packaging, things like that. This is probably one of the
most common questions I get is how to ship and I can tell you, is shippin' ain't easy.
So the dark side is there's a fairly steep
learning curve to the software, for me at least. The high cost of entry
for both the machine as well as the bits
and all the accessories you need to go with this thing. And then also its just frustrating when the thing doesn't do right. Especially if you're tearing up wood, especially good wood like purple heart. That's very frustrating. It makes me angry and want to throw stuff. It's just how it is. It's not all doom and gloom.
There's a lot of sunshine
and rainbows here. This thing adds a lot of
versatility to my shop. It adds another stream of income and I've been able to
create some awesome stuff that there's no way I
would have been able to do without the CNC being in the shop. I love having this thing in the shop. And I can't wait to
share the video with you of all the stuff that's been
positive about this thing. Be sure to hit that subscribe button, the bell icon next to it. So you get notified when
that video comes out. So the CNC has really frustrated me, and it has challenged me and it has pushed me way
outside my comfort zone in a lot of areas. The CNC has been frustratingly
fun that's how I put it.
We've had a lot of fun.
Don't listen to this guy. We've had a lot of fun
making new products, learning how to use a new machine and opening up a new stream
of revenue for the business. We've had a lot of fun doing
this and it's been awesome. He's all doom and gloom. I can't wait to share
with you the new video on all the positives that a CNC is going to bring to the shop, it has brought to this woodworking shop.
I've been able to open up
a new stream of income. I've been able to learn new things and build new projects that wouldn't be possible without the CNC. The thing is really fantastic and I'm going to prove that
to you in the next video. If you want to see when I first got the
Shapeoko and set it up and the first few things
that I made with it you'll click that box right there.
If you want to see the
positive video, my video, you'll click that box right there. Clicking either one of those boxes gives you that bog ole virtual fist bump..