Photos from the CNC seminar and booth.
Quickie page with no thumbnails, so it loads slowly, but you get
to see the faces that go with many of people you may know from
the CAD_CAM_DRO_EDM and NIST EMC mailing lists.
Photos from the seminar.
View of the audience at the CNC session.
Lee Petersen who distributes Acu-Rite talked about the history of CNC controls with conversational programming built into the control unit, and the Acu-Rite controls in particular.
Joe Martin of Sherline Products talked about the capabilities of modern industrial CNC machines and how they made it possible to build Sherline products. He also showed a simple NC driver box accessory now available from Sherline.
Fred Smith of I M Service talked about low cost CAD/CAM and how the Vector CAD/CAM system could make complex operations simpler.
Don Fergle talked about digitizing from a sample object to generate CNC data and about the digitizing accessories from MaxNC. Don also answered many questions about ball screws, with which he has much professional experience.
Ray Henry talked about EMC and the resources that have grown around it. He talked about the power of the concept of open-source software, and related his story of how he was able to add the back plotter software which he contributed.
Dave Anderson talked briefly about the hexapod machining platform, and then went on to express his enthusiasm for the EMC software and the community of people supporting it.
Bill Chernoff of Shooting Star Technology talked about the benefits of digital read outs (DRO's) for hobbyists and told us about a new serial data output option available for the CBX DRO units.
Ron Ginger talked about CNC control software for hobbyists and related his experiences with writing a conversation mode control program which he uses to run his Grizzly mini-mill. He expressed his preferences for conversational vs. CAD/CAM for the hobbyists and also elaborated on the difficulties of running control software under Windows.
Joe Katona of J K Woodcraft talked about Flashcut's control system for small machines, and also about several other similar systems which he has worked with in the past.
Bob Bailey of Bailey's Craftsman Supply talked about the Prazi CNC mill with FlashCut controls and about a CAM system also available from Bailey's.
Mark Comstock talked about CAD/CAM. Sorry I don't have notes with more detail. Can anyone provide more info?
Roland Friestad of Cardinal Engineering was our moderator, a tough job with ten speakers and only two short hours for the seminar. Roland also told us about his past and hopefully future efforts to write CNC articles for Home Shop Machinists magazine and about a new control system Cardinal is about to offer for CNC machines.
Bill Anliker, the father of our ever popular CAD_CAM_DRO_EDM mailing list spoke briefly about how he came to set up the list and how wonderful it is that so many people, over 500 at the time, were helping each other through the list.
The collective group of speakers take a bow, so to speak.
Photos from the CNC booth at NAMES.
Ray Henry and Dave Anderson discuss CNC software.
The NIST hexapod demonstration platform that Dave Anderson brought. Yes it can actually cut light materials, but it depends on the weight of the head to hold the cables taunt. There are six stepper motors that wind the cables around a drum to change the length of the "struts". As long as you do not lift the head it is surprisingly rigid in the XY plane.
Sherline mill provided by J K Woodcraft demonstrates FlashCut machining a 3D surface.
Ron Ginger with his Grizzly mini-mill controlled by software that he wrote.
Fred Smith explains Vector CAD/CAM to a potential customer.
Still more photos can be found on Dave Anderson's site at:
http://users.nni.com/daveland/names_2000.html
Please send questions or comments to webmaster@linuxcnc.org.