Free cnc.

[Riley Porter]

Anyone want this?  It works just needs a driver and a spindle. Think it was called a zen cnc machine. 

Let me know. I live in brookeville MD. 

Riley

[Tyler Hartwig]

I may be interested, how big is it?

Tyler Hartwig 

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[Tyler Hartwig]

Though HacDC may want it! 

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023, 4:51 PM Riley Porter <riley...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[pste...@gwi.net]

Is the CNC mill that HacDC had on loan from the Smithsonian Institution still there, or did they send it back?


Phil

[Gabriel Altay]

I don't know if you all saw the previous messages on blabber about cleaning out the basement, but no one has used any of the machines/tools down there in a very long time. We are in the process of turning the basement into a usable workshop, but it's a slow and steady project. We had a major cleanup event last Saturday but the main priority is still "getting rid of broken things and re-configuring the space to actually support a workshop". We're not really looking for new things at the moment so I would encourage you (riley) to make a deal with interested folks on this list. If you want to follow the most up-to-date happenings on the basement, you can join the discord and checkout the #basement-update channel. https://discord.gg/UgfhsmK8

best, 

-G

[Ethan Waldo]

Hey Phil.  We did verify the Taig CNC mill and its accompanying computer is still there, it just needs to be set back up again assuming everything's still functional.

It's interesting hearing you say "on loan" since years ago someone told me it was donated.  Something tells me the Smithsonian Institute likely has no recollection of the arrangement at this point.  I wonder if there's any survivng records at HacDC about that.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[pste...@gwi.net]

Good to hear it's still there.
Doubt records survive but a person can look on the wiki I guess.


I'm also not sure who facilitated the loan (and my knowledge of it is word-of-mouth, but I distinctly recall the wording was consistently of a "loan," with the epistemological caveats that go with that).  If one wanted to get a more definitive idea & no written record survives -- there was a guy called "Toast" who was a member and I believe ended up working for Smithsonian, I do not remember in what capacity.


Certainly as an institution, if it is a loan Smithsonian does not seem to have been interested in checking up.


-Phil

[Bobby Baum]

I also heard the CNC belonged to the Smithsonian.
As of when Julia left, the CNC was functional. It worked under manual
control but as far as I know, noone knows how to use the control
software (sound familiar?).
Bobby

[Ethan Waldo]

By my recollection it had Mach 3 installed so it should accept an STL file or raw Gcode, as long as the controller drivers are still installed and functioning.  I think there was an attempt to get it working with LinuxCNC but a suitable driver couldn't be found for the outdated parallel port controller card.  If needed, a more up-to-date controller card could be purchased from Taig https://taigtools.com/product-category/micro-mills/.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

-------- Original message --------

From: Bobby Baum <gip...@gmail.com>

Date: 2/10/23 10:43 PM (GMT-05:00)

To: Bla...@hacdc.org

Subject: Re: [HacDC:Blabber] Free cnc.

[Martin]

IIRC Mach 3 only runs in windows and was licensed with a dongle.  Mach 3 did work but I'm guessing that there isn't a license dongle.

Martin  

[nick b]

Regarding the Taig CNC, back around 2011 we used to run that directly from an old linux laptop (with a real parallel port) using EMC2 (now LinuxCNC).

I don't know about the current state of the machine, as I haven't been around the space for a long time, but I recall the software side of things being pretty easy to get working.

-Nick

[Kevin Cole]

The CNC mill that I disconnected when we were shrinking the basement
was connected to a PC running Windows, not Linux. The mill, bits and
computer are still in the basement, in very close proximity to each
other. (The computer is on a shelf directly behind the mill. And the
bits are in a small set of drawers right in the same location.)

[Matt Stafford]

Hi, Riley - has anyone claimed it?  I'm definitely interested.  How big is it?  The ones on their website look like they'd fit in the trunk of a car.

I live in Kensington, so it would be an easy retrieval.

Thank you!

Matt

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