c&c machine.
- Thread starter Talquin
- Start date
monkeycanada
Regular
Stocks are usually made on a duplicating machine. The old school machines had two rotating spindle heads linked together. One spindle head had a master (steel usually) stock set up on it and the other spindle head had the stock blank set up on it. Both master and blank rotated slowly together and a rotary cutter formed the stock from the blank using the master as a guide.
The master stock can now be replace with a virtual stock, but the stock blank is still rotated slowly and machined with a high speed rotating cutter.
Unless you have access to a machine like this making stock is going to be hard and remember you also have to program the cnc machine.
The master stock can now be replace with a virtual stock, but the stock blank is still rotated slowly and machined with a high speed rotating cutter.
Unless you have access to a machine like this making stock is going to be hard and remember you also have to program the cnc machine.
C&C? 
CNC? Computer Numerically Controlled.
You talking computerized milling machine? If so, the hard part, is really just setting up the program you use to do the design work, which is separate from the machine, to be able to draw something that you can use and output to the milling machine you would use.
A CAD/CAM program is where all the action is. You do all the design work in the computer. You can do what's called a "Render", and simulate the cutting process from start to finish.
You will need a decent sized milling machine, with a rotary axis and 3D capability (which is pretty normal, on a CNC mill).
A mill with the capacity to plant a 3 1/2 or 4 foot long blank, plus the fourth axis 9the rotary system) and still have enough room to swing a cutter is going to cost about the price of a nice house, more or less, and the software to make it sing and dance will cost near or more than a nice car off the lot, as a matter of perspective.
With enough money, you can buy software and hardware that will allow you to either laser scan the part in 3D, or sample the part with a contact probe, and then it can draw the part into the software, where any changes can be made.
Or, for that kind of money, you can get Holland and Holland to make you a couple really nice matched sets of double rifles.
Which boils down to why there are not more guys doing this with CNC. Not enough money in it to justify the cost of the machines, when they could be making real money.
Check out the stock duplicators on eBay. Just a wood router and a couple spindles, all set up to move together, so that the cutter cuts the same as the stylus follows, or look at the Treebone Carving site, and see what a small production stock duplicator looks like.
There are guys and gals out there that are home brewing CNC wood routers, that could be hacked into being able to do this too, but they would be a different ball of fish, and would still require software to make them run, and to use to program it.
Not that it can't be done. Just a lot more work.
Cheers
Trev
CNC? Computer Numerically Controlled.
You talking computerized milling machine? If so, the hard part, is really just setting up the program you use to do the design work, which is separate from the machine, to be able to draw something that you can use and output to the milling machine you would use.
A CAD/CAM program is where all the action is. You do all the design work in the computer. You can do what's called a "Render", and simulate the cutting process from start to finish.
You will need a decent sized milling machine, with a rotary axis and 3D capability (which is pretty normal, on a CNC mill).
A mill with the capacity to plant a 3 1/2 or 4 foot long blank, plus the fourth axis 9the rotary system) and still have enough room to swing a cutter is going to cost about the price of a nice house, more or less, and the software to make it sing and dance will cost near or more than a nice car off the lot, as a matter of perspective.
With enough money, you can buy software and hardware that will allow you to either laser scan the part in 3D, or sample the part with a contact probe, and then it can draw the part into the software, where any changes can be made.
Or, for that kind of money, you can get Holland and Holland to make you a couple really nice matched sets of double rifles.
Which boils down to why there are not more guys doing this with CNC. Not enough money in it to justify the cost of the machines, when they could be making real money.
Check out the stock duplicators on eBay. Just a wood router and a couple spindles, all set up to move together, so that the cutter cuts the same as the stylus follows, or look at the Treebone Carving site, and see what a small production stock duplicator looks like.
There are guys and gals out there that are home brewing CNC wood routers, that could be hacked into being able to do this too, but they would be a different ball of fish, and would still require software to make them run, and to use to program it.
Not that it can't be done. Just a lot more work.
Cheers
Trev
Last edited:
You sure can but the learning curve is very steep. We draw stocks with cad software and then cut out masters cnc to start the molding process. We also do 3d scans to make part of the process simpler when we are dealing with some of our old designs that were not computerized to start with. Analog is much easier ie, carve one out and use a simple copy machine to make dups.
Ian
Ian
