Potential CNC template service -- feedback requested
Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:10 pm
I’d like to offer a CNC template service that’s super-affordable based on snoCAD-X. The idea is that you send me a DXF exported from the latest version of snoCAD-X and I’ll cut any of a variety of templates from that on my CNC machine then ship them out to you. I’d cut the templates out of 1/2" MDF. My goal is to charge based on raw material usage, packing material used, actual shipping from me here in 98014, plus a few bucks for my time and wear & tear on the machine. If you’re in the Seattle area you could pickup up from me and save on shipping.
Currently I’m thinking about $13.48 for a single average snowboard template (30cm wide), and as low as $9.08 for 4 at a time, and about $10.26 for a single average ski template (13cm wide), and as low as $6.13 for 4 at a time. These prices would be everything but shipping, i.e., the $10.26 for a single ski template includes (in this example) the 6” of MDF, cardboard for shipping, and a bit of overhead costs for me, but no shipping from 98014. Wider templates would be more, narrower would be less due to differences in MDF consumption.
I’d like to gauge interest in this (i.e., let me know if this sounds interesting to you), and I’d also like to know which templates people might be interested in. snoCAD-X can spit out the following:
1. Overall shape
2. Core shape
3. Alignment marks (insert locations, nose/waist/tail markers, and centerline markers)
4. Mold rib
5. Profile template
6. Nose and tail spacer outlines
To that I would add:
7. Base shape, which would be 2mm smaller all around than the overall shape.
For me, before my CNC machine, I always used a base template, a core template, and a single mold rib template to make everything. Alignment marks on them all would have been awesome, so I’d be inclined to add those. A profile template might be good for those of you using router bridges. I don’t know what the overall shape template would be for, but maybe I’m missing something. Ditto for the nose and tail spacer outlines… I see no use for those. What do you guys think you would want?
I’d think a decent package would be a set of base, core, and mold templates for a given shape. This would be roughly $26.21 for a snowboard, and $19.78 for a ski, plus shipping. A profile template would add $3.38 to either of those. Would people generally be interested in a package, or individual templates?
The reason this would be so cheap vs. a more normal cost for CNC cutting things like this is that, well, I got a little bored over the xmas holiday and wrote a specialized DXF importer tailored to snoCAD-X DXF’s directly into MonkeyCAM. MonkeyCAM is a bit of custom software I’ve been developing since I built my CNC machine in ’03 that I’ve used to design and machine all of my custom snowboards. It normally takes my description of a snowboard and spits out the 9 CNC programs needed to machine the core, base, and nose/tail spacers. I plugged the DXF importer into the backend of it and recognize the different layers in the snoCAD-X DXF, automatically convert them to gcode files taking into account my tooling and work holding techniques. So I can take your DXF from snoCAD-X and spit out programs for my CNC machine in about 20 seconds, complete with a cut list for MDF that I take to the table saw. I cut out the necessary strips of MDF, and start running them through the CNC machine. The average machine time for a template is about 4 min, so I can have a set of templates done and ready to package in about 20 min start to finish.
Oh, that reminds me: would anyone be interested in getting copies of the gcode files with the templates? It’s kinda rare that someone will take an actual gcode file from someone unknown (i.e., me) and run it on their CNC machine without a lot of verification, so perhaps this isn’t valuable, but I’ll throw it out there.
I’ll consider a general purpose template service based on DXF’s from other programs as well, but there will be a programming fee on top of template cutting cost that will be a whole lot more.
Thanks,
Mike
Currently I’m thinking about $13.48 for a single average snowboard template (30cm wide), and as low as $9.08 for 4 at a time, and about $10.26 for a single average ski template (13cm wide), and as low as $6.13 for 4 at a time. These prices would be everything but shipping, i.e., the $10.26 for a single ski template includes (in this example) the 6” of MDF, cardboard for shipping, and a bit of overhead costs for me, but no shipping from 98014. Wider templates would be more, narrower would be less due to differences in MDF consumption.
I’d like to gauge interest in this (i.e., let me know if this sounds interesting to you), and I’d also like to know which templates people might be interested in. snoCAD-X can spit out the following:
1. Overall shape
2. Core shape
3. Alignment marks (insert locations, nose/waist/tail markers, and centerline markers)
4. Mold rib
5. Profile template
6. Nose and tail spacer outlines
To that I would add:
7. Base shape, which would be 2mm smaller all around than the overall shape.
For me, before my CNC machine, I always used a base template, a core template, and a single mold rib template to make everything. Alignment marks on them all would have been awesome, so I’d be inclined to add those. A profile template might be good for those of you using router bridges. I don’t know what the overall shape template would be for, but maybe I’m missing something. Ditto for the nose and tail spacer outlines… I see no use for those. What do you guys think you would want?
I’d think a decent package would be a set of base, core, and mold templates for a given shape. This would be roughly $26.21 for a snowboard, and $19.78 for a ski, plus shipping. A profile template would add $3.38 to either of those. Would people generally be interested in a package, or individual templates?
The reason this would be so cheap vs. a more normal cost for CNC cutting things like this is that, well, I got a little bored over the xmas holiday and wrote a specialized DXF importer tailored to snoCAD-X DXF’s directly into MonkeyCAM. MonkeyCAM is a bit of custom software I’ve been developing since I built my CNC machine in ’03 that I’ve used to design and machine all of my custom snowboards. It normally takes my description of a snowboard and spits out the 9 CNC programs needed to machine the core, base, and nose/tail spacers. I plugged the DXF importer into the backend of it and recognize the different layers in the snoCAD-X DXF, automatically convert them to gcode files taking into account my tooling and work holding techniques. So I can take your DXF from snoCAD-X and spit out programs for my CNC machine in about 20 seconds, complete with a cut list for MDF that I take to the table saw. I cut out the necessary strips of MDF, and start running them through the CNC machine. The average machine time for a template is about 4 min, so I can have a set of templates done and ready to package in about 20 min start to finish.
Oh, that reminds me: would anyone be interested in getting copies of the gcode files with the templates? It’s kinda rare that someone will take an actual gcode file from someone unknown (i.e., me) and run it on their CNC machine without a lot of verification, so perhaps this isn’t valuable, but I’ll throw it out there.
I’ll consider a general purpose template service based on DXF’s from other programs as well, but there will be a programming fee on top of template cutting cost that will be a whole lot more.
Thanks,
Mike