Most important upgrade is the Rotary. By the time it would come out I will probably have mine already.
A post processor for RhinoCam would be high on my list too, which would be just one phone call for the 1F team, but would cost me $250.
Anyway I think 1F should heavily support Rhino, it is one of the best CAD programs out there that is affordable for amateurs, I believe it is superior to Fusion 360. Don’t overlook it! It is of course 100 times more powerful than Vcarve, and Carveco. Why not offer Rhino software including RhinoCam through your website, make a deal with them?
I would have bought the euro spindle mount if it was available, now I already have a 65mm spindle.
Yep, a proper post processor for RhinoCAM for the BuildBotics would be nice. I’m using the GRBL Inch and Grbl mm. There’s already one in there for Masso.
Rhino is on par with AutoCAD at a fraction of the price and it blows AutoCAD away in the 3D department. I much prefer it over Fusion 360 as well. If you are creating design with a lot of curves then Rhino is definitely the way to go.
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Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
104
Hey Alex,
have you had a look at the PwnCNC v9? (also available: version for makers). Adam @adamfenn28uses and loves it. It has a small opening where it draws the air and the hose is not in your way. The v9 is attached to the Z assembly and will not go up and down with the spindle, it will stay at the fixed height.
Regarding dust boots that are attached to the spindle and go up and down with it, I think the Nighthawk for 80 mm spindle is very powerful and effective. Its opening where it draws the air at the bit is much smaller than on the PwnCNC v7. To allow for manual tool change, the Nighthawk has a detachable brush holder. Not what you wanted, but superior to the Suckit dust boot I believe. It is reported to collect all the dust even with a shop vac and a cyclonic dust separator, all with 70 mm (2½") hoses.
I put my 1F up on aluminum spacer blocks to get the full range of the Z-20 axis. I need a dust boot that moves with the spindle. Also I don’t have a lot of room at the rear of my 1F. I have my table up against a wall. The Nighthawk one looks nice but it’s only 2 1/2" hose size.
I have looked at quite a few designs and haven’t found one that fits my wants. It must play nice with the Z-20 upgrade. It must be 4" hose compatible. It must move with the spindle. It must work with an 80mm spindle. It must be easily removeable, or part of it, to make changing bits easy.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a 2 part dust boot. One where only the front half moves up and down while the rear half stays in position. One where the front half is easily removed so it can be swapped with a laser. Or work with a laser so the boot can also extract fumes from the laser.
Alex, The Nighthawk does come in a 4" model… I have one of the first ones Nick made with lighting as well and it is one of if not “THE” top/best accessory that I have purchased for my machine… Dust just disappears…
I would be all over this offering. Not even remotely able to move up to a VFD spindle never mind water cooled. Haven’t had any problems with the little Makita yet other than speed changing in the middle of a cut but would love the peace of mind from something like this.
I appreciate all the new bigger machines that Onefinity has been offering, but I’d like to see a mid-sized one at 2’ x 4’ for those not needing or wanting a bigger machine, but one that is very rigid, compact and focused. One that could take a spindle and eventually an ATC.
I think this would become the machine of choice for luthiers and others with a well defined use case but don’t have $15,000 to spend. Onefinity is already making headway into this field. Call it “The Luthier”.
Another thing I would like to see is a re-vamping of the website allowing a person to purchase the perfect machine by having the ability to select the length and width they want for machining area from drop-down lists. So, a drop-down for the x-axis length, and another for the tube diameter. The same thing for the y-axis. Also for the diameter and pitch of the ball screws, controller, steppers, etc…
I would expand the list of lengths available for both x and y to include what is already available plus 24".
I would think that aside from adding a 24" option the only real change Onefinity would have to make, aside from the website, is to how the people working in the warehouse would assemble an order. But I could be way off on that! Call the area of the website the Onefinity Custom Shop.
For me, 24" in the X, 48" in the Y, with 50mm tubes all around, a stiffy and Z-20 and a Masso with the expectation of adding an ATC down the road would be the ticket. The closest I can get to that would be to purchase an Elite Foreman and replace the X gantry with the one from my X-50 Woodworker. It would be wider than I need but would work.
Just a thought.
Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
118
Hey M,
A machine with a workarea of 120 × 60 cm workarea – but there is already Journeyman PRO and Elite Journeyman, both with 120 × 80 cm workarea, you know that? I bought the Journeyman because the top of a double bass or of a bass viola da gamba fits, or a set of side blanks and and back blanks for a double bass or a guitar, on a vacuum table to reduce their thickness. That are the biggest parts a luthier usually makes.
Or do you mean 60 × 120 cm, with a the long dimension (120 cm) on Y and the short dimension (60 cm) on X? EDIT: See also below.
+1!
That would be a good way to offer the machine someone really needs. Some people made themselves a machinist-woodworker hybrid with 80 × 40 cm by combining parts of the two machines.
Ah okay, you really mean the long dimension on the Y axis, and the short on X. That is something that would allow MUCH better for a rotary axis that can make a guitar or bass neck! I requested this already here:
Regarding the Elite Journeyman and Pro Journeyman currently available, which share the same footprint and hardware, with the long dimension on X and the short on Y axis, I believe 35 mm Y rails are strong enough if you think of the fact that on Y axis, you have two rails as this is a gantry-type machine. I think they correspond well with the 50 mm of X rail (which provides the 120 cm workwidth). I have the Journeyman X-50 and I think 50 mm tubes on the Y rails (which have 80 cm worklength) would make the machine unnecessary heavy.
But I would have preferred it with Y on long dimension and X on short, like you!
These were just my few €0.01’s
So +1 with me for a long Y-50 axis, and a short X axis, on Journeymans!
Awesome response there. Thanks for that. I was thinking the 50mm tubes on the 48" y axis to provide more support for an eventual spindle with an ATC. I’m not an engineer so I don’t know the math needed to do the calculations.
I’m wanting the 48" to allow for a neck through design on an electric bass as the longest thing I’m wanting to do. My woodworker does fine on a normal electric neck but anything longer and it has to be done diagonally, which I just don’t want to go there if I can avoid it.
I could do it on a Journeyman with the long axis in the X direction but I design in CAD with the guitar oriented with the neck vertical in the Y direction. I don’t want to start rotating parts for the CAM process because that’s just opening the door to errors and ruined very expensive wood. I have a bit of a stash of ambroyna burl with each piece worth several hundred dollars, if you can even find it. There has to be no risk of errors before I put that in the machine!
As well, I have dozens of layers in the CAD for a typical guitar, with a lot of the layers used as helper surfaces for the CAM process. I can’t just rotate one object 90 degrees to fit the CNC. I’d have to rotate a hole pile of objects, all on their own layers to create the tool paths or redefine the coordinate system, again opening the door to complications and errors.
Cool you’re thinking of doing a neck on a rotary. I had wondered about that and wasn’t sure if an unsupported (in the middle) neck would be stiff enough to mill like that. When I asked a while back what people where planning on using a rotary for I was hoping to get some insight into whether a guitar neck could be done. It sure would be interesting if it could!
So, yes! Long 50mm axis in the Y direction, short in the X!
1 Like
Aiph5u
(Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))
121
Hey M,
Then I hope you are aware that many people lost expensive wood blanks by not observing a few design flaws or incomplete furnishings of the Onefinity machines:
Then we want the same, for the same purpose. But I bought my Journeyman already, that unfortunately has Y in the short dimension and X on the long. A solution for this I had in mind (except asking Onefinity to sell me two Foreman Y rails separately), since I want to weld a machine base from steel profiles anyway, is to weld a frame that encloses the entire machine and to mount the machine upside down to it, with the spindle still pointing downwards. This way I would have no machine feet in the way, in no direction
It is not really necessary, if you see the videos from Fender and Gibson factory. But if you build historical instruments with more complicated design, or with sophisticated neck joints, or instruments where the headstock is the head of an animal or another type of “sculpture”, you begin to think of a rotary axis. Therefore my machine base would not be a tabletop, but a U-shaped base with enough room for a rotary axis, and with wasteboards that can be attached at different heights above the rotary.
But you can very well mill a Jazz Bass neck on a gantry machine with flat table and that is too short and too narrow for such a neck, as is demonstrated here
