I am sort of in a production mode for my aluminum motor mounts. So far I have cut around 25 and still going as strong as day one. Though everything is going pretty well, I am wanting a little more speed or increased production time. Right now both pieces I cut out take in total around 1 hour and 30 minutes. For my quantity of sales that is pretty good but taking it a little further would be awesome and really cut down on time. I have to be in the same room as it as many have told me, and which school and other junk it is hard to find a perfect time.
Is making a lowrider really worth it in this case? Or should I just double up with 2 mpcncs?. There is little documentation on the Lowrider compared to that of the MPCNC.
I was thinking of putting two MPCNCs side by side sharing the same air compressor and having 2 dw660s. Just imagine two of them cutting side by side, that would be so cool! A little factory in here is what I am aiming for.
It kind of depends on what you want out of it. You’ll definitely spend some time with the low rider getting things sorted out. The mpcnc will be a piece of cake for you. If you want a purely economic decision, the mpcnc will get you building quicker.
The low rider is really meant to tackle a full sheet, targeting through cuts in sheet materials. Making a small table just for aluminum might be stupid, or it might be brilliant. It is very rigid, and at smaller sizes, might be very very rigid.
The Low Rider would be more fun, and you’ll learn more but its higher risk.
Well I do like having fun…I am stumped here. So you can make the lowrider any size? I wish I had a direct comparison between a same size mpcnc vs lowrider. Really curious with the lowrider though. It looks pretty cool to me but I am uncertain as to whether or not it will cut any significant amount faster than my current mpcnc setup which is already one of the fastest Iv’e seen.
Well ‘any size’ might be a bit of a stretch. The hardware involved in moving the Z axis around pretty much sets your lower limit. It’d be silly to build one that only has a 6"x6" build area. It should be more rigid than a MPCNC for 2’x2’ though. For aluminum I’d look at something like 2’x4’ for a build area and a Z height of 6" or so. That’d be really usable for most projects…
It spends about the same as the mpcnc on margin in each direction. It would be kind of funny to have a table that was only 18"x18" for a 6"x6" build area, but it would be very strong. The pipes definitely wouldn’t be the problem at that point. The wheels would give before the pipes, I would guess.
It should be more rigid than a MPCNC for 2’x2’ though. For aluminum I’d look at something like 2’x4’ for a build area and a Z height of 6" or so. That’d be really usable for most projects…