Pledge: Lathe Milling Machine Combo

This pledge is for a heavy-duty 3-in-1 machine to compliment the existing machines at the hackspace. With the additional room now available, this very capable machine would allow us to undertake much more ambitious projects that the existing mill and lathe - furthermore it's emminently hackable into CNC (man-u-matic - where the machine works as both manual and CNC). The great benefit of this design is once you CNC the mill, you automatically get a CNC lathe!

The item

About this pledge

So why this machine? We already have a lathe

Because it rules. The current mill is quite nice, but has a small working area - the current lathe makes a lot of heat and noise but is rather challenging to use for anything else. With this machine we can do serious cuts in steel, we can machine huge components, it's shear bulk and weighs mean it deflects less and can undertake huge projects (the current lathe weight 18KG, this one weighs 209KG!) Fully CNCed this would be a serious compliment to our machining : reprap nozzle broken? Make a new one from stainless! Reprap part not strong enough? Make it from STEEL!

How much and who's contributing?

The machine costs £1020 including VAT and delivery, the initial plan is for the machine to be manual, and we will convert it (by making the various components on the machine and buying other components over the duration of the year) AbbyKatt is a pretty competent machinist and has done a few CNC conversions already (check his website at http://www.silverkatt.co.uk for some examples). The idea is the machine will always be able to run in Manual Mode, but will have an augmentive CNC capability.

Pledges

• £200 AbbyKatt
• £200 Luke Graham

Running total: £400

Approximate target: £1020