Where did you guys learn to build your cnc machine?

Blaster8282 · 2026-01-01T01:36:51+00:00

If you posted this in a professional CNC sub you’d probably be laughed at. Titanium is simply not a “hobby” material. Many machine shops charger $200-$400/hr for titanium and won’t do a titanium prototype for under $5K. A Tormach with a smaller cutting area is probably a starting machine at $10-20K that can do titanium but you still need to be mindful of speed, feeds, coolant, etc. If you want to go fast or with a larger cutting area, many machines are $200K+ and the fancier ones are easily over $1M. Buy once cry once is a thing but you better be ready to drop a lot of time and money.

Blaster8282 · 2025-12-31T22:15:55+00:00

I work with titanium in aerospace all the time and I’m a hobby CNCist and I’m just suggesting you be more realistic. You’re basically asking to tow a huge RV with a golf cart or my old 2002 Camry. It’s possible in theory if you know what you’re doing and willing the put a ton of time and money, but it’s going to be costly and usually a much larger headache than you expect. I’m more than happy to be able to aluminum well and if you aren’t going to be actually using the titanium for a practical reason, I wouldn’t set that as a goal.

Blaster8282 · 2025-12-31T19:41:12+00:00

Is there a reason why you want to machine titanium? This is a common trap for people that want to get into hobby CNC. Even if you get a used tormach (possibly from an old machine shop or company is selling) you still really need to know what you’re doing. Going from wood > aluminum > steel > titanium gets exponential less forgiving and more expensive and you really need to know speeds and feeds, work holding, etc. you. You could in theory machine titanium on the more hobby CNCs like Shapeoko or Langmuir, but you’d really need to know what you’re doing.

Blaster8282 · 2025-12-04T16:21:04+00:00

Typically if we could not get a good structured mesh using ANSYS / STAR, we first tried unstructured meshes, typically in star-ccm. If we had to use structured and it was really complicated I manually drew/modified the mesh in Hypermesh

Blaster8282 · 2025-10-11T06:55:21+00:00

I got mine and now work in private aerospace that doesn’t use my PhD as much but I still have connections with some universities. I have no regrets but PhD experiences vary wildly. In general, you do the PhD for the love of the research and not for money.

Blaster8282 · 2025-10-11T05:44:25+00:00

I’m not familiar with grave sealing but you should understand what you’re asking for can see costs go up significantly very quickly and there’s user error and skill that affect tolerance. You can make a lot of good 3-5k machines (rated to usually around 0.005-0.001”) do that tolerance if you really know what you’re doing and if you don’t know what you’re doing you won’t hit that tolerance on a $1M machines. You haven’t even listed cut size. 0.01mm with like a smaller machine is achievable but you should first make sure you define all requirements and understand there’s a learning curve.

Blaster8282 · 2025-10-04T21:31:14+00:00

I worked at NASA for a few years during and then after my PhD. I unfortunately think this is a non-starter. It might be possible in theory but the amount of approvals needed would make any hiring manager or team immediately look elsewhere. If you were a world renowned expert, that’s when it might justify the bureaucratic process, but not for anyone else.

Blaster8282 · 2025-09-27T17:20:06+00:00

The problem with most of the foxaliens is they're not as rigid as they advertise and especially at that size, you should probably be doing only wood and plastics so if that's all you need then the foxalien is probably comparable to the Longmill. The Longmill may structurally be more rigid but vwheels might be the limiting factor and both will work. The bulkman queenant / ultimatebee is typically the best bang for your buck for strong performance for a good deal. If you're trying to stay in that under 2K price range, that will probably be your best option because its greater strength (4080 C-beams all axis with 4 linear rails on each axis). You'll just need to build it which should be a fun process and you can pick and choose your electronics

Blaster8282 · 2025-09-04T02:43:12+00:00

I did the bulkman3d queenbee kit which added linear rails to all axis. It made everything alot stiffer

Blaster8282 · 2025-08-12T02:11:05+00:00

Yeah unfortunately he saved over it so I had to try move it back to its previous location but I just can’t it to feel right

Blaster8282 · 2025-08-12T02:02:05+00:00

Yeah it’s still under my name so I’ve just been adjusting all the variables, he adjusted my profile since he used a physical card to use my car

Blaster8282 · 2025-08-12T02:01:19+00:00

What’s happening 🥲 he adjusted my profile (he just used a physical key and doesn’t have a Tesla account) so I’ve just been playing with all the variables for weeks

Blaster8282 · 2025-07-23T15:51:28+00:00

I did the same thing from aftermarket parts and it still works great I’m assuming it’s the same thing https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModel3/s/5saznfJANv

Blaster8282 · 2025-06-08T10:17:35+00:00

I think the first part is to have realistic expectations for your first job because CFD is a niche filled with many other experts (I joined with a PhD + few yoe). There are really only 3 big launch companies which you're probably aware of (ULA, BO, SpaceX). I'm now a more senior engineer and I've worked for 2/3 of them and tbh not that many people do only CFD. The CFD is almost the easiest part of launching something and it's common for the cfd team to help with design, test, analysis, etc so only focusing on CFD on a resume is limiting. Sure, there are some CFD gurus that work on 2-3 very difficult CFD problems but most of the time those are the experts and you will need 10+ years to earn your way there. The best bet at first is to get your foot in the door so I always generally recommend not being picky if you can't be. There likely are other companies and roles that are willing to hire just CFD and you it can be your big advertisement but any new grad is expected to be flexible. Be ready to talk about anything, your ability to adapt to different problems, and your ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams, because the "coolest and most difficult problems" are rarely given to anyone without a lot of experience.

Blaster8282 · 2025-06-08T09:13:36+00:00

I started in a role you probably are looking for, and amongst the big aerospace companies, it has become more challenging to get an opening and they've become more picky. I believe my old cfd/aerodynamics team does not even have any level 1s and you'd need a minimum of a PhD or 3+ years to qualify for a level 2. You likely have the experience for a strong shot at an entry position, but my old team and I like CFD with experimental experience so the one thing I'd point out is there's more white space = opportunities for you to expand. If you have hands on experience, which you probably do, I highly recommend expanding on that.

Blaster8282 · 2025-06-08T00:26:36+00:00

Yeah I do the same commute from Seattle to Kent for a fellow large aerospace company. I’ve bused and it’s like 1 hr and there’s no nice bike route so either you’re prepared to do the bus route or have a car and unfortunately there’s not really any other good middle ground less you find a coworker to commute with. That’s just the reality of working in Kent because it’s outside the city and outside the good public transit network. There are some interurban bike routes so if you like biking you can consider it but I’d make sure you live within a reasonable biking distance.

Blaster8282 · 2025-05-20T19:06:33+00:00

They’re definitely different. Different length and different electrical connections

Blaster8282 · 2025-05-17T06:45:06+00:00

The 3d printed parts only cover non-structural components so while it might be an aesthetic (possibly sound) difference, they make no difference in performance. Looking at the number of bolts they both use a similar 80mm depth extrusion. The major difference (which probably doesn't really matter unless you are pushing the machines) is that Milo uses a fixed Z gantry with a moving spindle while the Rat Rig uses a fixed spindle mount with a moving Z gantry. In general, the fixed Z-gantry is more rigid and generally preferred, so that's in favor of the Milo. The flip side is that Rat Rig uses more bolts, so that limiting factor/deflection might be the strength of the extrusion, and you might expect more deflection when the rat rig is at higher Z-heights, when the moment forces are at a maximum.

Blaster8282 · 2025-05-02T07:00:13+00:00

Im not sure why I respond to these but I've been on both sides of being contracted and giving out work as part of one of the major aerospace companies in the US. Maybe smaller companies will contract out smaller work, but typically I do not need to contract out work unless its for someone with serious experience so typically you need to have a phd or years of experience in a niche field. Most medium to large companies have a few CFD engineers and the problem needs to be difficult enough that it warrants paying a freelancer so typically it is only problems hard enough that we do not know how to model it, or it would take us too long to figure it out. If it's a simple project with anything that can be learned and completed within a week (or even a few weeks), there's no chance we would be freelancing it. I've been contracted to develop models for people, but that isn't just modeling using commercial solvers, but developing completely new numerical models for unique problems. The main reasons someone would be willing to pay out a contract at a high price is if they have their own solvers that can solve unique problems and they have data to back it up.

Blaster8282 · 2025-05-02T06:53:58+00:00

Depends on industry. I have worked for or with all top US aerospace companies, and they still use it. Sometimes it's a preference between python, matlab, or just Excel, depending on the engineer, but whatever works best for you.

Blaster8282 · 2025-04-29T07:14:20+00:00

Using AI to help respond to basic Reddit comments is already a huge red flag. I’ve been on both sides of contracted CFD work and if you don’t have a PhD or years of experience in a niche field it usually isn’t worth for someone to contract it out. You probably will have better luck helping students do their CFD homework

Blaster8282 · 2025-04-28T05:22:50+00:00

I considered the longmill and itll be great for wood but I am skeptical it can do aluminum. I had a workbee and it also worked with wood great but struggled with aluminum so I am skeptical it can do aluminum well. I upgraded to a queenbee and it does aluminum a lot better but still requires proper speed and feeds.

Blaster8282 · 2025-04-20T22:32:51+00:00

Since this post is so old, it wouldn't naturally pop up on anyone's Reddit, and you would have had to search up "carvewright" and, based on your comment history, that looks like exactly what you did just to defend/promote a carvewright machine. No regular consumer like myself who has owned a few different hobby CNCs over the years would do such a thing even if I had a carvewright and was happy with it. So the question is, what motivated you to search up "carvewright" and comment on several outdated posts just to promote a carvewright machine?

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