Came across this while searching for info on building other shop equipment and thought since the parts to build it are automotive based someone might find it interesting. Maybe even someone on here has already built one of these. Take a look and tell me what you think. Check out the plans on building it. http://opensourcemachine.org/files/How_to_build_a_multimachine.pdf
I would think this would be a "jack of all trades, master of none" type of deal. To do all they claim it can do, compromises would have to have been made. Lots of functions, but none real precission, or so I would suppose until proven wrong. Depends on the precission one is looking for, I guess.
I thought that the first time I saw this years ago. Now that I know a little more about machine work I can see that it might suit the basic stuff I do when playing in the shop. Dont need super precision cutting frame bungs, tapping etc. Plus the DIY aspect appeals to me.
Should have good precision since its based on the cylinder bores being parallel to each other and they are machined to fit the add on pieces. Looks like a nice setup on a budget for the home shop.
I spoke to the guy who came up with it a few years ago, he has a video and some other materials available.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multimachine/?yguid=225324719 They have an on-line book with lots of photos: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/UNtfR2fA_wPC365j7GyOijGXE2pNb5tV69kIRLUi2J1MosmQ4yuum_olxuGoE9k7BK1zDO37IRCS7A-C4tszMFKjrbU8TL0/1%20%20HOW%20TO%20BUILD%20A%20MULTIMACHINE/How%20to%20build%20a%20multimachine.pdf
If you value your time worth anything at all, you'll be money way ahead to just bite the bullet and buy a decent Chinese machine. Something made by Grizzly or Jet would put you about two orders of magnitude above such a home brew device, and cost about 2X as much. $2500 will buy you a pretty decent knee mill with travels of about the same size (or larger). I dunno, I may be spoiled with good machine tools, but I do know I get real tired real fast of having to spend as much or more time working on the machine as working with the machine, that's why I take care of my tools and don't bother with worn out junk. You can be ***ured that a rattle trap outfit like that will demand as much or more attention than an actual machine tool that's worn out. I'm not even going to touch how dangerous such a device could end up being. Hell, real machine tools can and will maim or kill you if you let them. That deal there looks like it WANTS to kill you.
Thanks for the additional links RichardD. Lots of good info. Looks like this just might fit the bill in my low budget shop.
********. I just bought a lathe 16" x 60". I looked for nearly a year to find a decent used American made machine. Any clapped out piece of **** would bring $15k, and I had to take the gamble $1,200 on having it trucked in before I could inspect it. Fine, maybe a new one then, Clausing still makes new machines, right? Sure, $33k, and you know what? They're made in China! They looked like decent machines though, so I did some more poking around and found a guy who imports machines made by the same factory to the same specifications, except he has them subs***ute in USA made motors and electrics. You know what that machine cost? $8,300 at my doorstep. You know what else? That machine has a better fit and finish than many of the American and European made machines I looked at first. Now, granted, it's not a Monarch, but it also didn't cost $300k either. If I could have bought a new machine that was made in the USA for less than $15k, I would have (any machine at all), but it doesn't exist. You can bash all you like, but the Chinese are not stupid, or otherwise handicapped in some way that prevents them from manufacturing things to world cl*** standards. The problem is that people outsource to China because they want it cheap. You can't have world cl*** quality and cheap at the same time, so the Chinese deliver on the cheap and to hell with the quality (since their customer doesn't care either). If you demand good quality from them, and follow through by rejecting any product that doesn't meet muster, they will produce products that will rival our own for build quality. Case in point, that importer ***embles and inspects every machine before it goes out the door. He said he had to send back three machines when he first started, but since then they've been flawless, and I can tell you, even though I'm a picky *******, I'm very impressed with this machine so far. I'll have to report back in 10 yrs and see how it's held up to the long haul. I'll tell you something else, a lot of American made stuff is not what it used to be. Selling **** in a box is not a singularly Chinese trait.
Lighten up Francis. Maybe some folks just like tinkering? Isnt that how Ford got into cars and the Wrights went frome Bikes to planes?!
lol Point taken. I guess anymore I just look at machine tools more as a tool to utilize in building a project, not as the project itself. A few years ago it was the other way around. When I was in college, one of my pledge brothers and I bought a RongFu knockoff (yes, a knockoff of a Taiwanese machine ) off of eBay and converted it to CNC. We built it all from scratch, and it was a wonderful project. After I got a taste of CNC machine work, the possibilities began to bloom in my head, but that little machine was kinda small, and kinda slow, and not exceptionally accurate (it could hold -+0.010" real easy, and maybe down to -+0.005" with a lot of hand holding), so I sold that little machine and bought a bigger ready built VMC that was supposed to be less trouble. In retrospect, it's turned out to be only slightly less troublesome, but at least an order of magnitude more powerful, accurate, quick (IE useful). I still stand by the Chinese machine tool digression though, I've heard that mantra for so long, and IMO it's pretty much horse****.
I'm tired of China-bashing today, but my experience is, several crummy Chinese tools in my garage, and a 1934 Southbend with less than $100 restoring it, works great!
Yeah, the smaller South Bends, Logans, and Hendey lathes can often be found in decent shape for decent money. My problem was that I already had a 12" Logan, and it just wasn't big enough. I really needed a 16" swing, but that puts the machine firmly in the industrial usage category, which is why you generally find them in need of dire repair. If you are lucky enough to find one in good shape, the seller knows what it's worth (IE, an arm, a leg, maybe a testicle . . . . .). I would dearly love to have a Monarch 10EE, but a rebuilt one from Monarch is in the $50k range, and used machines vary anywhere from $4k to $12k. Hell for stout little guys, but unless you have a EE (Electrical Engineer that is) on staff, the DC spindle drive can eat your lunch when it needs maintenance or repair. My experience has been basically the opposite of yours it seems. I had that Logan, it was 40 yrs old, and it showed it. I spent several hundred dollars and many weeks on repairs to it, only to find that it would never really cut like had hoped it would (woefully underpowered). So I replaced it with this Chinese machine, and I'm quite happy with it. I've had a Bridgeport Series I milling machine for several years now, it too is about 40 yrs old, and shows it. It needs spindle bearings, the ways are tight at the ends ('cause the gibbs are cinched up to delete the play in the center), and the head is on its third rebuild since I've owned it. About two years ago, I bought a Sharp LMV-50 to replace the Bridgeport with, and I've gotta say, I am impressed with that machine. It cuts better than the BP did, it's about 300 lbs heavier than the BP, the vari-speed device in the head is built much more stoutly than the BP, and the spindle motor is 3 HP instead of 2 HP like the BP. Once again, IMO it was a good upgrade. If I were to replace my CNC, I'd more than likely go with either a new Sharp, a new HAAS, or try to find a decent used Mori Seki. But that's $60k I'm not going to be spending this decade. I guess experience colors you perception more than a little. Before I knew what I know now, and before I had what I have now, I'd probably have been intrigued by these Rube Goldbergian devices. When you don't have anything, a cobbled together collection of junk starts to look pretty damned good. I know before I had a lathe, I turned a few items in the Rube Goldberg fashion by holding the tool in the vise on the table and spinning the work in a collet in the Bridgeport. It ain't pretty, but it did work. BTW, TMan, those bikes in your sig are cool. Those little dudes were really movin'.
i actually saw one of these... well, not exact but quite similar... in person maybe 5 or 6 years ago. in Forteleza, Brazil... this guy had it in his apartment garage. said he'd made it so he could make some small production pieces for a local company... after a while he'd made enough money to buy/fix an old lathe... bit later, an old shaper (say what you will, i think it's still damned useful)... eventually he had a CNC mill. over the span of 10 years, he went from making next to nothing (literally... like $30/month), to having a fully equipped machine shop inside an apartment garage which he owned, knocking out piecework for a commercial refrigerator company, and making pretty good money... enough to buy and afford an apartment with a view of the beach in a *****in' area. sorry 'bout the long story... the engine block based multi-tool reminded me of a cool conversation with a brazilian hot rodder... this dude was building a pretty traditional duece... which were made in brazil through 1938 (ford brazil kept stampin' out the bodies). damn, almost another long story started there... anyway... the multi-machine is a bit ghetto, but so f'ing cool at the same time. can't buy it? build it. that's the heart of hot rodding, to me...
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