I don't mind, Edward, sharing your
link and information about how to order a kit. I'd thought about doing it myself... but really wasn't sure I could do it right. I'm like Chalie -- and I'm positive there are many others here... FB is simply not my thing, at all. I am trying to keep up over there with what's going on but I find it terribly difficult to navigate the discussion, find all the new posts, etc. FB -- and social media in general -- has no appeal to me (I'm old... and anti-social?) and, outside of helping me keep up with what my kids are up to, I've seen little/no use for it until now, with your FB foam-cutter group,.
Also, like Chalie, I really like your machine and think it'll be a great hit here... once more people become aware of it. As you know I've already ordered mine... I think I'm in that first batch you sent out and expect it to arrive in another day or two. I've already got my extrusion and am currently printing parts...
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I hope to get something up and running in the near future, soon after your kit arrives. I also plan to document my progress primarily here... in this thread on the FT forum. But please be aware, I'm probably going to deviate from your "standard build" (especially with the software chain) and I'll choose to be non-participant in the file- and gcode-sharing y'all are doing over on the FB side. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the idea of another non-FT sanctioned PDF repository, processed or not, full of FT's PDF plans... and believe the FT folks would really rather have folks come to their store and be exposed to their kit offerings, and other merchandise, while navigating to the "free plans" section. And, as we've discussed already, I think there'll be enough variation in machine builds and materials to render a gcode repository pretty pointless. But possibly there'll be enough folks building near-identical machines over there... so maybe it'll work for a lot of you.
Please know, Edward, I'm not against what you're working hard to get set up and/or trying to rock the boat... I wish you only success. And I hope my efforts here will expose more people to your machine and result in more orders for you. But a fair number of us, especially those who participate in this thread, simply aren't the kind of folks to be content with just blindly, hurriedly, throwing a machine together without understanding... just so we can start building/flying/crashing planes more quickly than before. There are some like that, of course -- many probably in your FB group -- but, here, most of us like to understand what/why we're doing what we're doing and get as big a kick out of building the machines as we do building and flying the planes the machines help us produce.
And, so you'll know, I think your machine's hardware is pretty solid and seems to work quite well... but I'm really not a fan of being tied to older versions of Grbl, Inkscape, etc. I really think the current Grbl and Inkscape, same as I've been using for a couple of years now, can be made to do the job of handling your servo-driven Z-axis... especially since you're using the same PWM signal and pin (on the CNC shield) for your servo as I'm using to drive the Banggood laser on my daughter's engraver. Also, I really think the layered approach for processing PDFs in Inkscape (post #1447) is far preferable to brute-force deleting lines and making multiple intermediate copies of your design file for each type of cut. I've still got a lot to learn about that method and need to refine an "updated" flow that I can use and recommend but my intent is use current, stock, software as much as possible.
I know this may seem a bunch of stuff to hit you with, all at once, but I've deliberately refrained from saying anything over on your FB group... in order to avoid any confrontation and/or confusion. You have developed a "standard" way of doing things over there... and I suspect that will suffice for most of the folks who are in your FB group. I don't want to upset that. So, I'll document my build and alternative workflow efforts over here so that those of us who prefer the forum can discuss and share ideas as we always have... on a very long-running thread about needle-cutting and CNC machines in general, and where the sharing of ideas has always been encouraged.
Thanks, Edward, for sharing your machine with us. Again, I wish you great success with it and I really do think it's going to be a hit with a bunch of folks here on the FT, and other RC-centric, forums.
-- David
