XBMC4Xbox

So I want some fairly complex bits of MDF cut, found a website that offers a cutting service and nearly had a heart attack when they quoted over 400 quid! They wanted over £200 for the delivery. I know MDF is heavy buts that's just insane.
So unless I can convince them to do it for around £100 ( ) I'll have to do it by hand. There are some pretty tricky bits though that I'd really like machined, so anyone got access to one? Or know somewhere that'll do it cheapish?

Hmmm cant help I'm afraid... CNC caught my eye as I used to feed one sheet steel all day

MDF I would guess a solid bench, sharp saws and a good router... dont forget your dust mask! nasty stuff!

They're actually being reasonable and looks like I might be able to get the price down to ~£100

I'm actually attempting to build a smallish CNC machine based on this. In theory you can cut it all by hand but I wouldn't be physically capable of doing it (long term illness).

Anyway I should be able to mill PCB's and whatnot. Of course most of the fun will be actually building it Should also be able to add a hotend extruder later to add 3d printing capabilities

If I have to cut any I'll get my dad to help since he has a big dust extractor, he hates MDF though

your local kitchen joinery place might be the plan (if they aint just a reseller) they often have mills suited for wood.
an alumimium joinery place might be worth a phone call also they often machine the woodern inserts for window frames.

if it were metal you wanted i could get it lasered or water jetted if it were flat and 2 dimentional but again freight would be a killer from nz mill fees are very expencive.

I've got a new quote £118 which is a good price I reckon.

Thanks for the offer prof, but yeah freight to the UK would be mad expensive. The pieces I'm getting cut are fairly thick as well so it wouldn't really work in metal sheet without a complete redesign.

Anyway give me a couple of months and I should be able to cut nice complex shapes from thin plastic, wood etc for anyone on here.

I'd route it out but not MDF. Poisonous shit that stuff is. 90% glue 10% wood dust that swells like crap when it gets wet. Asbo, how about I send you a chunk of tree from the farm. I can mill it nice a square for you and if there's a termite, send it back...LOL Seriously though, have you thought of perspex like a block of it and get the plastics guys to mill it for you?. That work is pretty cheap out here providing it is all straight sided and they knock it up while you wait. Lot cheaper than 120 pounds even with post from here.

There's actually a bunch of EU laws over here governing MDF and chipboard standards. Dad had a leaflet the other month warning to watch out for "fake" stuff with formaldehyde and poisonous shit as you put it
These are the parts, a few curves, the coloured shapes within the other shapes are holes and "fills" to different depths:

Oh and those long bits with the yellow groove down the middle are 68cm long to give you an idea of scale.

I've paid now so that's that. Perhaps I could have got it cheaper elsewhere but in the end I got it at a price I thought was reasonable.

I'll probably need some other bits and bobs cut later, so maybe I'll get them cut from perspex and see how it compares. I'm pretty sure any sort of machining, engineering etc is far more expensive over here though, they're always banging on about lack of engineers.

asbo wrote: Oh and those long bits with the yellow groove down the middle are 68cm long to give you an idea of scale.
I've paid now so that's that. Perhaps I could have got it cheaper elsewhere but in the end I got it at a price I thought was reasonable.

That's a good price on seeing the scale of your project. Man that is one big project. The slots are 68cm long so that would put that project length at close to 2-2.5 meters long. That's a big tree you want me to mill up.....LOL Forget the plastic route, you'll need a folklift to move it. I thought you were after a little box to put a PI in or something not a car. Sure you don't mean 68mm.......30cm is a little over a foot in length so 68cm is over 2 feet long and that is just the slots.

I've added a quick annotation for you:


The whole thing will be a little more than 30 inches square. Its actually been a right pain sorting it all out, the plans are American so most of the parts are in Imperial measurements, that'd be fine for someone of my dads generation, but I was taught metric at school and all the nuts and bolts and whatnot are in metric over here in Europe. People in the UK try and cling on to imperial stuff but its all changing to metric, but then we have all our road signs in miles and the scales in the kitchen are in ounces, its a nightmare

And no not for a PI hopefully I'll be able to make a case for a PI on it though, and xbox cases etc etc.

Nice work asbo, that seems like a very decent price you've got there. As a former chippy myself I know what you mean regarding imperial/metric (I also had to find a new career path due to bad health, although surprisingly not from MDF dust inhalation!). I was taught metric at school but tend to use a mixture of imperial and metric just to mix things up a bit and keep it interesting The thing is, although the measurements for most wood is in metric over here it's easier to use imperial - a standard 8'x4' sheet works out as 2440x1220mm... 8x4 just sounds simpler to me!

whufclee wrote:The thing is, although the measurements for most wood is in metric over here it's easier to use imperial - a standard 8'x4' sheet works out as 2440x1220mm... 8x4 just sounds simpler to me!

yep, they just changed the standard but kept all the sizes the same. Another thing that gets on my nerves is the use of millimetres for massive measurements (sometimes architects write 20 metres as 20000mm!), like 2440x1220mm Why not just change that to 2.4mx1.2m? The reason of course is that everyone still thinks in imperial even if we have changed to metric. Maybe its to seem progressive?

Anyway the parts came


Had a quick measure and everything seems OK. Now I have to wait for a massive load of nuts, bolts and bearings to arrive.
When its all here I'll start a new build log thread.

So give us a hint then, pretty complex shapes you have there no wonder you werent keen to do them by hand .

bigkidoz wrote:So give us a hint then

I don't understand? A hint about what?

i think he means a hint on what all this is for.

lol.. Very, VERY nice project you got there asbo!

asbo wrote: I'm actually attempting to build a smallish CNC machine based on this. In theory you can cut it all by hand but I wouldn't be physically capable of doing it (long term illness).

Thanks for all the interest chaps .

I've got to save up for the electronic/electric parts now, stepper motors, stepper drivers and a stepper controller. A spindle as well eventually. I've done a lot of research into this and decided to go for the more expensive stuff. Apparently the cheap controllers/drivers have a habit of missing steps and creating "magic smoke".

asbo wrote:

bigkidoz wrote:So give us a hint then

I don't understand? A hint about what?

Who you're planning to torture with your S&M contraption, of course.....