Much Progress!

On Sunday I met with several people from the Artisan's Asylum about building a CNC mill.  Going into the meeting my plans and dreams looked something like this: if money was no object, I would build a small mill like the one I just made in Cincinnati, power it with overpowered electronics, use it to mill out precision parts for a larger mill that could handle a whole 4'x8' sheet of ply, build that, and then use the electronics from the first machine to power the second.  When it would be time to return to Cincinnati I would rent a U-haul and take the larger machine with me, leaving the smaller one.  Once reality set in, I decided that a more prudent thing to do would be to just make the smaller machine; building the larger one could wait until I was back in Cincinnati.  Minutes into the meeting on Sunday, several things became clear:

• The Asylum guys saw no reason to make anything other than a full 4'x8' mill.
• One of them was already willing to buy the machine once I left town.
• Another said he knew of several places that would mill out parts the parts for us at cost.

!!!
This means that I'll get to build and have access to a full size CNC mill, not have to worry about getting it back to Cincinnati, and all it'll cost me in the end is my time and labor!  This is better than I had dreamed of!  Tonight we're meeting again to decide on a design to use, and possibly get started on the table that will hold the machine.  Unless someone has found another well-tested design of the size we need, we'll probably be building this one.


In other news, this weekend I'm attending StrowlerCon, another Maker event of sorts where I have been assured I'll meet lots of awesome people.


Ye gods, I owe you people a report from D.C., don't I?  I'd start a list of posts to do, but I'm afraid it would only encourage me to add to it rather than actually post.