Context

I've been fascinated by technology for most of my life, I guess. I took apart war surplus radios when I was a kid and sorted the parts after I found out what each of them were.

Lately I have been interested in CNC milling. I actually had no thoughts in that direction at all untill I started doing a DIY projector... During my research on that I found a site called Lumenlab. This is a quite vibrant group interested in lots of different areas. The founder of the site Grayson Sigler seems to be a lifelong learner type with disparate interests.

Not only did he start the site because of his DIY video projector project, but he has brought in Alternative Power, Earthships, Robotics, DIY Audio, Deposition printing and on and on and on...

What caught my eye was the thread he started on CNC Milling. I knew it existed, but I didn't know mutch about it. As the thread progressed, I got sucked in because of his energy and focus. Hmmm, CNC . As a mater of fact I have often run into a situation where I needed some little bit but no one made them so I had to make it myself. I have woodworking machines and handtools, but I don't have anything with real precision.

I joined the site (http://lumenlab.com) in April of this year. My forum name is davedavedave just like here. What is that...going on 6 months, I guess. I followed the thread on projectors, then slowly got pulled over to the "Robotics" side. There I watched with fascination as "Brainchild" explained what he was doing to develop a CNC Milling machine. He was going to offer it as one of a number of robotics kits.

Then he started talking about a desktop version. $599 !!! I could afford that! I don't have a lot of spare cash (even less lately) but I could do this. And it would allow me to make my little bits (a plastic thing here, an aluminum thing there) and customize it myself!