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Morris Dovey
 
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Default Mortise and Tenon Machine?

Oleg Lego (in ) said:

| The Morris Dovey entity posted thusly:
|
|| Beside for mortise and tenon work that none of the machines
|| mentioned could come near, it allows doing stuff like what I
|| posted earlier today on ABPW under "MDF Scrap" - and makes me wish
|| I hadn't wasted money on router jigs, fixtures, and accessories.
|
| But you can sure by a lot of jigs, fixtures and accessories (not to
| mention routers and tables), for what you'd have to spend on a
| ShopBot.

Starting out, I was afraid to consider used equipment and wasn't aware
that there were some really good buys to be had. Had I known how to
look for used equipment, I'd have paid far less (perhaps a fifth or a
fourth as much) for a good used machine.

If I'd known what I've learned _since_ buying my machine, I'd almost
certainly have paid to have a table and gantries welded up and then
built the rest myself. Three-axis controller cards and stepper motors
are available off-the-shelf.

I've been thinking seriously about CNC conversions for mini-mill (HF)
and mini-lathe (Griz) for making small metal parts for the woodshop.
Either can be built using all new components for under $2K. I have a
programming background and was able to write the driver software for a
$200 controller card in about an hour. It's /not/ rocket surgery!

There was a recent thread with a Dutch OP who built a CNC router and
I'll guess that machine put him out of pocket less than $1K, and could
be modified (only slightly) to become a wonderfully flexible CNC
joinery machine capable of out-performing any/all of the off-the-shelf
passive joinery machines - and produce joints impossible/impractical
with templates.

Best of all, there's a _lot_ of free help available. The ShopBot and
CNCZone forums (both of which welcome visitors) have been of
considerable help to me.

Now you know more than I did when I started. :-)

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/solar.html