CNC milling machine offered

Discussion
1

Hello. Co-incidentally, after creating an account here last night, this morning someone on my local Facebook group is offering something which may be of interest:

“Free! An Isel CPM 2018 CNC milling machine. Pick up from Clifton Road, Wimbledon. Disclaimer: this machine is 16 years old and ran on an old CAM software called Galaad. The machine does run, but it needs updating with a new control board to run the servos, CAM software and machine controller software. It will take some work to get it going, but it should work. It also weighs about 45kgs but will fit in a car.”

There’s also a photo of it.

If this appeals, I’m happy to do some investigation of the work required to get it going. I’m happy tinkering around with electronics and who knows - maybe there’s some open-source software available which will drive the thing?

5 Likes
2

Looks interesting @deanforbes @metaltechs @lewisss @Andrew_Tidman any opinions?

EDIT: here’s a thread with someone’s recent adventures with the same model

3

Isel is a good brand. It may need work but if it’s only 45kg then it’s not that big. We should go for it.

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Also my feeling

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image

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Definitely! Someone needs to move quickly though.

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7

its a :+1: from me, as well.

@Matthew, could you please email the directors at directors@southlondonmakerspace.org ?

Cheers!

8

Yep - will do! I don’t have a car or I’d be happy to transport, but I can help with lifting.

9

Please pick it up, sounds ideal for the space. Then we can get something that cuts 8x4 sheets later…

If the space doesn’t want it I’ll take it for the Digital Making Space we are putting together at Sammy’s school

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I’m happy to do some driving!

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I’m also happy to pick up…

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points at dermot cowardly, he has a van and lives nearer to wimbledon than me :wink:

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I know Clifton Road well…

14

As it’s in a good cause, maybe the company would be willing to donate a software licence?

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15

looks good go for it

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16

I spoke to my work colleague they said the Galaad is not great, they said that ArtCAM was good but it’s being discontinued.

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@Courty reckons there’s some straightforward solutions

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It a good one to test the use case for CNC at SLMS

the software is the least of the challenges (there are tried and tested open source options) sure it needs to be updated but the bigger issue I imagine is that members also need training and it will need maintenance

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19

If it’s got standard stepper motors, quickest and best solution is to convert it straight to GRBL and make it industry standard.
The GRBL board leaves change from £20.00 and the software is open source. (We will need an old PC for the source though)

Courty

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I’m in favour of this. CNC milling is a great boost to machining parts with better precision than possible with the manual mill. I’ve been meaning to mill some parts for a while but they required CNC due to the symmetry and tolerances.