Sources / links for beginner tutorials for CNC?

[William Adams]

Does anyone have any especially good tutorials for beginners?

Any suggestions on first projects?

[Art Mann]

You didn't say what software you are planning on buying or what your budget is. A lot depends on that. I really like the Vectric software. The company has outstanding training videos that will increase your understanding even if you eventually buy another brand.

[William Adams]

I’d like to avoid such considerations / encompass all price points / software.

For once, can’t we have a discussion about CNC which doesn’t get mired down in price / software-specifics?

Thanks though, for recommending the Vectric tutorials.

[Art Mann]

I googled "CNC Router Tutorials" and got several hundred hits, including quite a few Youtube videos. These didn't exist when I got into it so I can't judge their worth, but some of them look pretty good. I also found an on line book on the subject. I have yet to see a commercial book or video on the subject from any of the woodworking media sources. The free information will give you an idea of how the mechanics work. That is the easy part. I will not insult your intelligence by listing dozens of links you can find for yourself. The real challenge is to learn how to make the machine do something useful. To accomplish that, the first thing you will have to do is learn about software. That is, by far, the most difficult challenge.

[Mike Heidrick]

Does anyone have any especially good tutorials for beginners?

Any suggestions on first projects?

Don't you write/edit the wiki for shapeoko?

[Art Mann]

I just found several of your posts from years gone by, which indicate a high level of understanding of the subject matter. You are obviously already capable of doing your own searches on the subject and even posting tutorials for someone else. I would like to know the purpose of this thread. I can't help but suspect ulterior motives.

[William Adams]

I’m trying to survey what else is available, and to help out a member here who has been corresponding via PM, but doesn’t seem to find my writing style or the ShapeOko wiki of much help. Yes, I’d also like to fill out any missing links on the wiki as well.

I’m too simple a person for ulterior motives or anything beyond a desire to know what has been written thus far.

I also certainly don’t know everything, nor do I even claim to’ve found and linked everything — since I don’t use commercial software unless I have to, there’s probably a lot which I haven’t found. Any links which are posted would probably be copied into the wiki, w/ a footnote reference back to the original post of that’s acceptable.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Does anyone have any especially good tutorials for beginners?





I’d like to avoid such considerations / encompass all price points / software.

For once, can’t we have a discussion about CNC which doesn’t get mired down in price / software-specifics?

A beginner level tutorial done in one software package would be almost useless to someone using different software.

So I think the answer to your second question is no. Beginner level tutorials would most often be very software specific.


For anyone using any of Vectric's packages, they have a ton of tutorials, which would like be quite useless for someone not using their products.

A Mach3 tutorial would be useless for someone using a machine running GRBL.

[William Adams]

Okay, to rephrase then, which CNC software packages have especially good tutorials?

Thus far we have two nominations for Vectric --- any others?

[Bruce Page]

I found the following two articles informative when I was starting out with my CNC.


Google:

Understanding CNC Routers - Solutions for Wood

Introduction to CNC - Vectric

Both articles are large PDF files, too large to post here.

[Mike Heidrick]

James did a cnc machining how-to on hobby machinist. "CNC from sketch to part the way i do it" is the title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWpDMADgWk (http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/cnc-from-sketch-to-part-the-way-i-do-it.19633/)

Lots of ways to get to a part is the point.