My 1st Design Job!!!

I’ve been asked to use simple manufacturing techniques for a my first design job. e.g. CNC manufacture, laser-cutting, acid-etching, etc.

Does anyone know any good sites that have information on these techniques?

Especially videos, to see the actual process as opposed to 2-D illustrations.

Thanks.

From my experience with cnc and laser cut the best is to find the providers, visit them and ask them the questions, see samples, see the finishings, in principle you just provide the cad data in the specifies format and off they go with it.
Waterjet cutting is really cool also, you can cut trough anything, and pretty thick, although more than 20cm there is a pretty ugly draft angle and distortion.

hey mr product,

best thing you could do is go down to the machine shops (soon to be vendors) and have a look first hand. not only will you get an idea of the process(es) but you can see the limitations and the variations in the shops in your area. i know i had vague ideas of what was possible when i first started (basic uni course stuff). found out pretty quick talking to the guys who run the machines that i really understood the very basics. the machinists are a fantastic resource. most of them will have built a wide variety of parts and can have great suggestions of how to better help manufacturability, materials, etc.

regarding animations, i haven’t looked for sites that might have animations but i would think googling cnc machining avi, etc. would get some hits. i imagine some the machine shops may have some small animations. (hurco and monarc are two of the big cnc suppliers/manufacturers, they might have something.)

if you can spend the time and have the opportunity, go down and see it all first hand. if you intend to build what you have designed (prototype, production, etc.), you want to start finding vendors in your area that you can trust and do quality work. if you are only doing the design side it would still pay you to know some vendors in case the client wants a prototype from you.

hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Another good resource for information would be local Universities. Most universities that have engineering programs will have pretty advanced machine shops. They guys who run the shops are usually pretty helpful and more willing to let you take a look around, or explain things than people at businesses. Its worth a try.