CNC milling

My dad is a serial hobbyist. went from sailing, to navigation, to astronomy, to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrery, to machining parts for orreries, to machining parts for anything, to the software that's required to machine parts for anything. This turned into a business:

http://www.easymill.co.uk/index2.php3

As far as I can tell (and i don't know much about it) this software turns CAD into co-ordinates that CNC mills can read. IE if you have a CAD drawing of something then you can mill it. I don't know how many axes this works for (definitely three, which is what he has, I think it works for 4-axis machines too, as he is making the parts to make his machine have a 4th axis).

If anyone is interested in milling and would like to try it, apparently it is excellent and excellent value. My dad was initially a customer (being bilingual, he originally bought the French version), but he liked it so much that he decided to become a distributor and translate it into English.

have a look anyway, hits are good, people requesting trials are better. Hobby machinists with a mill (but struggling to e.g. knock up inch pitch chainrings or peugeot-sized seat posts) wanting to purchase - even better!

/sales pitch end

xx

i was thinking about getting some spanners milled. (my housemate works at a CNC company, but they are really busy at present)

I need a headset spanner and they are surprisingly expensive for a piece of 4mm thick milled metal.

would be super easy to mill headset spanner one end cone/pedal on the other, if more people were interested in sharing milling costs for an hour it could be a good idea?

As far as I can tell (and i don't know much about it) this software turns CAD into co-ordinates that CNC mills can read.

gcode I expect.

maybe i slightly misread that....are you just distributing the software?

Not an expert but I can see possible problems with milling a spanner rather than forging.

yea i hear that, but are cone and headset spanners forged?

they dont look it

I think you can cnc spanners.

My dad is selling the software, either to small companies or to individual "hobbyists". He does have a machine though, I'll ask him. I suspect though it would take him a while to make a single spanner (most of the time is in setting it up, then you could just bosh them out afterwards) and wouldn't be cost effective...

yea thats what i meant by use for an hour. if people were interested in a group buy...that's what I meant by my OP. was kinda just testing the water to see if anyone else would be interested.

yea i hear that, but are cone and headset spanners forged?

they dont look it

Yeah your right they are probably just just stamped or similar.

I think you can cnc spanners.

It was not a question of possibility but more of is it a good idea, as I'm not sure.

You're probably right Tommy, may not be a good idea. I found some that are CNC'd but i think it is pretty difficult to CNC a strong and sharp internal corner