Armstrong CNC with manual machine

[Paul Thompson]

It might be nice to display your feed-rate as you crank the handles to help keep it steady. It could know the size of the cut and perhaps account for tool deflection or warn if too heavy a cut. This might be good for tiny endmills to let you know if you are too fast or slow.

It would also be nice if it could help you mill along a curve by instructing you which handle to turn and how much. You control the size of the x and y moves. A few thousandths at a time would give pretty good accuracy. Some sort of lights or sounds could help guide you. At a minimum it could show you several points to plunge an endmill to form a circle larger than the cutter.

With some more advanced graphics you could display the part and the cut as it happens. Perhaps you could zoom in so you could cut blindly by looking at the screen. It could adjust your tool path for different cutter diameters. The sky is the limit.

[Eskimo2k]

I really hate to burst your bubble, but cranking anything by hand will not lead to an optimal result. Extremely experienced machinists can do it, as well as Etch-A-Sketch artists, but this is a hobby forum, and face it, we aren't that skilled at hand feeding.

If you would really like to get that experience, I would suggest getting an Etch-A-Sketch. It is a fantastic tool for learning how to coordinate X and Y plane moves into circular motions.

If you desire consumer grade results, you may wish to upgrade your system to CNC and learn G code. Then the sky really is the limit.