[Noisebridge-discuss] Other Mill for Noisebridge?

[Jake]

On 06/28/2015 05:07 PM, Mitch Altman wrote:
> Other Mill is a robust CNC milling machine made by a small company
> here in the Mission.
>
> Maybe you saw it when they came to Noisebridge a few months ago and
> gave a demo.  It's really nice for making PCBs (amongst other things).
>
> They really want to sell us one of their machines, at a 5%
> discount.  That would come to ~$2,100.
>
> Do you think there's enough interest for raising the funds to get one
> for Noisebridge?

The MaxNC mill is still at noisebridge in the dirty shop, and it's better 
than the othermill in every way, and did i mention we already have it?

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/MaxNCMill

it was semi-recently used to make keys:

https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Key_Milling

I think noisebridge could get much more interesting things for $2100 than 
another mill, but we would have to think creatively and put time into 
playing with them.  I would say we should get a pick-n-place machine but 
we just got one donated!  So instead, put your time into learning and 
teaching CAD software (like KiCAD which is FOSS) and making circuitboards, 
and having the machine put the parts on!

also, i was really turned off by the othermill because the authors said 
the software was ONLY for macOS, and when i asked if the machine worked 
with regular G-code (on other platforms) they straight-up DIDN'T KNOW.
Also, their software is closed-source!  WTF?

so while i like the idea and i think it's cute, i don't think noisebridge 
needs one at all.

noisebridge needs hackers to go there and hack on stuff, like the MaxNC 
mill and the new Pick-n-place machine.

-jake