Hello and welcome.
My name is Peter Passuello and I live on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
Over
the past 10 years I have been involved in the CNC hobby and built my
first machine back in 2006 from a photo I saw on a website. From there I
learnt two things. I like CNC machines and the value of building from
plans.
This was my first machine and had a cutting area of 8 inch x 8 inch. While it was small and slow, it taught me a lot about how to use such a machine and made me want to build another larger one. With that I started to look around for plans and settled on the 25 x 37 Solsylva machine.
The Solsylva machine allowed me to make bigger and better things but it didn't have the speed or the rigidity I wanted in a CNC machine. Part of the problem is I deviated from the original design and instead of having a dual X drive I used a single stepper with centre drive. The design used a bearing on pipe system and while it was a common way of making and riding rails at the time, it isn't the best. Newer machines now use VBearings which are easier to use, better and cheaper. They have now become the standard.
Enter the Joes 4x4 Hybrid.
I saw Joes design process over on the CNCZone forum and thought this is the machine for me. When the plans became available at the begining of 2008 I immediately bought the plans and started planning my build. I have problems with finding the parts needed as much of the material was not available in New Zealand. I found similar extrusions for my rails and substituted metric for imperial. VBearings I couldn't find and, after getting no reply from suppliers in the United States, I decided to make my own. Even to this day, when I can get and have laying about some purchased VBearings, I am still using my homemade ones on the Y Axis of my machine. This was the first Hybrid built in New Zealand
Two years later Joe redesigned the 4 x 4 Hybrid to be rack and pinion drive and my current machine was born. It looks very similar to the previous machine but is a simpler build, easier to set up and runs much faster. Joe has since redesigned the machine and bought us the Evolution. I have also started designing my own. Have I finished building yet?
Only time will tell.
