There were so many things to see at Maker Faire that the booths spilled out of the buildings and into various tents on the grounds. One of the most interesting tents was packed with tables showing off CNC machines and that’s where we ran into two that are familiar, and still amazing.
First up is the handheld CNC router which we saw all the way back in 2012. It’s a spectacular piece of tech that adds a base to a handheld router. The base gives the tool a touchscreen system, the ability to precisely track it’s location, and adjustment motors to move the cutting bit in order to correct for imperfections in operator movements. It’s really amazing and we are happy to see they have formed a company called Taktia around the concept and are heading for crowd funding soon.
The second half of the video shows off the Nomad CNC mill which we covered at the end of April. Carbide 3D had a hugely successful (more than 10x the goal) Kickstarter that they tried to blame on the support of Hackaday readers. It’s a no-brainer that this machine is the one to watch, as even our hacked camera work doesn’t lose the fact that it can produce rock-solid results.
What is the takita using as a spindle?
Looks like a dewalt dw611 hand router.
Thats what I thought it was just wanted to get confirmation
How can the handheld router have 1/100 inch accuracy, if the print area is unlimited? There must be some error that accumulates. If you make a huge square, the end probably won’t line up that well compared to a small square.
Still a very impressive demo, though.
You just listed the error that accumulates. For every hundred inches, he accuracy will be impaired by one inch.
In that case, the word ” inch” is unnecessary, right?
In that case, the inch is incorrect, that’s a 1% accuracy.
Going by some of the shots of it in use, they appear to require a non-repeating tape of (what looks like) QR codes to be placed on the board which would allow them to continuously correct their absolute position and so not accumulate errors.
Granted, I’ not sure if/how it works if you want to go back over an area that you’ve already cut (and so ruined the reference code-tape) – maybe they assume you don’t return to an area once cut or that you have high-enough coverage that there’s always enough reference markers in view to avoid drift errors?
IIRC, the HAD readers pretty much poo-pooed the idea of the Carbide 3D. Citing such things as it’s shitty “stepper” spindle that isn’t actually a stepper and a lack of “proper” whatever it has to have but does not?
It’s not a very pretty machine, a very utilitarian and non-ground breaking design that seems to do what you would expect it to BUT it is in a small cabinet and would fit great right next to people’s 3D printers so they can machine their mechanical parts but mostly 90% of them will just make keychains and the same 20 generic models everyone else is running. I guess the money making concepts are 1) Take something bigger than a desktop box 2) Put it in a desktop box 3) profit. How long before someone comes out with a desktop box sized … oops, gotta get working on something.
The Taktia device is still as cool as it was in 2012. They should put WiFi on it, if it doesn’t have it, and enter it into the hackaday contest. I think it’s one of those ‘oh wow’ concepts even if there’s room for more development and a lot of woodworkers would love to be able to engrave text and images into their projects accurately. If they can find a good promoter they would probably do very well. If they do a Kickstarter they should try to get with some of the popular woodworking guys on YouTube to give it a shot and show it, they’d probably sell tons.
This inspires a further design, large surface area with tight accuracy by using lazy/inaccurate gantry movement across a large area with a camera assisted error adjusting head… hmmm.
How do you prevent climb cuts with the router?
Angry handheld routers are already pretty intimidating. Angry handheld routers with an agenda are potentially quite frightening.
“Angry handheld routers are already pretty intimidating. Angry handheld routers with an agenda are potentially quite frightening.”
I shouldn’t have laughed, but I somehow did.
Taktia is one of those concepts that’s easy to overlook, but more significant than even fans appear to realize. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company goes nowhere over the next couple years, then ten years down the road, the concept has completely replaced five other tools in every handyman’s home.
In regards to comments about accuracy vs unlimited range… They are using visual indicators. So accuracy over a large distance is determined, first, by the tape. Its placement dictates accuracy outside of the visual registration system. So if you want to cut a straight line, but your tape has a very slight curve (small enough that the visual system can’t compensate) then the system will cut a slight curve. This can easily be solved though.
There is also the stacking offset of the printed tape. Over distances under twenty feet, this is likely less than 0.01″. Longer distances would likely require you measure and adjust the marking tape.
Then added to that is the accuracy of their registration system… which is likely an order of magnitude greater than 0.01″.
Wonderful idea, and I’m hoping to see it soon.
I have a pretty decent CNC router and a very nice laser cutter. And yet, I am head-over-heels in lust with the Taktia. The idea of being able to use it almost anywhere (on the ceiling, for example!) without having to move the workpiece to my router table is staggering. I hope to someday see a miniaturized version that can work in tighter spaces. Even if it isn’t very powerful (say, Dremel quality rather than CNC spindle), it would be super useful.
Taktia, hurry up and take my money!