OpenBuilds Lead 1515

Wow, first build in the books, and a monster build at that! OpenBuilds Lead 1515 is a great option to be the first build for someone. I have no previous CNC experience and there was a learning curve, but with patience and the very helpful videos from OpenBuilds it made short work of any guessing that had to go into it. The build video was very straight forward with very helpful tips along the way. Such as when OpenBuilds would explain what this part you're assembling is actually going to do. This really helped me visualize what I am doing along the way. Prior to receiving the build in the mail I started watching the build video which really helped me. I am looking forward to getting into the CNC world and making everything from signs and plaques, to stools and chairs.



Things that I found were helpful:

• Be patient: do not rush into the next step without watching the video of that step fully. Although you might think you know what is happening, you might put something in the wrong place and it will definitely mess you up in the future. Don't ask me how I know...
• Watch the build video: watch the video and watch the video again. Before getting frustrated if something is not working out how it should in the video, just rewatch the step you are on. OpenBuilds does a great job at explaining everything in detail.

Things that I was surprised at:

• Ease of assembly. Like I said this was my first time doing anything like this and the thought of having what seemed like tens of thousands of screws, shims, wheels etc. to assemble was very daunting. But after going through step by step it really was just that easy. One step at a time and you slowly watched the machine come to life.
• Ease of use. Granted this is my first machine so I have not used any others or a lot of different software. But being able to just plug everything into the Blackbox and load up software that does not take days or weeks to design projects and input it into the machine and it just works, was very shocking for me. I am beyond happy with how easy it is to use the Lead 1515.
• Noise of the Router11 and Blackbox. I thought turning on the Blackbox I would hear something like a computer fan, but I barely heard it at all. And with the Router I was expecting it to be almost as bad a shopvac, but it was nothing like that at all. I was running the router on 3 and it seemed to be doing everything just fine. The shopvac that I have now is the only loud thing in my garage, and I can already see myself getting the type of vacuum that is in the build video.

Setting up OpenBuilds CAM and the Blackbox went very fast and was very easy for a newbie like myself to understand. It was very satisfying being able to jog my machine around knowing that I assembled all of these parts and made this whole machine work. Talk about patting myself on the back! Not long after I made the hello world carve and it turned out amazing. The next day I designed something very easy and put in and it came out really well. I was like a kid in a candy store thinking of all the things I could make as I'm watching the machine buzz away.

All in all I think my first build went really well. All of the questions I had were answered by rewatching the step of the video I was on. I already got myself another light to put in the garage so I can really see what's going on. I can see the garage turning into a whole wood working shop with barely any space to walk.



Here are some pictures of the build process and of my first hello world and first designed carve by myself. I am super excited to start doing so much more and to publish them for all to see.