Some CNC router projects.

[rodm]

Rather than revive the long thread on my CNC router build I thought a quick one to show some of the various work I have been doing. I am reasonably confident about operating the software and machine now and have done heaps of jobs from engraving to making parts.

Here are a few photos of the work. I have lots more but they have people's names on them so it is not fair to plaster their name over the internet.

The funny shaped MDF thingo is a tool I made to remove a stuck lid on a pool filter and it worked a treat. Materials I have used include timber and mdf, aluminum, alucabond and delrin. The finish is good with little or no machining marks. I have been using V routers bits as well as small upcut spiral end mills.

[Harry72]

Now you just need to make up metal "makers marks" plates for all us forumites to sign our work with... your cnc will pay for itself in no time!

[rodm]

I have made an anodised circular disk 50mm diam with makers mark on it. A 50mm forstner bit sunk it into a grandfather clock so it was flush. Great thing about CNC is it is one setup and it does the engraving then cuts the part out. While all this is happening I am inside designing the next project or having a cuppa. :D

[echnidna]

Gee, I wish you hadn't posted that.

Makes me realise how very very slack I am for not finishing the half built CNC router in my shed. :rolleyes:

Seriously though it all looks great. :)

[KevM]

While all this is happening I am inside designing the next project or having a cuppa. :D
Rod,
I bet you don't leave it alone....just in case:) :) . come on now, tell the truth, you can't help but stay and watch while it continues to cut. I'm sure after all the effort that you have put into building it that you would be mesmerised just sitting there watching it moving around unaided by human intervention.

Kev M

[rodm]

Bob
It is worth the effort. :) My machine runs almost every night and most of the weekend. I think if I started charging it would slow down but at the moment it is all good experience.

Kev
It is very much like that at first but when the novelty wears off it is much better to be away from a screaming router and the dust. It has micro switches on all the axis and the machine shuts down if one of these is triggered so not much can go wrong (yeah right).

[echnidna]

now you need to think of products you can wholesale in bulk lots

[rodm]

Another idea I came up with. A desk name with a 36mm clock set in. The router does it all - engraving and the recess for the clock.

[Ozzie-Boof]

Rod,

Forgive me if I'm asking newbie questions. Am really interested in building a CNC or even a manual duplicating router setup.

Which routers available here is Australia are most suitable for these types of applications. The ones I've seen come from the US and I haven't as yet come across these particular Porter-Cable and Bosch models over here.

Cheers,
BooF
:eek:

[rodm]

BooF
I am using a $49 Ozito 1/4 inch variable speed router. :eek:

The software tells me it has over 80 hrs use and it hasn't missed a beat. That is a lot of cutting if you think about it and while I am not keen on the throw away models I can't complain about this little fellah.

My CNC router build log is here
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=24299

Sorry but I don't know anything about duplicating routers.

[Ozzie-Boof]

Hey Rod,

Stroof, mate - your CNC thread is off the planet!! Well done.

Have to check out the Ozito - want to carve/rout guitar and violin bodies accurately.

I've been looking to build one of the following units up and was looking at the type of router in these pics:

http://www.mykaguitars.com/tools/carver/default.htm

Any comments here will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
BooF
:eek:

[rev]

Very impressive achievement Rod!

[rodm]

Thanks BooF and Rev

I had a look at the router duplicator link. This is an elaborate jig for cutting shapes and I think I would prefer a hand held router and template myself.
There are a lot of shortcomings in the design such as the vertical arc of the router as it moves down. Obviously the builder has gone to a lot of effort and expense to build it so it might be worth contacting him to find out a bit more.

[rodm]

To bring this post up to date here are a few more projects. These are all in aluminum of some sort or another. The grill emblems were for a local car club and I did two styles and about 30 emblems all up. Hoggy follow was a sign for a farm and is about 500 by 300mm from memory. The Jessie was just a small memorial plaque. The flaming thingo is a 300mm sub woofer cover for a car show - was never used in real life as it probably would have blown the speaker with back pressure. The black Truck_n_tuff was another car show bit. Half the battle for me is designing these as I am a sqaure box person and have very little artistic talent. Fortunately there is plenty of good art available and I can copy and paste.

[rodm]

And a couple of timber jobs. The Lazee dayz shingle is about 800 by 200mm and the other three jobs are around 200 to 300mm.

[simso]

You know I dont need to say this rod, but very nice mate, even photos I havent seen before

PS rod got me started into cnc, it truly is mind blowing what it can do

Enjoy
Steve

[WillyInBris]

Yeps looks like I missed some of this as well good work Rod and Steve.

Sean

[rodm]

Steve, Sean
I rarely take a photo of my work these days unless it is different so lots has gone out the door not recorded.
I was really tempted to show some photos of the guitar work from Jason but thought better of it. I have sent him an email to see if he will post it himself. This will show what can really be done on a CNC machine.
Gary has shown some of his work here before but his acrylic work would also be good to see here.
Just to show what can be done with acrylics I'll post this one from Dennis which is mirrored acrylic. It is mirror image cut on the back to remove the silvering and then coloured with paints.

[rodm]

This job took 10 minutes to design and create the machine code. About 20 minutes to size the timber, mount on the machine and zero the axes.
19 minutes to cut and its all done.
Timber is Tasmanian Oak and I have coloured the engraving with Baltic Pine to give it a bit of contrast. It is 850 by 150 by 19mm.
It might look difficult to do but this type of work is very easy and can be bread and butter if you want to make money.

[rodm]

Ok all sprayed up and mounted on the planter box now. I think it takes the industrial look away from the aluminum skid plate. My sons partner is one of those clever arty people and she is gonig to colour the aluminum in tones the same as the fish in the last photo.

[rodm]

Following on from the last post they wanted a clock for the back wall. The timber is Tassie Oak to match up with the other and is 265mm round. After doing the engraving I used a Vbit to 10mm depth around the perimeter to give it a bevel, then cut though, outside the line with an upcut spiral bit.

This was where I ran into a bit of trouble. When I changed tools I did the silly thing of zeroing the tool to the job but not adjusting the software. Bingo hit the start button and it gouged a trough into the clock face. :-

I now had a 15mm long and 6.5mm deep trough in the face of the clock. Not wanting to spend too much time on it I modified the drawing to have the four semi circles you now see on the face. I actually like them as it makes it a bit different so sometimes our mistakes pay off. :)

The back mechanism was also cut by the machine and was easy to reference because of the through hole I did on the face for the clock spindle.

I used Batlic Pine stain to highlight the engraving and edges to help give it a little extra shadow effect.

A very easy job to do and what is always nice is to add a personal touch with some text for the new owners.

[woodbe]

Rod, what a great little gizmo you have created there. well done.

Would it be suitable for making a lot of small parts, like cutting small wheels out of plastic?

woodbe.

[rodm]

Hi Woodbe,
Without seeing a design I can only say possibly. A simple disc with a hole for the axis is easy and you can certainly put a lot of detail in the face of the wheel. The tread area is a problem as a fourth axis (rotary table) is needed to do that.

[rodm]

The job for this week is another plaque of sorts. The story behind this one is the house is on Cromwell Street but the front faces The Avenue. Hence the address "On the Avenue" to help visitors and the postie.
I couldn't get the song "Girls on the Avenue" out of my head while I ran this job. :)
It is jarrah and 175 by 460 by 30mm thick. I ran a Vbit 3mm deep on the line around the edge before using an upcut bit outside the line to cut out the shape. Easy way of creating a chamfered edge. Rest is fairly straight forward and I modifed some existing vector art to create the job. Font is Edwardian Script and it is very popular. I don't like the white paint and prefer something more subtle to let the timber do the talking but the owners wanted it white to make it stand out.
I hope we are getting a reasonable collection of projects that shows what these machines can do. Anyone is welcome to post their CNC projects. Hint, Hint

[rodm]

Here is a job I did a couple of weeks ago. It was a retirement gift for a collegue and he has two daughters both living in other parts of the world. The three clocks keep track of what time of the day it is in each location.
Timber is sheoak and all was done by CNC including the pockets for the clocks and the acrylic base.

I have blacked out the persons name on the back.

[Greolt]

Rod

Did you do something special to get the finish on the oval cut acrylic?

Greg

[rodm]

Hi Greg,
Used a Vbit to chamfer the edge then a mill bit to cut it out. Polished the cut edges on a cloth mop buff on the grinder with white tripolli (?). I'm new to acrylics so still learning.

Not sure if the buff abrades the surface or just melts it to return to clear. Anyway it is easily done and not a lot of skill or risk involved. I'm told a heat gun works but it didn't for me. :-

[jb2060]

That is a couple of really nice jobs Rod. I particularly like the sign - well done

[rodm]

Thanks Jason.
The photos don't do it justice as the engraving is down to 9mm depth in some parts. As you know very easy to do in Vcarve.
cheers,
Rod

[rodm]

I got the Vector Art 3D starter pack and just for fun did another plaque same as the earlier one but included a hanger and a 3D carving.
Really pleased at the resuult and very easy to do. It only look about an hour to cut the rose.
I will join the two with gold chain.

[Greolt]

Looks great Rod.

Are you using "Cut3D" or the free "VA3D-Machinist" ?

Greg

[rodm]

Hi Greg,
Using VA3D at the moment. Wasn't sure how it was going to pan out so rather than shell out more dollars I did this as a trial. I'll be buying Cut 3D soon.
cheers,
Rod

[WillyInBris]

Good stuff Rod :2tsup: its addictive the 3D stuff I found.

I am so looking forward to getting to Coffs so I can get back to it.

What Stepover did you use and what Bits how long did it take for Vectric to send the disk.

Sean

[rodm]

The 3D starter disk was from VectorArt and they were very good to deal with. He arranged considerably cheaper transport than quoted on his web site and the disk was here in about one and a half weeks. It did take a while to sort out the transport before it was sent.
I used 1/4 inch ball end mill bit for roughing down to 0.1mm and then 1/8 inch ball end for the finishing at 40% stepover. I have not cleaned up any of it and what you see is off the tool. It was all cut at 1m/min and I could have gone faster - will next time. :)

[rodm]

I was told when I got home that I had a couple of hours to do a job for somebodies birthday. It was mixed messages and I thought it was a keyring but it ended up being a bar sign that was required. Thank goodness for spray lacquer as I would not have done it in time with any other finish. The birthday boy got an extra present too. :)
Very basic stuff but it does show what can be done in a short time. Designed, ran the jobs and finishing in two and half hours. Yeah I was late but I had to take my wife to work in the middle of it all.
Keyring is white acrylic and both jobs were painted with black acrylic in the engraving.

[Greolt]

I have been wanting to give Lithophanes a go for a while and could not source any Corian.

Corian is the preferred material. You can also use white acrylic.

Someone gave me some offcuts that they had so here is my first go at doing Lithophanes.

Glacier white is the colour I think. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out.

I do not have a small ballnose tool so I used a 60 degree vee cutter and told the software it was a 1mm ballnose. 10% stepeover.

It only took seven hours to cut. :o

I have showed it to a few people and at first they look at it quizzically and then they hold it up to the light and are just amazed.

The photo just does not do it justice. You can see the individual blades of grass.

Greg

PS: An old family photo. My brothers and me. Mum will love it.

.

[crocky]

Hi Greg,

Looks pretty darn good :)

What size is it?

[WillyInBris]

That really looks the goods to be sure, can you give me an idea on feed rates etc that you used.

I would love to do one of our dogs soon for the wife.

[rodm]

Hi Greg,
Fantastic and preserved for a long time now. Can you engrave on the edges the names and date and where it was taken. It will surely become a treasured family piece that will be passed down.

Are you planning on mounting it and lighting it artificially?

[Greolt]

Bob

It is about 230 x 160 cut from 1/2" corian

WillyInBris

As I remember it was 1200mm/min with a 60 degree vee cutter. 0.1mm stepover

It needs to be about 1mm thick at the thinnest and 3mm deep or 4mm at the thickest so I had a lot to cut away.

Next time I will cut it down to 4mm thick with an end mill before starting the carving.

That will not mean it will cut faster as the vee cutter did it in one pass anyway.

But it was very noisy cutting that way and at seven hours I will drive the neighbours mad.

Rod

No Mum will think it's wonderful as is. :roll: She can stick it in the window.

[R3R]

..just had to signup to say how inspiring your threads have been in this forum rodm :2tsup:

if i were to attempt a CNC machine build like yours to do stuff like wht you showed here ...how much monies should i set aside?

i am in perth btw so i prob have to use pretty much the same sourcing of materials as you would/have

[rodm]

Welcome aboard R3R
Like all things it is variable depending on how you make it and how well you do purchasing the components. Best guess is $2k to $3k.

[R3R]

woah ...you are not kidding?!

i was prepared to see 5 digits ...but 3k and under stokes my enthusiasm ever more! :)

....hmmn....where to start ...wht to do ......

[rodm]

I'll send you a PM

[rodm]

Here are a couple of projects that will show up at the Melbourne BBQ on the 24th.
The horse was disappointing as I hit heart wood that wasn't all that obvious on the face. It was once the job was cut. :(
Looks a bit like a bullet has gone through his head or do I watch too many movies?
The lady has already been posted on the build thread but I have put it here to show newcomers what these machines can do.

[rodm]

Poor Ned has been carved in a better bit of timber so he looks a lot happier now. :)
The relief is about 12mm below the surface of the timber.

[rodm]

Tried a bevel inlay tonight of a flutterby. I am pleased with the first attempt and apart from a small chip in the abdomen the fit is perfect. You can see the chip in the first photo so perhaps there are better timbers to use for this than pine. I cannot detect the variation in materials on the surface. The bevel is the key to a tight fit and it was all designed in VCarve.
The series of photos explains it better than I can.
Note that the inlay is quite deep at around 10mm for the insert and 8mm for the pocket. Once the glue is dry I cut the insert flush with the base then sanded.

[WillyInBris]

Good work Rod Bloody fantastic indeed.

The inlay looks the goods will have to try that one day.

The wife and I have had a bit of a chat and I wont be able to get down to Melb this time :( but I will for the next BBQ.


Sean

[crocky]

Hi Rod,

Looks good even with the abdomen missing :) and Ned looks really good with the better timber :)

[rodm]

Thanks for the feedback and unfortunately I have to accept how they come off the machine as I have left my run a bit late to do repeat jobs now. Two days to go to the Melbourne meet.

No worries Sean I'm sure we will catch up with you at some time in the future.

[Greolt]

Poor Ned has been carved in a better bit of timber so he looks a lot happier now. :)


Looks like he took a panadol. Headache is much better.:U

[twistedfuse]

Great work as usual, love the inlay. Been playing around with basic inlays, definately have to try that type of inlay tho. Again your work seems to only inspire myself as im sure many others.

Hope you all have a great BBQ i would have loved to meet everyone, alas work is keeping me busy but ill definately try for the next one and hope work is not as bad then. Either way i hope there will be a DVD of the BBQ with all the excitement and knowledge from the day available for a small fee for people like Sean, myself and im sure many others who cant make it there. :-

Keep up the great work and enjoy the weekend.

[rodm]

Thanks Daniel
I am really looking forward to the Melbourne meet. I still have one more job to do before I leave so it looks like a few projects will go without any finish on them.
Pity the planets didn't allign for you and Sean to go but you can't expect everbody to be available and have funds for flying and accommodation. As you say there is always next year and going by the number attending this year it seems more people are trecking down the CNC path so it could even be bigger.

[Zoot]

Rod,
I really like your inlay and can't wait to try it out. I was the old guy with the white goatee at the Melbourne meet that walked around rubbing the butterfly inlay most of the day!
I make some timber dovetailed boxes and the idea of doing some inlays on the top panel is really exciting. Possibly even names etc. You can see some of my boxes on ... users.cyberone.com.au/ahunt/wood.html ... I have also worked up a 'Makers Mark' in VCarve that I want to engrave on the bottom of the boxes before I sell them, give them to charity or just give them to family and friends. I tried to attach a zipped .crv file for you to look at and comment on, but it exceeded the 100kb size limit.
Regards,
Alan

[jb2060]

Great Job on the inlay Rod. I will have to give the bevel inlay a go as well. I was thinking that it might have been a bit hard to maintain the integrity of the image as it changes as you go (sand) deeper - what I didn't realise is that bevel is quite a sharp angle. I have had good success with my method of cnc inlay but this might be a better way to go for large images.

I finished the latest guitar today and here is the headstock inlay (MoP).

[rodm]

Hi Alan,
I do remember having a chat to you later in the afternoon. Love you boxes and the inlays would compliment them nicely.
The butterfly was my first attempt and I did it two days before I flew over to the Melbourne meet. The job was very hurried and I was not happy about the chip but I didn't have time to redo it as I had other demos to prepare. It would work equally as well for lettering, in fact easier than the model I selected. Obviously I wanted a higher degree of difficulty to demonstrate the capabilities of Vcarve.
I plan to do a lot more experiementation with inlays in future.
Send me a PM and I will send you my email adress and you can attach the file. I am very interested to see what design you have come up with.

[rodm]

Hi Jason,
Superb work on the MOP inlays. If it was me I wouldn't change your method as you have got it perfect as it is.
Love to see more pics of the guitar.

The bevel is 60 degrees but even so I imagine if you did sand it back quite a bit the image would alter in size. You have good vision as this is something I had not thought about.

[samanthawest]

Hi
One of the other members gave me the address to your post site as I am looking for someone to carve an inscription onto the lid of a wooden box. Basically, something in fancy writing with the words 60th Wedding Anniversary and a date (8th March 2007) and either a ribbon draped under the words or a single rose on the side. Anyhow please let me know if you have the time to do something like this (looking at the whole thing, box and all being completed before Sept 2008 or Feb 2009). And also, if its do-able, a rough estimate on the price (the piece will be about 40cm x 30cm and the inscription somewhere in there). Also is there any particular thickness the piece needs to be?
Thankyou

[rodm]

Hi Samanthawest,
I don't do the type of work you are requesting but I know somebody that does. I have seen him do a box as you describe with a knife inside for a wedding heirloom. It was magnificent with an inlay done for the knife and the idea was to pass it on to the next generation when they got married.
Exotic timbers are not cheap and hard to source so there would be an expectation for an upfront fee to cover costs.
Carving the lid is not a problem and he has a CNC machine to do it.
I have attached a quick sketch so you can form your ideas and see a sample of what can be done. 3D rose is also possible but the lid would have to be quite thick to be able to do this.
Contact me via a PM and I will send you his details.

[rodm]

This is a console for a machine I have built and will be a protoype until I can sort out how all the elctronics works.

What I want to show here is how easy it is to cut a complex and busy panel with a CNC machine. That is 3.2mm aluminum plate and there are 41 square holes, one circular hole with three bolt holes. All up 58 minutes to make this while I sipped on a cuppa watching. It's hard work this CNC. :D

[Greolt]

Nice Rod.

Are you going to engrave labels for all the buttons?

Greg

[rodm]

Hi Greg,
Yeah eventually when I know what they all do. :D

Very much a prototype and I might scrap this panel and make a new one once I have designed the complete console. Electronics is not my thing so this is a steep learning curve for me.

I posted before but it disappeared.

[GRS]

Hi as mentioned in another thread here are some of the different jobs that CNC machines can do, you have to be patient with the painting side of things on some timber jobs but the perspex mirror is quite simple, just reverse engrave and paint with a spry can. The ali car badges are done on my mill.
Cheers
Gary

[John H]

Here is a small coin/medallion I did as a test on my Syil X4+ mill using VCarve and Mach3

[rodm]

Hi Gary,
A good spread of some of the projects you have done. I like the toombstone in the rustic timber.

Hi John,
Good to see that medallion cut out now. Now all you have to do is reverse engrave it. A tip here just cut a pocket with your machine then hold it in the pocket with thin double sided tape. After you cut the pocket do not move your machine off X zero and Y zero and you should then have the design centred on the job.

[John H]

Here is a small part I just made up for a radio controlled boat. The part was designed in Solidworks and the CAM was done in VCarve.

[rodm]

:2tsup:
Now you are starting to see the benefit of CNC. You have learnt heaps in a short time as I see profile, pocketing and drilling in you toolpath window.
Keep the projects coming John.

[John H]

My next trick will be to do a part that is required to be flipped over for 2 sided machining. I've cooked up a batch of machinable wax to have a play.

VCarve and Cut3D make it easy to learn ;)

[twistedfuse]

Is it possible to write up your technique for making machinabe wax. Im in the process of buildng a small machine for wax and engraving so it would help me out greatly with a receipe and directions. Im sure many others would benefit greatly too. Maybe start a new thread with the process and photos? Keep up the great work.

[John H]

I already have a thread on that subject http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=69171

[twistedfuse]

Thanks for that. I searched google a wile back before starting on this venture and found a few good links and a few really bad ones. There is one thing i noticed and that was each one left out something different. It always makes me double think myself especially with wax.

Thanks again, keep up the great work

[John H]

Here is a skull I machined today out of wax. I used a 2.5mm ball nose mill bit so some of the detail was lost due to the small size of the overall job.

I might give this one another go with a 2mm bit and run a second finishing pass 90deg to first to clean up some rough bits.

Although it's hard to see in the photos, it turned out quite well (my youngest Son wants to keep it and was horrified when I said I would melt it down).

Overall, the wax machined well

[rodm]

Hi John,
Nice job.
Did you use Cut3D to design the skull?

[WillyInBris]

That Skull looks way cool :2tsup: as the youngsters say today aye (have no idea what aye means lol) does this mean you are going to machine one in aluminium :D cant wait to see the result but I concur with your son on melting it.

The wax ts a good idea will have to have a look at the recipe.

Sean

[John H]

Yep, I used Cut3D for the toolpath (You can't design in Cut3D only import). I can't take credit for the design, I got off the Cut3D forum.

Once I locate a suitable piece of aluminium I'm going to mill one for the young fella. I might include it in with something else.

[rodm]

I made this collet case for a set of ER16 collets I got recently. A quick drawing then found a stick of 70mm by 19mm meranti in the shed and a hour later I'm giving the job a quick rub with sandpaper.

[Zoot]

Very nice Rod, but I was expecting to see the Mull coat of arms engraved on the top.

Cheers,

Alan:U

[rodm]

Yes it is a disappointment alright. :)

I even labelled the box with a permanent marker and to make it worse the finish was a couple of squirts from the oil can on my lathe - after the photos. :rolleyes:

I going to make another one tonight for the imperial collets.

[WillyInBris]

Hi Rod they look the part :D would have thought you would have at least Vcarved Metric on the side :roll:

I haven't got much further waiting on my next lot of collets from china MCJING don't have any ER11s listed on the site bit of a bugger :~ but I don't want to pay $130 at Hare and Forbes so will have to wait unless you have any ideas, still working on getting the supplier to work things out they seem to be coming to the party but its taking time.:C

[rodm]

Talk about trying to put pressure on a bloke - family shields, engraving on the side and next you lot will want to see it gift wrapped. :D
One coat of engine oil is good enough for me.
Off to make the second case now and happy to share the drawing if anyone wants it.

[WillyInBris]

Please Please Please drawing would be fantastic please :D.
No pressure mate hey you could even name the next one box :U

[rodm]

Hi Sean,
Drawing is on the way.

[GRS]

Hey Rod,

Good stuff there, I am going to have to do a similar thing me thinks:D

[rodm]

Still playing around with Cut3D and tried this tonight. It is raised rather than sunk in the job. I am a hopeless photographer so you don't see the detail as well. I think it is a trout as it has raised dimples (?) along its back.
Size in 230 by 185mm and yes that is heartwood again.
Now I have to work out what I am going to mount it on. :oo:

[Greolt]

Looks good Rod. I can see you are getting to use those 3D files.

Did you use tabs to hold it or another method? What size cutter? Cross hatch or only one direction?

Being soft pine do you use a rougher first or go straight to a small ballnose? And what size?

Sorry for the questions but I am interested and maybe others are also. :)

Greg

Oh I thought of another. Do you use a sacrificial piece underneath so you can cut through a small amount?

[WillyInBris]

:oo::2tsup:

I got some questions as well :U
Speeds
Stepover
Time Taken

Did you use your spindle? :cool:

:D

[rodm]

Ok I'll try to answer all that. :)
Tabs where put there by the software - could not remove them.
1/4 inch ballnose rough cut to within 0.1mm of finished size. You end up with a stepped flat tiered cut with the lower part of the cut within the tolerance. Finish cut was with a 3mm ballnose and 15% step over and I did have it set for 90 degree crossover but stopped after a single pass. The finish was good and I didn't want to wait another hour for the second pass. Only a couple of small areas were fury. It is for a demo for a gathering next month so that is why I used the pine with heartwood in it. I think the heartwood helped this time.
I did have a spoilboard but it ended up with an onion skin of the original pine left.
Feeds for the 1/4 inch ballnose were 2mm depth of cut and 900mm/min. The 3mm ballnose was 2000mm/min. Finishing cut took about an hour and half and rough cut was about an hour.
My spindle is suspect so I have another in transit from China. It got to Shanghai and was returned to the supplier becuase of current strict inspection requirements with the Olympics.
.....and that's your blooming lot for the week. :D

[rodm]

I'm hosting a workshop later this month and need to put together a few projects for demonstrations. They are repeats of pevious work and I'll probably hang on to this lot as I have very little of my work to show prospective CNC'ers.
It is an inlay of the butterfly and this time a perfect fit with no broken bits and a 3D fish I did in an ealier post. Pine and Jarrah timbers.
Now I have to think of a few more projects that will pass the scrutiny of some very experienced CNC'ers.
While this was being cut I managed to do a bit of work on the new machine. :2tsup:

[rodm]

I followed GRS's thread and did my first reverse carve. Very easy to do and as Gary says the effect is very impressive.
http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=75834
The timber backing is a $3.95 cutting board and it saved me a lot of time dressing up a bit of wood. I have pocketed the 5mm thick perspex into the breadboard and siliconed the perpex in so the paint should be protected from scrathes.
Another job finished for the workshop.
Actually I half finished one and scrapped it before this one because I forgot to mirror image it. :-

[GRS]

Very nice Rod,

I knew you would like the effect of reverse carving the painted perspex.

[Greolt]

Good stuff Rod.

And good idea with the cheap cutting board too.

I still have not tried Gary's painted perspex method yet. Must give it a go. :)

Greg

[rodm]

The result is outstanding and blew a few people away when I showed them. One of those items that is very easy to make yet looks hard to do.
I think it has limited application unless you are into brand reproduction for decorating bars, etc. I'm not into displaying commercial brands in my place and I can't think of anything else that I would do with this technique but I might get an idea one day. :)
Gary has done clock faces which is a good choice and I can recommend doing a couple just because you can. :D
By the way the vector graphic I got for the sample I made was from a Vector Art disk and there was no copywrite conditions however I would not reproduce it for sale unless I was certain there would be no comeback.

[rodm]

The oil finish has dreid so here is another for the workshop. It is a cleaned up version of an earlier graphic I used. The detail is fine and it is interesting to see how the bands are formed by increasing the engraving in those areas.
Common theme is cheap cutting boards. :D

[Greolt]

I made this today using the vee carve inlay method.

The difference being that this one is Corian. Both the white and the black Corian are speckled colours.

Stuck it together with epoxy. It is about 150mm diameter.

The background is just another bit of Corian it is sitting on for the photo.

Greg

[rodm]

Thanks Greg
Did you face the inlay on your machine after glueing up?

[crocky]

What was the epoxy glue that you used, brand etc?

[rodm]

Got bored tonight cutting spindle mounts so thought a movie showing a machine in action might be the go for this thread.

I used RPM as it was in the shed and easy to get the job started. Probably not the best machine for the job but it does demonstrate that a small machine can do a heavy load if it is rigid.

I have also included a graphic from VCarve that shows exactly what the job will look like before you go to your machine.

The video is large (5.74 mb) and might take a while to download.

[Zoot]

Brilliant as always. The centre and outside look like something in the order of 6mm 2 flute end mill ... am I close?

If I was do do the same sort of thing on my Widgitmaster with a Dremel (Proxxon carked it!!) would I look at a 1/8" 2 flute solid carbide and use the 0.3mm per pass @ 400mm/min?

Cheers

Alan

[rodm]

Hi Alan,
Very close but it is an imperial bit 6.35 or 1/4 inch.
Not sure about your WM with a Dremil. I thinking the Dremil will not have as much grunt as the Sherline so maybe start a little lower and crank it up with Mach3 if it cuts well. Same as any machine listen to the cutter and you will know when it is at optimum speed.

[John H]

A couple of plaques I did up for work