Thread: New CNC build

First major job for the new CNC was to make its own dust shoe.
I got the design from OPEN BUILDS. It was made from acrylic but I decided to make mine from plywood to test it out first.
it works fantastically. Absolutely no dust on the spoil board or surrounds.

IMG_2078.jpg IMG_2079.jpg

I’m using a 50 mm hose going into my ShopVac

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There is a tapered ring in the brush section to make the brush flare out a little. The shortest brush I could find is 70mm which is on the one in the pictures. I have also made one with a shorter brush section - boy is the brush a pain in the $&#@ to cut!

Only modification I would possibly make is to make the groove for the brush 1mm wider

I like seeing the little touches going on.

My projects tend to get to good enough and stop.

Did you find the four magnets good enough as I have read some posts casting doubts on the use of six magnets being enough?

I used opposing magnets in the top and bottom so 8 in all.
I was going to use 4 magnets in the top and screw heads in the bottom but decided it may not be strong enough.
The shorter one only has three magnets in the bottom ( ran out ) and while it holds, I can move it sideways with moderate effort so I will buy some more and add the fourth.

Originally Posted by BoneInspector

I like seeing the little touches going on.

My projects tend to get to good enough and stop.

Bring retired, I have time to fiddle. When working I was more like you described

Originally Posted by Lappa

I used opposing magnets in the top and bottom so 8 in all.
I was going to use 4 magnets in the top and screw heads in the bottom but decided it may not be strong enough.
The shorter one only has three magnets in the bottom ( ran out ) and while it holds, I can move it sideways with moderate effort so I will buy some more and add the fourth.

Thanks I am surprised at so few magnets, I know they are cheap I have 20 on order as I am going to make a better one for our CNC but the construction makes it a bit difficult. I am going to try PVC for the skirt with double overlap which would not be very efficient but other users would like to see the tool tip when in operation.

I was also thinking of adding a spigot but from your post it seem to be unnecessary.

I thought about adding a locating spigot but a job yesterday confined me one would have caused problems.
I was surfacing the spoil board with the small dust boot ( only 6 magnets instead of 8 as mentioned previously). As you can see from my pictures of my CNC, it has 80mm extrusion walls and the spoil board edges sit pretty close. When surfacing, on the extreme right, the lower wooden ring on the dust shoe just touches the extrusion wall and dislodges the lower section of the dust shoe about 3mm. If I had had a spigot in place, it may have broken the dust boot?
BTW, the dust shoe relocates back into position once it starts sweeping right to left - maybe different with the 8 magnets?
Thanks for telling me about Freecad
I’m into it with a vengeance - great program. Just learning the PATH section so I can generate GCODE from it. Heaps of great tutorials on YouTube.

Originally Posted by Lappa

I’m into it with a vengeance - great program. Just learning the PATH section so I can generate GCODE from it. Heaps of great tutorials on YouTube.

The best utube videos is by "Adventures in creation" as it is a series for start to finish. There is not a lot available on the path workbench.
One thing you have to watch with making the Gcode in the path workbench if you make a change to the original sketch it doesn't always reflect in the Job sometime is does sometimes not.
One of the blokes I work with made me a change in the job depths and it stuffed up the clearance which cost me 2 downcut bits so you have to look at all the depths so you don't get caught.

I’m folllowing Mangojelly Solutions “Freecad for Beginners” faithfully doing what he does on my computer. I had a quick look at some other guys re Paths - KTec and Joko Engineeringhelp and managed to cut out a revised copy of my dust boot top. I’ll take your warnings re changes, on board. Always good to be aware of possible problems - thanks
I’ll check out “Adventures in creation” - haven’t seen them come up on my feed.
I am using Carbide Create V6 to generate G Code at the moment but it doesn’t always play happily with the svg or dXf files I bring in from Freecad which is the reason I was looking at Freecad for both design and G Code.

I have been using Librecad as an intermediary but it wasn’t always successful. Just read a Carbide forum post with my similar problems and the solution was to use Librecad as an intermediary but export as MakerCAM svg. I’ll give that a go and report back

Have you used Inkscape yet to make SVG files, its certainly interesting to use as I have been imported some picture files altered them and converted them to SVG to be used in Freecad then to Gcode.

I have used this gcode in our CNC machine and manipulated some images to be imported into LaserGRBL for another member of our shed to use.

I’ve used Inkscape to turn pictures into svg but I’ve only used it with the JTech extension to generate G Code for laser (works very well).
I haven’t tried it for CNC yet - thank goodness I’ve retired so I can try all these things out

Sounds good, then could you leverage your past experience and teach the rest of us a decent workflow?

Well the import into Librecad then back into Carbidecreate V6 didn’t work. Still have weird problems with one section cutting on the outside but another section cutting on the inside and other areas cutting on the line? I’ve exported both svg and dXf from Freecad but always the same problem.
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Very simple rectangles etc seem fine but if you add a fillet etc, its problematic.

There were mentions of broken vectors etc. on forums but both Freecad and Fusion 360 report the vectors are all joined etc.

However I can get G Code that’s works perfectly, straight from Freecad, so I’ll leave Carbidecreate for simpler tasks like text etc.
What would we do without Utube ?

I had a problem with Freecad and drilled holes. G code worked perfectly when same task was designed and exported from Carbidecreate. Gsender reported two faults with the Freecad G code and UGS would run the file then stop when drilling was called for.
Quick Utube search and problem solved.

Bro, you were correct re changing designs snd it not following on into PATH. Thanks for the heads up. I find it’s easier and quicker, once you make a change, to delete the whole Job Section and start again.

As for Inkscape, I’ll leave that for picture files and the laser.