Thread: Some CNC router projects.

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

Sean

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Rod

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

Greg

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.

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

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

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.