Done these recently...
Attachment 468279
Printable View
Done these recently...
Attachment 468279
They look good where did you get the plans from or did you do them yourself?
Can't see burn marks so I'm assuming it's a router and not a laser. How did you hold everything down? Vacuum table?
I imagine double sided tape would be about only way.
Vacuum does not work well for small pieces.
I broke my only 1mm endmill before I could really use it, what cut depth and speed if you don't mind sharing?
Vacuum can work for small parts, but you have to zone it properly and be a bit tactical with how you cut
The trick is to leave everything attached for as long as possible; back when I was running a big CNC router I used to cut a full sheet of parts, leaving about 1mm at the bottom of the cut and then go back over and cut everything out. This meant that I had full vacuum to hold the sheet while doing all the heavy cutting, but only a tiny amount of tool pressure as the parts were separated from the sheet so they didn't shift around.
Using this method means you can keep your normal speed/feed, so there's no extra heat and tool wear from running slower, but you also get to keep all your parts.
Attachment 468544Attachment 468545
Obviously, I had a LOT of vacuum to play with (10hp pump, sometimes making up to 9 tonnes per square metre of negative pressure), so you might need to fiddle with speed and depth for your separating pass, but that's the general idea. Using a down-cut spiral for your finish pass will also be a big help with keeping things stuck down if you're able to swap tools easily.
Thanks for the tips. I have a vacuum table from a German supplier. It did not do enough research on it. Now it's stripped and in storage atm. I might make one myself sometime.
The things you learn. I'll keep it in mind if I ever go the vac route.
I actually use masking tape on the bed and workpiece and simply superglue the back of the tape together. A lot cheaper than double sided tape.
Your tape idea sounds great, did you use masking tape?
Yup, the 32mm stuff from bunnings. Bear brand, 3M is better and nothing needs to be fancy about it.
Then the cheapest superglue I can find.
Only thing is that you need to remember the 0.2mm lift to the workpiece, which in many cases helps me as it means I can cleanly cut the wood without eating my wasteboard.
Link to a you tube vid showing how it's done, plenty of others out there.
YouTube
Installed a better dust extraction setup. Will install a bin full sensor and automate the setup next :)
Attachment 470413