My New Router

[dewi]

Fecn

tidy bit of kit

regarding the speed issue you need a much coarser studding - 6 or 8 tpi acme - some types of overhead garage door openers have these 4 or 5 foot long they are about 7/16 or 1/2 diameter

hope you get it sorted

Henderson garage openers I think have them

 

[Mr.Chips]

There is a way. Go to the end of the thread and click on 'watch this thread'

hth
Bob

I am currently getting a email notice now. But I don't see the 'watch this thread' at the end. Is it a dropdown from some other selection.
Thanks Bob

 

[9fingers]

Hi Mr Chips,

The link you want is on the left at the very bottom of each thread.
If you are already a contributor to a thread and have already set your Profile to be notified of replies, then this link turns into a 'stop watching this topic'

Possibly best to look at a thread you have not contributed to and scroll down to the very bottom and look on the left hand side. - works for me.

hth

Bob

 

[Mr.Chips]

Hi Mr Chips,

The link you want is on the left at the very bottom of each thread.
If you are already a contributor to a thread and have already set your Profile to be notified of replies, then this link turns into a 'stop watching this topic'

Possibly best to look at a thread you have not contributed to and scroll down to the very bottom and look on the left hand side. - works for me.

hth

Bob

Yes now I understand, I see the 'stop watching this topic' makes sense.

Thanks Bob

 

[Fecn]

There is a way. Go to the end of the thread and click on 'watch this thread'

Wow.. I've been on this forum for over a year and never noticed that. Thanks 9fingers.

Fecn
regarding the speed issue you need a much coarser studding - 6 or 8 tpi acme - some types of overhead garage door openers have these 4 or 5 foot long they are about 7/16 or 1/2 diameter

hope you get it sorted

Henderson garage openers I think have them

I've exchanged a few PMs with mickster and he pointed me at a few obvious things with tweaking the PC setup to improve performance. The difference was amazing. After I gave the laptop a tune-up, the machine will now happily run each axis at 2.4M/Minute which is plenty enough for me. The laptop doesn't have enough grunt to handle running programs at that speed, but it works nicely around 1.5M/minute. The problem with these higher speeds is that the M8 threaded rods start 'whipping' where they vibrate due to the speed at which they're rotating. Upgrading the rods is the solution to that problem too, so I'm on the look-out for cheap ball-thread rods. I hadn't thought of garade door openers as a source - good idea.

Here's today's new project...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me if I could make him a name plaque to sit on his desk at work. I run my own company and figured it was a good idea as a bit of an advertising/marketing to make a bunch of name plaques for my favorite clients.

From the gate, I had left-overs with which I made DW's box. From DW's box, I had some left-overs which I thicknesed down to 12mm. I also ripped a bit of left-over shed down to 40mm and thicknessed down to 12. Whilst I had the planer/thicknesser out, I chamfered the edges on everything.

The idea is to engrave/carve the client's name into the front, and my own company's name/number onto the back. Three through-mortises with the contrasting wood will underline the person's name (which isn't John Smith). The mortises are 5mm wide and will be cut using a 5mm 2-flute carbide cutter.

For the corresponding tenons, we'll use a 12.7mm 2-flute. The 6.35mm square in the top-left corner here is to make the setting of the origin point (where X and Y are both zero) easier as it means I just need to move the cutter until it contacts each of the the sides of the workpiece to be in the right place.

6 sets of tenons cut using 2x6mm passes at a speed of 400mm/min. The burning at the curved ends are because the curves are exported as dozens of little straight lines and the machine has to accelerate/decelerate to/from zero for each line. The net results is a cutting speed around 150mm/min. I tried to make a video of this, but my phone battery died.

Here's the mortises to go with the tenons and a test-fit to see how things look.

I then had a test attempt at carving my company's details on the back of a piece, but because I'm using outline fonts in CorelDraw, it ended up looking a bit strange. I'm currently in the process of trying to re-work it with some different fonts.

 

[mickster]

Fecn,

if you haven't got it enabled already, you should use CV (Constant Velocity) mode to speed up the cuts on the corners, instead of accelerating & decelerating as Mach interpolates each individual line on the arc. Look under <Config> <General> [Motion Mode]

If CV mode is not the reason, you could try increasing the 'Look ahead'. Mach 3 uses look ahead to analyze the toolpath & forecast the max feedrate, for X amount of g-code lines. Look under <Config> <General> [General Configuration] I think the default is about 20 lines...try increasing to say 50 lines & repeat the cut. If you have made a difference, you will hear it from the sound of the steppers.

Also, G02/G03 should be quicker if you want to produce the g-code by hand or do a bit of editing. If this is an operation you are going to be using frequently, tweaking the code to give optimum speed is quite valuable...G01 to Z 0.0, then feed at normal, instead of feeding from the release plane at vertical feed rate. I saved roughly 30 seconds on a 2 or 3 minute test file, just by doing rapids down to Z 0.0, then feeding at normal rate. Not a huge saving on a small file, but imagine how much could be saved on a large job with a lot of plunges.

Or...you could use FRO on the curves & then drop back to the original feed rate for the straights.

Edit: G01 should read G00

 

[Fecn]

Thanks Mick - I'll have the CV and lookahead settings a try in the morning... along with the stick40 single-line font I found this evening.

 

[Fecn]

Mickster - I took a look at the settings and Constant Velocity was already turned on. I upped the look-ahead to 50 at first and later to 100. No change. It would be nice if Corel was exporting curves rather than lines. Maybe I should learn some other software.

It took me a few trial attempts, but eventually I found settings which gave decent looking text without blowing out the centres of the characters 8, 4, e, b etc - Since I have no desire to advertise, I've photoshopped the pic to remove my company's phone number and some of the name. This shot is taken just after the first coat of danish oil went on.

I used the same cutter and cut depth (2.4mm) for the front, but used the windows Impact font at 90pt. Again, I've photoshopped the names to protect the innocent. After the oil's had a few hours to dry, I'll give it some wax to get a bit more shine.

Engraving the text onto the desk plaques is about the most boring thing ever invented. Each plaque takes about 45 minutes to do and you can't leave the machine unattended.. just in case. I read the screwfix catalog twice but once I tired of that, I decided it was time to call for some outside help. Nicole agreed to keep an eye on things for me whilst I went for an afternoon snooze. Naturally I told her off for forgetting her safety glasses.

I'll be glad when I've finished engraving these because it really is very very dull.

 

[Mr.Chips]

Nice job Fetch.

Lets see, Nichle was watching the run, and you were snoozing. That just proves it, You Snooze You Loose!!

I notice all your pictures of your machine has a green tint, I undestand it was made out of MDF, is MDF green in the UK? It's kinda brown in the US.

Hager

 

[wizer]

MDF green in the UK? It's kinda brown in the US.

Green MDF is moisture resistant

 

[Fecn]

MDF green in the UK? It's kinda brown in the US.

Green MDF is moisture resistant

Yep - I used the mositure resistant stuff as I believe it's supposed to be very stable and largely unaffected by changes in humidity. I didn't want to have to recalibrate the machine just because it's a damp day.

 

[seaco]

That's funny Nicole was playing with my tool in my dream last night... :wink:

 

[Mr.Chips]

Fech,
Here is a Pin and Scallop type of dovetail substute that was started around 1870.

Looks looks like an easy and strong joint to make on a CNC.

Hager

OK, guess I don't know how to post an image. Will look into this and post later.

 

[Fecn]

If this is the one you're talking about...

Mmm.. that does look like a fun one - I can see how that works. That's a very interesting and attractive joint design. I'm definitely going to have to have a go at those sometime soon. I need to get myself working on some larger projects so I can use all these new tricks I've been learning.

 

[Mr.Chips]

If this is the one you're talking about...

Mmm.. that does look like a fun one - I can see how that works. That's a very interesting and attractive joint design. I'm definitely going to have to have a go at those sometime soon. I need to get myself working on some larger projects so I can use all these new tricks I've been learning.

Yes, That is exactly the one.
Hager

 

[Mr.Chips]

Yeas thst id exasctly it.
Hager
Try to post picture.
[http://www.thewoodworksinc.com/HTM_FILES/pin_&_crescent_drawer_joints_files/image002.jpg]

Must be missing something here. Oh Well

 

[Fecn]

Must be missing something here. Oh Well

I think it's the ampersand or the underscores that's stopping the image from working - I can't make that one work either.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Here it is
http://www.thewoodworksinc.com/HTM_FILE ... age002.jpg

 

[Mr.Chips]

Here it is
http://www.thewoodworksinc.com/HTM_FILE ... age002.jpg

I was trying tying to post a picture, havent got the syntax right yet.

 

[Mr.Chips]

I'll be glad when I've finished engraving these because it really is very very dull.

Boy am I getting slow.

You are able to clamp the box sides vertically on your movable table because the base is CUT OUT to allow the piece being cut to entend down almost to the floor if need be, and held rigid by your wooden vise arrangement. A super innovation, for a fixed gantry. I have never seen that before.

Guess I was distracted by Nicole. Well my wife would believe that.