Topics

1

Members Projects / Walnut Urn for family pet

« on: December 05, 2015, 21:53:34 pm »

Into everyone's life comes times of sadness.  It recently happened for my family, we lost our special family member Mindy, a 7 year old Sheltie.  We were all very sad but my wife is really taking it hard.  She wanted an urn for Mindy's cremains so I decided I wanted to make the urn rather than buy one.  Kind of my way to closure for myself.

Walnut being my favorite wood to machine I designed the urn in CamBam.  Basically a box with a curved front with a slot in the front to accept a picture and Mindy's name engraved on top.  The piece was made with individual top and bottom and the sides being multiple 3/4" layers the exterior shape (rings). Urn is about 4"H x 5"W and about 3" deep. Below are pictures of the individual pieces with the little tin for cremains and Mindy's favorite toy.  Yeah, I know kinda sappy but that is what my wife wanted.

Top engraving was done with the CamBam V-engrave MOP and a 1/4" 90 degree bit.  Worked perfectly.  Finish is satin polyurethane.  Beginning to finish took some time with several steps, glue, finish, etc but that is OK.

Don

2

CamBam help (General usage) / Happy Thanksgiving!!!

« on: November 26, 2015, 16:58:52 pm »

Just a quick note to wish everyone here in USA a very happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for our CamBam friends around the world.  Hope you, family and friends have a great day.  Eat too much, over indulge on watching football, parades and get in a few naps....   

Don

3

Members Projects / Engraved Acrylic Trophies

« on: October 13, 2015, 13:42:22 pm »

Each year we have a model aircraft contest and I have been helping generate the trophies for the contest.  This year the trophies are walnut bases with engraved acrylic California state outlines.  There are 6 classes with 1st thru 3rd trophies in each class.  Additionally, we had an appreciation plaque for a guy that has been exceedingly generous thru the years supporting this contest.

The acrylic is 3/16" (cast), the engraving is cut with a 60 degree bit and the outlines is cut with a 0 flute 1/8" end mill. The walnut base is made by a friend (joint project).  Here are a couple pictures of the results, one trophy for the FAI "Silver" class and the appreciation plaque.

Don

4

Members Projects / Carving for Stair Post Uprights

« on: November 12, 2014, 03:20:48 am »

My brother is nearly finished with his new home out in the country and is working on the posts and railings for the stairs from the basement to the main floor.  One of those U turn type stairs, has 6 posts which are about 6 inches at the base and tapered to 5 inches at the top.  He was struggling trying to figure out how to finish the top.  Tried several different tops using rounded edges via router table etc.  I suggested a carved top on each one would look nice and be very different. He lives out in the country and wanted to use something that would be representative of his location.

I bought an STL file on eBay of a deer jumping over a log and using CamBam I did a quick carving in some junk walnut to give him something to play with for the post tops.  I used 2 bits, a 1/8" ball nose for roughing and a 1/16" ball nose for finish.  Two passes for roughing, both horizontal and then two finishing passes, one horizontal and one vertical.  Step-over on finish was .2 on the 1/16" ball nose.  The thickest part of the relief is about 3/16" deep.

Below are 2 pics.  One of what the STL file looked like and one of the walnut carving.  The deer is about 3" wide and 3.5" tall and will be centered on the top plate of the post.  The carving took about an hour and 45 minutes for all 4 passes, obviously most of the time was on the two finishing passes.  I can't find many areas that will require any more finishing, no rough spots.  

If my brother likes this approach, then we will find 5-6 more wildlife type 3D files and I will make the post tops for him.  The current posts are alder so I will carve another deer for him from alder and he can see which he likes better.  The contrast between the alder posts and a walnut top might be a bit much but it will be fun to see.

Don

5

CamBam help (General usage) / Sharpening end mills? Possible - Practical?

« on: February 02, 2014, 00:31:58 am »

OK, kind of a different topic. 

I go thru a lot of 1/8" end mills.  Typically, it is only the end 1/8" or 1/4" of the end mill that gets any wear with the rest of the end mill being 'new'.  The 1/8" end mills aren't very expensive, but I hate throwing away a mill that is only partially used.

Is it even practical to cut off the 'used' portion and reshape/sharpen the tip? 

Thanks
Don

6

Members Projects / Aluminum frames for Cobra kit car

« on: February 21, 2013, 22:14:32 pm »

Got an email about 2 weeks ago about possibly cutting some aluminum 'frames' to dress up the side exit holes in a Factory Five Cobra kit car. pix below

First, I cut one piece in acrylic and mailed to the requester. It fit, so on to cutting the real ones. The material was 6061 aluminum 1/4" thick. The part overlapping onto the outside of the exit hole is 1/16" thick and 1/4" wide so this is a pretty thin walled part. There is a 3/16" lip that slides into the louver opening and fits flush with the inside of the fiberglass body. The lip is a little hard to see in the pictures.

Machining went fine and mailed off to the builder today. Will be interesting to see how it looks when done, he plans to have them chromed or polished prior to installation.

I used a 1/8" single flute bit made for aluminum and plastic. Speed was 40 IPM with the DW611 set at 2.5-3 on the speed dial. Each frame took about an hour to make.

Don

1. Factory Five Cobra kit car arrow points to the area that will be 'framed'
2. Acrylic test piece
3-4. Aluminum frame front and back

7

CamBam help (General usage) / Windows 8 question

« on: January 27, 2013, 15:05:43 pm »

Just got a new Windows 8 PC with a 2.5G quad core processor.  CamBam runs fine on it, however, I was surprised that it only uses about 25% of the processor power when generating gcode on more complicated drawings like 3D carvings.  I had expected it to use more of the available processing power, is this due to the quad core processor and CamBam only using one of the processor 'threads/paths'?

Like I said, CamBam runs fine, just doesn't use all the processing power available.

Thanks

Don

8

How to's and tutorials / Advice on router replacement

« on: January 10, 2013, 19:55:20 pm »

Quick question to the group.... Not specific to CamBam other than I use CamBam to generate code for some of my lithophanes.

I currently use a DeWalt DW611 on my CNC machine.  It works great, am not complaining about it.  However, I am looking for suggestions for a replacement/substitute for the DeWalt that is lighter and quieter.  The reason is I cut a lot of lithophanes and don't need the power of the DW611 (nor the noise).  Also, the Z axis gets 'beat up' when cutting detailed lithophanes and a lighter weight cutting solution would ease the wear and tear on the Z axis.

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions

Don

9

Members Projects / Poor man's Rotary 4th Axis (sorta)

« on: December 16, 2012, 18:41:12 pm »

Didn't know whether to post a project/modification here or in Member's Machines but chose here because it is more of a project (I guess).

For quite some time, I wanted to try some rotary axis CNC projects but was limited in what I could add to my CNC control board with it being only 3 axis.  Yes, I could get a 4 axis control board but always put it off. Recently, I got this brainstorm about building an adapter to my current MicroCarve BBox machine to drive a rotary axis without adding any steppers. Yes, I could unhook the X axis stepper and use that control channel to drive a 4th axis via another stepper, but where's the challenge in that?  ;-)

My MicroCarve BBox is a fixed bridge/moving X axis table.  I made an adapter that would use the X axis movement and turn it into a rotary movement that is fixed under the Y axis.  The full build thread is located here:
www.microcarve.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=147  It has all the details.

Some pictures below of the adapter and some links to a crude video of it working.  The rotary motion is limited in rotation due to the X axis movement limits but you can get more than a single rotation with the current X axis movement.  By imagining your workpiece as being 'flat' and then machining it in a rotary motion you can get full wrapped cuts similar to the way CNCWrapper works but no requirement for any additional software.  All the parts were assembled from 'junk/surplus' pieces around the shop and the drive wheel was machined using the CNC machine.

Links to videos
initial testing   www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGZleDHty4&feature=youtu.be
cutting a rough spindle spiral in a 2" pvc pipe  www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lvOPdK1lo8
Vertical finish in the spindle spiral www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdABXC74tKk

I also cut a round lithophane into a 2" PVC pipe using the adapter.

Don

10

Members Machines / MicroCarve BBOX DIY machine

« on: July 15, 2012, 03:49:01 am »

Recently, MicroCarve systems released a DIY kit of a fixed bridge CNC.  He supplies all the 'hard' components that would be difficult for someone to build, the builder supplies all the MDF, Thomson rails, nuts/bolts and builds they system themselves.  I have been using a Fireball V90 for the past few years with good success but wanted something a more ridged and had been following MicroCarve's thread on CNCZone for his MV3 machines.  I received my kit a few days ago and just finished construction of the machine today.  Was able to test it utilizing the steppers from my V90 and all seems well.  Here are a few pictures of the finished machine.  It has a cutting area of about 12x12 and is very ridgid.  My build thread on MicroCarve's web/forum is here:

http://www.microcarve.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=85

I should have it running and cutting stuff in the next few days.

Don

11

Members Projects / Cooling Air Diverter for DeWalt router

« on: February 23, 2012, 01:29:46 am »

I got tired of the downdraft from my DeWalt DWP611 spreading the dust before it could be picked up by the vacuum.  The DWP611 is variable speed and has 2 LEDs in the base on either side of the spindle to light up the cut area which is very nice.  I have used this router for about 40 hours now and it still runs like new.  There didn't appear to be any easy way to mount the deflector to the bottom of the router until I notice there were 2 screws that held the shaft lock button assembly in place.  So, I designed an air deflector that would use those 2 screws as the attach point.  All you need to do is find 2 matching screws that about 1/4" longer.  

It seems to work great, the chips and dust don't get blown around much at all making the vacuum pickup much more effective.  Below are 2 pictures of the deflector right after cutting.  The only thing you have to do is counter sink the 2 attach holes on the bottom with holes big enough to clear the screw heads.  I will post of a picture of it mounted after the paint dries.

Don

12

Members Projects / Replacement spindles for antique chair

« on: January 09, 2012, 19:55:56 pm »

Finally finished the replacement spindle 'blanks' for my uncle.  He is in the process of restoring an antique oak rocking chair and was unable to duplicate the existing open spiral spindles he needs to replace several missing spindles. So I took a crack at it using ViaCad to generate the spiral 3D .stl file then imported it into CamBam. I don't have a rotary 4th axis so I had to get creative and develop a method to cut the spindle with out the rotary part.  So, I split the spindle in half lengthwise so I could cut a top and bottom half of the spindle.  It took some 'fiddling' to get it to work but they came out pretty well.  My uncle is a happy camper!!!

In the attached picture you can see the blanks on the left and one of the original spindles on the right.  I just cut the spiral part of the spindle, my uncle can finish the ends off with his lathe. Material is oak.  BTW, this is a left hand spiral and it took some creative support from ViaCad to extrude the left hand spiral along a helix but the support guys at ViaCad came thru.  Right hand spirals were easy but left hand was not obvious.

I tried the cutting using horizontal rough and waterline rough wioth a 50% stepover, the waterline rough is about 20% faster.  Finish cut was vertical using a 25% step over.  All cuts were done using a 1/8" end mill.  Since my uncle will be doing the final finish sanding and fitting, I wasn't too concerned about a very fine finish on the bland spindles.

Don

13

CamBam help (General usage) / New Topic - HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

« on: December 31, 2011, 14:59:05 pm »

A few hours early but just wanted to wish all CamBamians a Happy New Year and best of everything for 2012.  I also would like to thank everyone for all the support, questions and answers from 2011.  CamBam is a great product and all of you here on the forum make things even better.  A special thanks to Andy for his efforts to bring us CamBam and all the enhancements he has made this year.

Don

14

Members Projects / Picture Frame for wife's birthday

« on: December 28, 2011, 23:56:37 pm »

Wife's birthday coming up and I needed something different than what I typically give her.  I decided a walnut picture frame would be nice.  I wanted something 'oldish' looking and began looking for something with some fancy flourishes/details.  I found a 'stl' 3D file and imported it into CamBam then drew the oval outside, inside cut and back pocket using the new 'Draw > Oval' tool Andy just released.  It took some stretching and nudging to get everything to line up.  

Step one was to cut the back pocket which would become the inset for glass/picture/liner (Frame E below). Step two was to do a rough cut of the front to remove most of the excess material and the inside oval cutout (Frame D below).  I used a horizontal roughing MOP and 1/8" endmill to do the rough cut. Step three is finish cut on the surface using a 1/8" ball endmill with a .075 stepover (Frame B below).  This step took about 2 hours but left a nice finish.  Step four was to do an outside profile cut with holding tabs for the final outside shape (also Frame B).  I used a 1/4" endmill for the outside cut since the 1/8" endmill I had was not long enough to clear everything and still cut thru the material depth.  

Don

15

Installation Help / Failure to install CamBam L-rc3

« on: November 17, 2011, 22:21:10 pm »

I have been trying to install release L-rc3 on my laptop.  I had K installed but I got the following message when trying to upgrade to L-rc3..

"CamBam plus 0.9.8

The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'CamBamPlus-beta0.9.8k3.msi' in the box below."

I tried uninstalling all CamBam versions and then installing L-rc3 but keep getting the same error message.  It seems to be asking for the 'k3' msi which I do not have on my laptop at all.

I use my laptop when traveling to 'draw' and experiment when in airports, hotels, lobbies, etc.  I use my desktop at home which is much faster and my primary PC for CamBam work.  

Thanks for any help with this 'puzzle'.

Don