[cd_edwards]

I've been busy as well. Last weekend was the SHAG 2013 event (SHAG Funfly -- Saskatoon Heli Annual Gathering) which I was the event director for. Below is a picture of the dvd movie rack my wife had me build. It's taken a year, but it's finally done I started holidays last friday as well with only a week off. I've had several house signs, a wedding reception sign in acrylic. Also had a phone call out of the blue from my ad on kijiji which is kinda like craigslist but canadian. Seem's someone bought themselves a Shop Sabre 4896 and doesn't know how to use it. He seen my custom cnc work ad on there so now I need to learn a lot about wincnc so i can help him out.. And in the meantime, I have 2 very large signs I need to create, 64x18 which is too large for my table. Good thing I have all the aluminum for the table expansion I was planning. So there's another pic of my table base with the aluminum extrusion being bolted together.

[CarveOne]

There's nothing like staying busy making other people happy. Once you get the CNC machine built it will consume all of your spare time.

I have a small electric heli and haven't spent enough time with it to mechanically trim it and do more than get it off the ground and hover it around the yard a little. I flew R/C aircraft models for many years.

If the wood base shakes while the machine is cutting, plan to add OSB or plywood panels to the sides and ends. Glue and screw it to the wood frame as if you never will remove it. It will help a lot. My smaller machine still has some minor shaking because the 4' x 8' work table it is on has 7/16" OSB panels only half way down the legs. It needs to be fully boxed in as much as is reasonable.

[CarveOne]

I've been working on another top panel design for a better match with my new extruded weave box theme. This needs some minor additional changes but this rendering is what it will look like when finished. I have a few other tests to try and find a better way to merge the cut ends of the weave model with the round ellipse border model.

Maybe I can use the "weld" tool in Aspire to some advantage. Will do some studying and watching Vectric tutorial videos. James Booth at Vectric does the videos and I met him at the Aspire Camp I went to. All of this effort is about trying out tools I haven't needed to learn until now. I think this will lead to a cleaner looking and more impressive Pbox for the work shop display.

[CarveOne]

Here's a photo of the dry assembly, with no handles, and the first top panel design for it is sitting on top. I cut and completely finished the side panels today. Later this evening I'll glue it together. Final photos will be posted tomorrow.

[CarveOne]

This version was completed early this morning. In the coming week I plan to make the Celtic weave version of the top panel that will be permanently attached to this Pbox. The version of the top panel shown in these photos will be mounted on the shop display wall. There are no current plans to make any more of these boxes. Time to move on to other CNC projects.

[revwarguy]

Hey C1,

Your boxes keep getting better and better!

I have a small electric heli and haven't spent enough time with it to do more than get it off the ground

I can do two things with R/C helis - 1. hover and 2. crash.

I did however CNC an aluminum quadcopter frame - with the gyros and accelerometers they are much easier to fly, but even then bent a few!

[cd_edwards]

This is actually the first year at SHAG that I didn't crash. Of course I only had time to fly three times in two days. Hobby king had too good of a deal on a hexcopter which I still haven't completed.. Too many other projects

[CarveOne]

Hey C1,

Your boxes keep getting better and better!

I have a small electric heli and haven't spent enough time with it to do more than get it off the ground

I can do two things with R/C helis - 1. hover and 2. crash.

I did however CNC an aluminum quadcopter frame - with the gyros and accelerometers they are much easier to fly, but even then bent a few!

My knowledge of the 3D modeling tools in Aspire is improving and am trying new things as I build the P boxes. I haven't run out of ideas yet, but I suppose they are getting tiresome both for me and my viewers.

I keep getting sale fliers from Tower Hobbies with quad copters that look interesting, but I would probably want something a little better than those. I've been out of the hobby for far too long to know anything about what I was buying.

I can do 1. and 2. also. Neither one of them with anything resembling even a minor amount grace.

I'm staying too busy with a horse trailer restoration project this week to finish the next version of the top panel for this P box. When we quit for the day I'm too worn out to do much else.

[CarveOne]

This is actually the first year at SHAG that I didn't crash. Of course I only had time to fly three times in two days. Hobby king had too good of a deal on a hexcopter which I still haven't completed.. Too many other projects

I bought 24' of 2" x 2" x 3/16" box tubing yesterday. It's for my next CNC project. It's rotary, and much too heavy for me to hand launch it.

[revwarguy]

I bought 24' of 2" x 2" x 3/16" box tubing yesterday. It's for my next CNC project. It's rotary, and much too heavy for me to hand launch it.

Another one? With this much tubing it can't be a small one. What design goals does this one have? If there is a separate thread for it, please give us a link!

[CarveOne]

I purchased a CNCRP G540 kit early this year to build a mini-router (that has not progressed very far) but have recently gotten interested in building a rotary axis for round carvings. Instead of making it a bolt-on accessory that uses the big machine's Z axis I would rather build a dedicated 3 axis rotary machining center. It will function sort of like a wood lathe with step motors. I purchased the steel box tubing to use as the basic structure material. I don't need the whole 24' stick but it is less expensive to buy it that way and any excess will be kept until I find something else to use it on. Two 6' sticks of 2" x 2" x 0.120" from Fastenal is ~$130. The 24' stick of 2" x 2" x 0.187" I picked up at a metal supplier about 50 miles away was $90. They cut it in half (free) so it would fit on my 5' x 10' trailer easily. I expect to use just about half of it. I have some 5/8" thick by 6" wide steel bar stock that can be used for the sliding tail stock mount, and for the support plate for whatever I use on the chuck end of the machine. I have a "precision 4 inch rotary table" that may work if it doesn't have too much backlash, but I'll probably start looking at other options anyway. It may end up being a lathe chuck, a shaft, bearings, and a timing belt/pulley arrangement. I looked at the Camaster rotary attachment on their Stinger machine that was being demo'd at McGrew's Aspire Camp recently and it was roughly like I had already envisioned. As for size, I want the length capacity to at least handle a standard baseball bat and up to 8" diameter for carving decorative wood bowls. This machine will sit on the unused end of my big machine or on a work bench.

Before going any farther I need to do some research on this subject - and finish a horse trailer restoration project with my skydiver buddy who is doing this in conjunction with a Wounded Warrior project he is involved with. It's badly rusted in places and for the most part we have replaced those parts with new steel and will be re-coating the roof with EPDM rubberized roof coating tomorrow. Today we straightened both axles where the previous owner had damaged the right side. Next year the trailer will get all new axles. We have new bright LED lighting from etrailer.com to replace the old bulb fixtures. The rusted side panels where the two horses go will be replaced with polished aluminum diamond plate sheets that we picked up when I got the box tubing. The frame has been cleaned and coated with rust inhibiter, primer, and has Herculiner over it all. We rebuilt the 1/16" wall box tubing floor structure in the living quarter compartment using 1/8" wall box tubing and have replaced the 16 gauge sheet steel floor with 3/4" plywood. There is 6 mill black polyethylene sheet between the floor structure and the plywood, which has been coated with a green Thompson wood sealer. We removed a lot of unnecessary rusty steel that adds up to around 250 pounds during the restoration effort. There will be a sleep sofa and a small TV and entertainment system inside. The interior will be repainted. All windows will be replaced with new ones that are on order. We will have to re-frame the openings to retrofit them. The trailer will get a new paint job. There is an existing roof top air conditioner that works ok. We have removed the swing-out rear doors and will build a new ramp to replace the doors. The outside of the ramp will likely be polished aluminum diamond plate. I will be making a red LED lighted horse display in acrylic sheet for the project. It will be mounted high where it can light up with the brake lights but not interfere with loading/unloading the horses.

It has become a major project that I will be glad to see hauled away from here so I can get back to the CNC work.

[lancut]

Hi C1, Just finished reading whole thread. It took couple evenings but it was worth it. Learned allot and learned that I have a long way to go as far as woodworking goes.. Ci good luck with new rotary axis build. I made one a while back and there is not replacement for it when you need one.

[CarveOne]

Thanks lancut, it's been fun building and learning to use the software over the past 3.5 to 4 years. During conversations with people in my area I have mentioned that these machines can Vcarve on baseball bats just about anything that can be wrapped around them. With Aspire I should be able wrap a photograph around a baseball bat and make a unique commemorative wall hanger for a young boy or girl who does well in a little league game or other adult ball game. There could be some interest in having these made. My other big machine build log will take much longer to go through than this one.

[kuroguy]

hey carve, I make wood bowls on a wood lathe and 8" diameter is pretty small. you might want to rethink that dimension. If I could afford a new woodlathe I'd want something that could swing 18". My guess is that you'll outgrow an 8" bowl carving setup pretty quickly.

[CarveOne]

I agree that 8" may be on the small side. As I work on the design layout I'll see what can be done about that. There are a lot of things to consider, like vertical Z axis or horizontal Z axis. They each have their own advantages/disadvantages, like everything else. I need to do lots of reading before going much farther.

[cd_edwards]

Attachment 188226 ITS alive!!!! Finally got everything back up and working. Changed over to a ethernet smoothstepper as well. Caused some grief with the S-Pid I have, but I got that running finally as well. :wee:

[CarveOne]

Good deal Colten, now whatcha gonna make to show us? Having a broken CNC machine is as bad as needing a fix for a bad habit isn't it?

[cd_edwards]

I've had a order for 2 64x18 sign for a company to make now a couple of weeks. I couldn't do it with my old machine but I can now once I get my table top on and trammed. I was going to use 3/4 MDF but I think I'll change that to 1/2" just for weight consideration. And then it's onto a bunch of smaller wedding signs.

[CarveOne]

I need to put a sign on both of my work shop doors saying "The workshop is now closed to all customers who want work done for free" - so I can get back to my own projects again. Some days I seem to have more people wandering in here than flies. Just kidding.

[cd_edwards]

Attachment 188520Attachment 188522
well here's the first cut from the new machine. I didn't even bother to tram the table or router yet And it's looking pretty good. Needed to add an extra pass for the profile so it would cut all the way through the 1/2" mdf, but otherwise this is looking pretty good. Light weight as well it's only 1/8" thick in most of the sign.