[mountaindew]

VCarve combines CAD + CAM and makes it pretty easy to produce stuff with text, to combine v-bits and raising the z-axis to make sharper corners, to make moulding along a curve (think elliptical picture frames), combine a .STL with 4th axis, etc. Yes, you can purchase VCarve and later upgrade to Aspire for the difference in price. Everything is oriented towards visual work although I usually start by importing a .DXF and ignore most of the visual capabilities.

This is one of the things I struggle with and would like to simplify. Also some tools to convert pictures or clip art to tool paths would be handy also. The list is long for ideas and stuff to do. Im looking at arm mounted laser point scanners. So I can scan surfaces and areas on real world things like cars, boats, guns, whatever. Expensive tools and Im hoping to rent one for some $ now and then.

[kstrauss]

VCarve has tools to convert bitmaps and vectors to toolpaths but I haven't used them. You can also convert an STL to toolpaths. There are online videos that show how to combine multiple camera images into an STL although I have had limited success. See below for an example of carving an STL from aluminum using VCarve.

[mountaindew]

That looks like it was 3d scanned! How labor intense was that to convert from a picture?

The first project code I run on the machine "shown above" was a simple line drawing I did in iron cad then extruded to different levels for 3d carving. But to create that drawing was labor intense with ironcad but would be down right simple with a artistic type drawing program. Then import jpg, convert and generate tool paths for different levels would make the process faster and less labor intense. One of many projects I have is to design a couple large murals and carve them into my cedar picket fence like I did when I first tested the machine. I have 400+ ft of 6ft tall x6" cedar picket fence to play with. I did a couple of wood gates in the hood already and they look pretty cool. Be nice to do more fun stuff like this with far less cad labor and a few more cam options.

[kstrauss]

I spent no time at all making the .STL of the ear! A friend who is a visual artist and audio engineer convinced me to assist with some experiments and he created the ear in Blender. The half-size aluminum version is the first step in making a mold to cast ears in urethane.

[mountaindew]

As we speak Im getting ready to do some high precision milling of Styrofoam go figure. I have a couple rc drone plane designs to play with and test. Then molds can be made of any good or fun designs I come up with.

Attachment 435844

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Was looking around and found some pictures from cam tool path and cutter testing I did a few months ago.
Work holding was a simple cookie cutter cam strategy with big tabs. Then slowly and evenly milled tabs off from all the locations.
Attachment 443546

Fun stuff with great results. Looking to scale up and section a few of these models when I finish developing fab skills for these materials

[mountaindew]

Time flies when your having fun!
Almost a year of use already and my only complaint is small high speed tools make lots of noise. Over all the machine is easy to use and get accurate results. I can mill acrylic at 120 ipm and leave only the protection paper on bottom with a sapphire clear finish. Easy to get snap together tolerance. Using quality material specific cutters its not hard to get a nice finishes with most large format materials. Also a wider selection of materials opens up more ways to design and create everything from gel coat molds for composites to vinyl decals to wood furniture, knife scales, gunstocks you name it . In short this is a down right nice tool to have in the shop.
Oh, Imho you will need good cad and cam software to get your moneys worth and get full use of this machine. I have used Sprutcam for years on the 1100 mill and find it simple to setup most router projects in a matter of a minutes using 4 tools, Surface, Profile, Rest, Chamfer. The post and machine definition from Tormach makes the entire process easy to follow and accurately run and complete at the machine with the ETS. This makes the entire process enjoyable and I end up using the machine far more. Also I think 24r or any router will get more use with specific cam for large format materials and projects. Example : I struggle to do large 3d v carve sign lettering that I see others do in minutes.
So Imho it would be smart to plan your overall cost to include one or more good cam products to get full use.

Anyway its been a fun year almost and I wanted to share my experience with this system so far.

Any other 24r users out there want to comment?

[MichaelHenry]

mountaindew - I could have used a 24R to make some money last month cutting 6 sheets of ~4'x4' polycarbonate and HDPE. The parts needed a bunch of holes, though. How do you handle that on your 24R? Do you use Tormach's vacuum system to hold down large stock or just use clamps?

Mike

[mountaindew]

mountaindew - I could have used a 24R to make some money last month cutting 6 sheets of ~4'x4' polycarbonate and HDPE. The parts needed a bunch of holes, though. How do you handle that on your 24R? Do you use Tormach's vacuum system to hold down large stock or just use clamps?

Mike

Might need to experiment a little. Vac system will hold sheet material well. But as you cut holes and profiles it will loose some holding power. I dont have or use vac pump yet. Might add one to the shop this fall to use. From what I read around here on the zone its not hard to come up with a vacuum strategy to hold most materials. Guessing you have to cover large open milled areas that would loose vacuum with plastic to improve holding. Still its only small parts that might or will move. Any thing with a 8"x8" or larger area will hold with no problem doing the math, from what I understand.
As for drilling holes again its kind of up to user, job and material, tools on hand. I use material specific high speed router end, ball, thread and chamfer mills for everything. Milling holes is slower, but in most plastic material it provides best results and avoids material damage. This machine could use a spindle with a lower speed range at times! 10k+ rpm minimum spindle speed means you better keep things moving pretty fast .
I looked on the web site and they are all sold out until December so their must be a few users out their.

Quick picture of paper left after milling. Kind of cool!
This is a small part and a small area on a flat surface. I dont think you going to get this z accuracy over the entire 2x4 work area that easy !
Attachment 450388

[MichaelHenry]

Thanks for the added info mountaindew. For some reason I'd assumed the 24R had a work envelope of 4'x8' so it wouldn't have worked for the project that I had in mind. With an ER-20 collet it could take drill shanks up to 1/2", which is pretty respectable, though the minimum spindle speed seems too fast for polycarbonate. Probably better to interpolate holes in plastics anyway. Seems like thread mills could be used for threaded holes.

I looked at a used 4'x8' Shop Bot that was available in a school auction with a friend for his use. That included a vacuum system and the vacuum pump had something like a 5 HP motor as I recall. Might have a problem finding power in our garage for that in the garage as well as the router and a few other garage tools.

[mountaindew]

Yes this is a small machine by most standards. My problem from the start is most 4x8 + size machines are at the edge of being imho pure commercial tools and need large environments to use. Cost and power consumption for vac system alone makes them mostly good for commercial projects only. Then to make those projects pay, day in and day out work you also need large dust control, large assembly area. And racks for proper sheet good storage and ability to move sheets to router easy with NO damage "rolling racks. then racks to roll cut materials away to assembly area. The space required starts adding up and is bigger then my entire garage just to get the full use out of this size of machine.

This machine is sized more for specialty work and imho NOT designed for SHEET GOOD PRODUCTION wood work in any way. The work area is a better fit for things like knife scales, Gun stocks, music instruments, decorative carving, Medium size composite mold making for cf and fg. Detailed precision acrylic / plastic fabrication, Smaller detailed wood work.

Vac system on this machine takes 220 power and is imho best used when your working on a larger project. As I mentioned before! If you do a lot of detailed work it can be hard to justify the cost of power consumption using a vacuum system while your router is cutting out a master piece with a tiny tampered ball end mill. Easy to get run times of 2-8 hours on router projects. Talk about lights out machining Still A vacuum table is part of the system as designed and I bet I would use it more often then not after I add that option.

Drill bits are ok! In this case with no tool changer it mostly it comes down to more tool changes and often a less then quality hole from drilling rather then milling. And as you mention acrylic and other hard plastics do not like to be drilled unless backed and with special relieved drill bits to avoid grab and break. On the other hand these machines have no problem spiral plunge cutting holes at 140 + imp with a near perfect finish and you can leave the protection paper at bottom.