late night cnc

[PinkieT]

nope. This also means something...

Post a pic and I might have to take you up on that. This box was empty which was how I wanted it but found it used on facebook classifieds for only $100 for a lightly rusted kennedy box.

PM with pics sent. Can't get them to post here. I'm a borderline Luddite!

 

[ttocs]

I have really enjoyed making all the neat crap I have with my current cnc but the size was making it hard to do a lot of the things I wanted to do. The handibot is great because its one of the very few portable cnc's but that size also limits the 6 x 8" x -y size. So I decided to upgrade to a shapeoko xxl that is just a little under 3ft x 3ft for its cutting area. That size also comes with a more significant investment in space with a bigger table needed and I also plan on building an enclosure over the top to keep dust and noise inside. I was going to put a couple of drawers under it but was feeling lazy and didn't feel like going through all the trouble of designing, getting parts, cutting and building them so I hit the easy button. After a quick search on facebook classifieds I found that kennedy tool box for only $100 and it was 1/4" shorter than the table I just built.

The 2nd pic is a 10 watt laser that I will be adding to it. It can cut light wood/acrylic and etch almost anything so it will be fun to see the dimension that it will add to pieces.

Finally yesterday the ups dude backed into the driveway to drop of 150 lbs of cnc.

 

[MyLittlePony]

I am in the market for a 100,000 mile plaque, and in a year or two, a 200,000 mile plaque. I was thinking that if I needed to have something custom made, I would add the actual date of the achievement, but have them small enough that they could be added next to each other on the shifter bezel wall. Wasn’t sure how much something like that would cost

This was a project for a freinds daughters bmw. He said it was for his kid, I assumed it was for his son and said we could fill the space with "Deez nutz" or something just for fun. He corrected me it was for his daughter, but they shared the same sick sense of humor so.....

E30 panel. That brings me back. My mustang was a replacement for one. It somehow returned to me 8 years later, allowing me to have a car while we did a v8 swap on that same mustang.

There is a pictogram on the lower right side of the sliders there. It tells you the exact setting needed for the car’s interior to heat up the fastest.

 

[ttocs]

I am in the market for a 100,000 mile plaque, and in a year or two, a 200,000 mile plaque. I was thinking that if I needed to have something custom made, I would add the actual date of the achievement, but have them small enough that they could be added next to each other on the shifter bezel wall. Wasn’t sure how much something like that would cost

let me get the laser fired up and we can have some fun

 

[MyLittlePony]

Cool. I was thinking something round, maybe pill shaped, with a border. People sell personalized engraved plaques all day long. They tend to be rectangle though. I imagine there’s enough mustang owners (honestly any car enthusiasts) who’d like to proudly display their 100,000 miles. I know Volvo used to have a program that awarded their owners with such badging. I no longer daily drive my mustang, so it’s taken forever to reach that 200k mark. I put about 2000 miles on it last year, and am only now about to roll over 192k next time there’s a nice day out.

 

[ttocs]

well this project ended up taking longer than planned after we discovered a rotted/molding wall in the basement where I planned to put this. The basement is unfinished and just a storage/work space for the past 40 yrs so it meant there was a lot of crap that needed to be thrown out as well as just everything moved away from the wall so it could be replaced. It ended up taking a few weeks longer than planned because of it. The old cnc had a 6" x 8" cutting area and weighs 45 lbs. This one has a 32" x 32" so it takes up a lot more space and weighs a 125 lbs so it needed a solid table to start.

I also wanted to have some drawers for all the extras that go with it but didn't really want to take the time to design/cut/make shelves/drawers so after a quick search I found this kennedy toolbox at a local swap meet for $100. It was just short enough to slide under it and leave space on the side for the vac/dust collection and a compressor. After that I put the top on, built the enclosure and then put the cnc together.

I included an emergency stop on the right side to kill power to everything in case the shit hits the fan, as well as used a an automotive keyless entry to work as a remote pause system that will kill power to the spindle and pull it back from the work but not kill power to everything. With my gopro on the top right I will be able to remotely monitor it and pause it if needed. The kennedy box had a fold out work space on the side that I removed and then stuck on the side of the table for my laptop.

did I mention there was a lot going on in a small area?

this was a test program to make sure its all working.

at the bottom of the pic you can see the laser power source(far left), touch probe(the red light, this automatically sets the Z to zero for you) and the keyless entry to pause it. now I wish with this said that I could start making cool stuff but I still have some more stuff to set up. I need to make and then deck the board that goes on the bottom so that I can easily mount things to it and make sure its perfectly flat. I also need to make a bracket for the laser but I want to do that with the cnc so that will be after decking the spoil board.

Unfortunately I am waiting on some parts for that, so while I wait for that shtuff I am going to get back in the car and see if, sorry I mean to say see "how long" it takes for it to piss me off again. Not sure why, it was starting up and sounded so nice till suddenly it wasn't and now it will not start at all. After being so close to hoping it was on the road and taking 3 steps back to "I don't know what the ffffffff is wrong again" left me in a place where I considered saying F-it and starting a parts sale. I decided to take a step back from it and work on this in hopes that this could bring a little satisfaction in the end. I am going to start simple and replace the plugs, again and see where that leads.

 

[joe65]

Cool stuff!!

 

[white95]

Looks complicated

 

[ttocs]

Looks complicated

its less complicated than I have made my car

 

[ttocs]

if it ain't one thing its another, story of my life. I hurt my hip last weekend getting out of bed and had to take 2 days off to not make it worse. Then as the hip starts feeling better than my stomach decides its in charge. I am dying to get in the garage and get the car on the ground but was in no shape for it today so I managed to sneak down to the basement long enough to figure some stuff out. I got it all set up but was having some issues getting it to actually spin/move at the same time. I hoped their customer support would be more help but they were slow to respond and didn't have much good info when they did. I finally gave up on them, checked a few things on my own out of curiosity and it was running 20 mins later. Now I am almost ready to make some cool big stuff like a 3 ft tall skull or Nicholson from the shining again. Here it is just surfacing the spoil board that will go on the bottom to clamp everything to so that it is perfectly flat. I learned from this I need to make a few adjustments to get it perfectly perfectly flat.

 

[ttocs]

I picked the worst time to do this upgrade. I needed to make countless trips to different stores to get the parts I needed for the vac system, the enclosure and everything in between. Then after all that there was some setting up on the machine and learning how to use it that took a little time. I think I can finally make some stuff again.

This was really more of a test to make sure I had it all set up right as if the circles were off they would not meet up.

Here I decided to mount my radar detector speaker in the mach sail panel. I thought it would be pretty easy to maybe modify the mounting bracket on the speaker to fit. I am not sure I have ever seen a speaker with out a mounting flange but here it is. Its made to be sandwiched between the grill and the back of it so I made two pieces of acrylic with ledge machined into it .06" on each to allow the speaker to be sandwiched between them. Now I am tempted to throw an led behind it....

 

[ttocs]

someone saw the switch plate I made for my car and asked me to make one for theirs.

I Think it came out nice even if it is for a camaro

 

[96blak54]

Does look great! Nice work!

 

[ttocs]

wow its been a while since I posted. The cnc has been keeping my busy and making some neat stuff mainly artsy perty to look at stuff but I have sold a few pieces now to be able to say I guess I am an artist.

I make these by carving the design and then pouring in furniture grade clear resin that I color in a couple of different ways. After the resin cures I carve out the back so the light can go through and then put a coat or two of resin with powdered mica in it to make the top coat shimmer.

This doesn't allow the light through but I still like looking at it.



I have a friend that is building a eurorack to make music on and wanted to cover a section that he plans to later fill with more music modules so I cut the aluminum section out on the bottom. We still need to paint it and I have some mesh to go behind it to finish it off.





After doing all the flat resin stuff I decided I wanted to try some more difficult 3d carving. I found this design and had to take 2 tries at it with different bits to get it the way I like it but now if you look closely there is a celtic weave on the boarder of the boat and even a face on the front of it. I finished it with a resin coat on top with a crushed blue mica as well as some powdered gold mica and I am really happy with how it came out. I decided to make a box/organizer out of it for myself and I am probably going to do more with the resin art on the top next.

 

[ttocs]

Well after the fire pretty well ruined yesterday and probably next week the mail man showed up with the clock movements I ordered to finish another project.

I finally made a trip outside of town and got some good wood. Prior to this I have only been going to the big box store for wood which limited me to pine, oak or poplar. I got a nice piece of walnut, and a 2" slap of ambrosia maple and a slap of white oak. I am going to make a river table out of the maple and with a little of the walnut and some boxes or carvings from the oak.


I made my brother a Christmas present out of the walnut. I want to do a larger version and try another finishing bit to see if I can get a little more detail out of it.

 

[ttocs]

I made these from the 2" thick maple I got in the post above and I am really happy with how they turned out. They are my current favorite and I was hoping to enjoy them on my own for a while but a friend saw them and said she would pay my price so they are sold

I am still making some edge lit stuff. This is a new design that can be hung and also allows for a much larger piece of plexi.

 

[ttocs]

For years I have been dreaming of upgrading/getting a laser cutter/engraver and after going over some stuff I realized that the jobs I have done have basically paid for the cnc I have. The options of the different materials with the laser is almost anything from leather to granite and I have had a few idea of things I can make with it. I have a counter top place just around the corner that has been there for years and has a HUGE pile of left over cut off pieces that were not big enough to keep. They actually have paved part of the area out of the back of their warehouse with flagstone sized pieces of granite/marble and they have told me I can take what ever I want from back there. I found a local lapidary society that I can join that has the saws to cut it so I can get fine granite/marble basically for free and it can engrave custom welcome door/name signs and I can finally make a proper grave stone for my dog that died(and others). I have some other ideas, but let me introduce you to phoenix she is big....


100 watt CO2 with a 24 x 40 cutting area means it is nearly 5ft x 4 ft x 4 ft and 600 lbs...
needless to day it was a good day for some friends, especially the friend with the skidsteer as it saved our asses. I am happy to say that my measurements were correct and the moving could not have gone any easier and I will be practicing on the new machine by engraving some knives for everyone that showed up to help



I made the base for it partially to keep from having to lean over it with my back problems and also because with the heavy duty castors it made it so much easier to just slide into place next to clyde.



After having an electrician buddy come over to add some circuits, upgrading the lighting inside of it as well as the air assist for cutting, and finally setting up an exhaust system to get the smoke out, last night I decided to fire it up for the first time. It's alive.....

 

[ttocs]

I made some knives to thank the guys that helped me move it. These are just a simple EDC knife that has a bottle opener, window breaker, cord cutter and it is a lock blade. The handles are walnut and I will put what ever your dirty little mind wants on it. They make a great gift for the dad/dude that seems to have everything. $25 + shipping

https://imgur.com/dgSxdkV

https://imgur.com/5VH7vhU

 

[ttocs]

one of my buddies that helped me move it drives a turbo mazda. He sent me a jpg of the turbo skull and asked if I/it could do it. Well Phoenix just laughed at its simplicity and it came out nice, nicer than mine darnit....


I am also going to be making these curb stones. I am not crazy about this one but only because of the choice of stone I had to pick from. When I told them what I was doing they offered this scrap piece for me to test it out so I didn't have a large choice of stuff to pick from since beggars can't be choosers. I would love to get some more practice with stone pieces if anyone likes that idea.

then I found this pocket knife that I have had for 15 yrs and decided WTH? I thought the same thing as I walked past my wallet but I have so far held off from that idea.

 

[96blak54]

Very tasteful work! Look great!