First CNC project. Not arcade related, but getting much, much closer.CP mockup.

[mccoy178]

I finally was able to cut my first material in my CNC machine tonight!  I have waited for two weeks to get the power wired properly, and it was well worth the wait.  Although this little sign is not much to look at, it has opened a door of immense possibilities.  Now I need to spend some time drawing up my dream cocktail cabinet! 

[Franco B]

Awesome 

Your going to have some fun there buddy!

What kind of machine tool is it?

[patrickl]

You own a machine that makes that? Cool 

Can you do this on plexiglass as well? For making those lighted displays where only the routed lines glow up?

BTW when you take close-up pictures don't get closer than the minimum focus range. If the camera is a compact then it might have a special macro setting for getting closer. I would have loved to see that close up picture of the lettering in detail

[mountain]

Glad to see you got it up and running. What time does class start? 

That is sweet!

[CheffoJeffo]

Cool stuff Ben!

 

[mccoy178]

Franco, it is a shopbot prt120 with the 7.2 alpha upgrade and 5 hp spindle.  Today, I cut three signs for the kids and right now I'm making some boxes for the football coach.  You can see the kids lighting up as they started to see the things being created right before their eyes.  I'm going to have to search for cocktail .dxf's so I can get started.

Patrick, since it was being cut on mdf, the inside detail needed some sanding.  Today I did that and spray painted the letters.  I then put it through the planer to take off the face.  As far as the camera, that was more of a midnight hour quickie to just get it posted.

Mountain, classes start tomorrow.

Cheffo, thanks!

[mountain]

How large of a piece can you do at a time?

I imagine that anything you design will have to have the cutter dimensions accounted for, correct?

So many questions...so many possibilities!

[mccoy178]

The largest piece you can place on it is 5' x 10'.  When you create the tool paths for each cut, you designate what type of cut it is, what bit you want to use, and where you want the cut to take place (i.e. outside, inside, or on the line).  You can also preview it at every level before the actual cutting.

[WaRpEd]

So I guess the next question is how much does a rig like that cost and am I in your will if something unforseen should happen

[quarterback]

Holy crap, McCoy got a freakin CNC!!!   Congrats man, count me in as being 100% envious!    Dude, now you can make ANYTHING!!!!!

The gears in my head are turning....... 

[mccoy178]

Playing around tonight, I decided to throw an old mockup of a 4p control panel into the cnc program to see how hard it would be to make it.  Well, here is how hard it is:
1.  Create a .bmp or .jpg of the control panel with real measurements.  (i.e. photoshop, etc.)
2.  Download trial software of VCarve Pro (www.vectric.com), and import the pic.
3.  Convert picture to vectors with simple, simple click
4.  Highlight areas to pocket (buttons, trackball hole, joystick holes)
5.  Toolpath the cuts (not hard)
6.  Preview cuts
7.  Repeat selections for countersink of trackball, cutouts for controls and trackball housing.
8.  Do the same to cutout cp from your material.

I understand that this will not make sense to everyone, but if it does, the point is that it is really that simple to have the cnc cutout the cp!  Now, if you want to countersink on the bottom side, you would need to flip the .jpg, draw with simple boxes the areas to be routed out, and put that in the software.  With the actual material, it would be flipped just the same.  As long as it goes exactly back into where it came out, it will match up perfectly.  A simple fixture to hold the control panel could be routed out first to avoid any movement issues. 

Here are the pics of the cp I used and the resulting rendering of what the cnc would do.  It took all of five minutes at most.
(See, I told you this thread was not arcade related, yet arcade related. )

[mccoy178]

Also, this would hold true for any cabinet .jpg's.  If it is a true measurement drawing or pic like Jakobud's, you could use one side, i.e. the heigth of the cabinet, to scale it appropriately.  From there, it would be as simple as cutting out the side.  Otherwise, .dxf files are not necessary if the drawing is of good quality and accuracy.

[Franco B]

Awesomes 

I can see your next project being quite special 

Whats the bed size of that thing? Can you cut full size side panels?

Just dont do what my shift partner did when I was CNC milling my CPs and use coolant (after expressingly telling him not too). Coolant and MDF don't mix well 

[mccoy178]

Coolant?!  I hope not on this machine.  It has a 5' x 10' bed with a 5.5" workable z axis.  Thanks for the compliments!  I don't see any freetime forever, but I am cutting out a wall mounted jukebox for a buddy Wednesday night, so hopefully I'll have pics!