CNC Bartop Experiment - Retroid

[starcade]

No idea where this project is heading but I thought I'd share my experiments here. I'm making this up as I go along with nothing more than vague notion that I want to steer clear of the angular design of a lot of bartop machines. When things go well, I'll share the results and when I screw things up, I'll share that too and we can all laugh at my dumbass mistakes! 

Anyway, I started the afternoon with this:



I did some design work in VCarve Pro and came up with this:



As Sir Mix-a-Lot would say, Baby Got Back!



It reminds me of a TRS-80 Model III 

More to come later from today's workshop shenanigans...

[CoryBee]

I love CNC machines, looking good.

I notice you have funky plugs, where might you be? Where I am at now I see those funky plugs everywhere......

[starcade]

I notice you have funky plugs, where might you be? Where I am at now I see those funky plugs everywhere......

Hey, they're not 'funky' - they're what normal plug sockets look like! 

British Standard 1363 socket: oversized, over-engineered and over here (in sunny old England)

[emphatic]

Nice curves! 

[rablack97]

I hate you, you CNC machine thing owner.....


 

[DaOld Man]

Nice shape.
But I must agree with rablack97. But it's not just you, it's all CNC owners.
(Why wont Santa bring me one?)
 

[starcade]

Nice curves! 

Thanks - I'm flattered. Oh, you mean the cab! 

I hate you, you CNC machine thing owner.....

I have to use a CNC - it disguises my lack of skill with 'real' woodworking tools! 

[starcade]

Nice shape.
But I must agree with rablack97. But it's not just you, it's all CNC owners.
(Why wont Santa bring me one?)
 

You don't need Santa - mine paid for itself in less than 6 months by producing stuff like this:

[CoryBee]

AH that is b-e-a-u-tiful! I want as well, with or without them silly british plugs.

[rablack97]

wait, rephrase, i hate you , you arrogant show-off CNC machine thing owner that makes donut signs....

 

You know you've set the bar, this bad boy better finish off phenomenal or I'm revoking your operators license...

[starcade]

wait, rephrase, i hate you , you arrogant show-off CNC machine thing owner that makes donut signs....

 

You know you've set the bar, this bad boy better finish off phenomenal or I'm revoking your operators license...

Hmmm...prepare for potential disappointment 

[starcade]

I'm playing around with the idea of a 3D carved marquee, maybe with slightly deeper lettering than this version. There's a lump of high density silica foam on the machine now so, I'll know how well it worked shortly...

[starcade]

Doesn't look like much right now...

[starcade]

Not bad (apart from the fact that it's currently salmon pink!)

Some trimming to do and there'll be EL wire involved too but I'm pretty pleased so far 

[Nephasth]

I like it!

[jammin0]

What if you backlit that sucker.  Cut out the 3d portion without the backing.  Put it on standoffs and then backlight it.  Curve a piece of plexiglass to box the whole thing in.

Whatever you do I'm sure it will look sweet.

[starcade]

What if you backlit that sucker.  Cut out the 3d portion without the backing.  Put it on standoffs and then backlight it.  Curve a piece of plexiglass to box the whole thing in.

Whatever you do I'm sure it will look sweet.

Hey, that's a really cool idea that I fully intend to steal and claim as my own 

I was already thinking about a curved plexi cover but your idea for halo lighting is something I'll seriously think about - thanks! 

[Nephasth]

LED strips come in handy for backlighting. Here's an example:

[Unstupid]

I'm going to follow this one... I like to see what others do with their CNC machines....  BTW your Torchmate is very cute!   

[jammin0]

Here are some budget strips that I've had really good luck with.  Slow shipping but super cheap.

http://dx.com/p/rgb-multicolored-1-meter-30-led-6w-light-strip-dc-12v-14965

[starcade]

I'm going to follow this one... I like to see what others do with their CNC machines....  BTW your Torchmate is very cute!   

Mostly, I transform perfectly usable wood, MDF and foam into dust and 'hey, that nearly worked' parts 

I like the little 2x4 machine - I keep thinking about how much more I could do if I upgraded to an 8x4 but that'd have to live down at the workshop where I store my cars and it'd probably end up getting used less than this one (that lives in my garage). I could do the 4' gantry conversion Torchmate offers - that might be a good compromise.

[WaRpEd]

I'm jealous of your Torchmate CNC and wish I had one. Is it hard to learn how to use?

[starcade]

I'm jealous of your Torchmate CNC and wish I had one. Is it hard to learn how to use?

Really easy to set up and get the machine working, it's the CAD software you choose that'll make all the difference. Most of the packages out there are all singing, all dancing applications that cover milling machines, lathes, routers, laser cutters, plasma cutters and pretty much anything else you could bolt a stepper motor to! They're hard to learn, full of features you'll never use and mostly geared toward precision engineering.

After some expensive mistakes, I ended up finding a company called Vectric. They have a 2/2.5D product called VCarve that I used to create the Retroid marquee and a full 3D package called Aspire. They're custom written for CNC router tables and do an amazing job of turning 2D drawings into 3D physical objects.

[Yvan256]

I'm going to follow this one... I like to see what others do with their CNC machines....  BTW your Torchmate is very cute!   

Even if it's the wrong color.

edit: my mistake... but I seem to remember all Torchmate machines being blue, not red? 

[starcade]

I'm going to follow this one... I like to see what others do with their CNC machines....  BTW your Torchmate is very cute!   

Even if it's the wrong color.

edit: my mistake... but I seem to remember all Torchmate machines being blue, not red? 

No sure if they used to be a different colour but they're all very red now. A bit too red for my taste but I can live with it as long as it keeps making dust 

Torchmate got bought by Lincoln Electric so I guess they won't be changing the colour scheme anytime soon...

[starcade]

Made a ply surround for the foam piece, 2.5mm larger than the base of the letters. That's just wide enough for me to drop some electroluminescent wire all the way around 

[Le Chuck]

Awesome. I want. Subscribe.

[Yvan256]

You'll use the high density silica foam part in the actual machine? I thought high density silica foam was for prototyping only. 

[starcade]

You'll use the high density silica foam part in the actual machine? I thought high density silica foam was for prototyping only. 

You're right - it's usually used for prototyping although, I use it for making movie props too. This stuff is a bit different in that it's actually more dense than the equivalent size of MDF. It's tooling board, used to create the male/female mould pairs for shaping steel panels using 300 ton presses!

It looks like apricot HDPE SikaBlock but it's about 6 times the density.

[CraftyMech]

TRS-80 FTW! That curved back of your bartop project is sweet. Really cool idea, I'm keeping an eye on the build for sure.

[Felsir]

This looks fantastic!

[TheDude]

Registered meself on here to follow that build ! And just be able to say :  Awesome, man !

[selfie]

Nice work!!

I love VCarve.

[MD Draco]

wondering what all the fuss was about (as most power tools end up being less to buy than I thought) I just Google'd this CNC machine.... and swore for a protracted period of time under my breath! Awesome that you have the tools for this!! I just barely have a drill and a saw!!!! lol ... Project looks awesome already puts my refit to shame, can't wait to see your final product Keep on posting!!

At least I'm in the real sunny place... Had enough of the weather in England, moved to NZ, been here 4 years... Still loving it!!

[Nephasth]

Progress?

[starcade]

Progress?

Sadly not, but I have a really great excuse.

This is what I've been busy working on for the last few months (over 1,000 hours so far!)

Thinly veiled advertisment 

http://kck.st/1eCsrgq

[Yvan256]

Sadly not, but I have a really great excuse.

This is what I've been busy working on for the last few months (over 1,000 hours so far!)

Thinly veiled advertisment 

http://kck.st/1eCsrgq

So, where is the reward level to have access to those cleaned-up marquee image files? 

[opt2not]

Hmmmm. That book title seems awfully familiar.

[starcade]

Hmmm...that blog name seems awfully familiar 

It's one of those kind of obvious arcade/art related names that gets used a lot. I've found exhibitions, online gaming sites and a bucketload of forum screen names all using Artcade. I only picked it as the name for the book because I already bought the domain name back in 2009 and hadn't used it!

Hmmmm. That book title seems awfully familiar.

[opt2not]

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