I thought I'd post some pics of my attempts at making bowls on my Carving CNC 6040-S80. This was my first one:
The wood is liquid amber and cut while still very green. While the bowl looked nice off the machine, my attempts at drying it in the microwave resulted in a warped mess
So next idea was to rough out the bowl, let it dry slowly so it doesn't warp too much and then put it back on the machine to finish it.
Roughing was done with a 19mm straight-flute router bit. To stop my workshop getting covered in dust I bodged together an enclosure and added a vacuum hose to the spindle, which did pretty much nothing, except creating negative pressure in the booth, which I think helped stop dust escaping.
One limitation on this machine for this kind of thing is the Z height - to maximise the height of the bowl, I was working within a millimetre of each end of the Z travel.
My finished Devo hat is now drying on the bench with a weight on top to try and reduce warping. I'll probably give it a few weeks, and maybe try the microwave again, before finishing it.
That's alot of dust, can't be good for the linearguides or the ball nut?
How do you fasten the bowl on the underside when doing the inside?
I think I will have to try this with my dustboot, I think I will just glue some 2x6 togther and let her rip.
Got a real nice long 8mm carbide ballnose I've been wanting to try for some time.
Yeah, the dust on the mechanics is a bit of a worry. I'll be interested to see if you manage to get your dust boot to be effective going this kind of work.
The bowl is stuck down with double-sided tape, which can be a bit tricky with green wood.
I made a guitar body many years (decades) ago out of mahogany. Would have been so much quicker on the CNC, particularly the pockets for the pickups and the neck.
I was thinking about making one consisting of 3 planks og mahogny. they would be cut out, so when glued together, it would be hollow inside. The feature here being a light guitar, but with the mahognys stifness. Don't know if its worth it, but it would be fun to make
The problem with 3d printing (on hobby basis anyway) are that the materials can't be much stiffer than ABS plastic. In a guitar you want it to be as stiff as possible, hence my idea of using mahogany. Of course you could use Laser Sintering and print it in titanium... but that would probably cost the same as buying one of Jimi Hendrix old guitars
Making Bowls on a Carving CNC 6040
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