Reply with Quotewell , there's patienceOriginally Posted by microcarve
that beats me after my five cups of coffee at the grinder with or without my glasses
Thanks!!
You notice I keep saying I'm using a homemade bit.
That calls for an explanation. I have the .010 tipped one from you.
That would do just Great if I honed the point to .003-4 or so with
a little diamond hone I have around here somewhere....it came from HF,
I believe.....
But I've just been waiting for the right day of steadiness and "perspective"
to try altering that Nice bit.
Being as you have tons of them.....
Use a good magnifier.
well , there's patience
that beats me after my five cups of coffee at the grinder with or without my glasses
A poet knows no boundary yet he is bound to the boundaries of ones own mind !! ........
It has been awhile, but when it comes, I can write my name backwards
on a pinhead. With a Dremel.....
Seriously though, that's the perfect bit to "enhance". I just want
to get it right the first time.....
http://www.microcarve.com/zonesmall/bot014.jpg
http://www.cnctoybox.org/store/page27.html
Running a few parts today....
This is a "router room" I built in the corner of my shop.
It sits about 2" from the wall all around and rests on strips
cut from shop floor mats from Harbor Freight.
Pretty much isolating it from the walls, which makes a big difference
in loud noise transferring to outside the room. It's based on the idea
they use for home theaters, but that was going to cost wayyyyy
too much to get it as quiet as those things are.
This works plenty fine enough to contain 99% of dust and contains
the loud 3.25HP router noise enough that a normal conversation can go on
right outside the room.
That allows me to run things any time of day or night. Of course I
do live way out in the country here in South Georgia, but oddly enough,
noise travels very well and noticeably in a place like this on a quiet night.
Without the room, I couldn't run the machines late into the night.
Dust containment alone is worth having one...
John
The router room is made from both OSB and MDF. I'd intended to seal it
a little better...and will one day.
The MDF I used is some of the "complete crap" brand/variety.
I build lots of machines from MDF, and long ago noticed a wide
variation in the quality of it.
There are basically 4 "grades" best I can tell. The GOOD stuff, is GOOD
stuff. Very dense and a pleasure to work with. In my area, it's a sort
of honey/beige color.
The BAD stuff is ,well, we won't go there....
It'll punch through when drilling and is more akin to cardboard
than anything remotely useful.....except a good sound absorbing
router room...
I have to drive 80 miles one way to hand pick my MDF I use in my
machines. Sometimes Lowes has the good stuff and sometimes
Home Depot. I have to check both places.
I can imagine some people who swear MDF is all crap, just got some of
the bad stuff right off....(who'd even think to drive around comparing qualities
of MDF....)...and had a bad opinion of it set for life. I would have.
So a whole load of crap MDF turned out to be useful after all. But that's
when I learned to go find the good stuff myself. Even if it means driving the 80
miles there and 80 miles back.
John
I noticed that shop vac you had in a previous post has the inlet on the lid, just for reference the ones with the inlet on the lower part will accept bags and filter and reduces the amount of crap that clogs the ones that just use filters cartridges.
...He who makes no mistakes makes nothing! ...
Tom
Look for Plum Creek MDF, it's one of the best ones.
Gerry
UCCNC 2017 Screenset
[URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html[/URL]
Mach3 2010 Screenset
[URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html[/URL]
JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
[URL]http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html[/URL]
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
It would be nice to have a sise-by-side comparision of the good vs bad MDF? With pictures?
Typically, the lighter the color, the better the MDF. The stuff I get at my Home Depot is very dark.
Fortunately, I work in a cabinet shop and can get the good stuff if I need it.
Gerry
UCCNC 2017 Screenset
[URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2017.html[/URL]
Mach3 2010 Screenset
[URL]http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html[/URL]
JointCAM - CNC Dovetails & Box Joints
[URL]http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html[/URL]
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management)
Well, we've all heard the expression...."why not?"
Video.....
http://www.microcarve.com/upsidedown/Up1.wmv
Somehow the subject of the carving seemed oddly appropriate.....
John
Seems to look closer to real life when I resize it down a bit
and convert it to greyscale......
Upside down, An excellent way to keep the chips from building up!
LOL!....Yep....in case gravity stalls on us, I'll still be able to cut littleUpside down, An excellent way to keep the chips from building up!
pictures.
I will try to get some pix. It is kinda tough to know what it is you'reIt would be nice to have a sise-by-side comparision of the good vs bad MDF? With pictures?
looking for unless someone knows what they're looking for.....
Bad MDF is practically un-paintable. It'll just soak up all you put on it.
If it gets a little water on it, it blisters up soft puffy areas where the
water was.
Drilling it can be a problem. It's really like cheap laminated cardboard.
The good stuff is nice and dense and will hold exceptionally fine detail
when carved/routed. It's very smooth and flat. It's a sort of material
that just begs for something nice to be made from it. It's actually
impressive that such nice material can be so affordable.
Then there are a few ranges in between. Mediocre to fair. Like
Gerry mentioned, here in my area the bad stuff is also darker.
It's a very interesting thing to look up on the internet.....see how
it's made, why one maker is so different from another.
I do have a few little machines around here that are at least 5
years old, and run just as well as the day they were made. One thing
I do, is keep my machines from excessively humid places. If a place
is too humid, though, 99.99% of the time the steel parts will begin
to show rust well before the MDF is affected.
I'll try to remember to get a few samples and some pictures....
John
If anyone wants to send me a picture they'd like to see
cut into a small 1" or so little lithophane....like the ones
shown...I'll do a few of them.
If the shipping isn't much, I'll send it to them as well.
May as well make something meaningful to someone....
John
I'm also thinking about making a few that just bolt to the wall.
That'd make having a 24" deep workbench....or cart....to sit it on
unnecessary.
My workbench's tend to get cluttered with so many projects all
happening at the same time....
John
3 different samples of MDF
The middle one is the best. It'll sometimes have an almost burnished
look to the surface.
The top one is a good B grade. It doesn't have the "polish" to the
surface....for lack of a better word....
It's similar to the Best one, but feels a little drier.
Bottom is crappy stuff. It's the darker color. A little water streak
on them will show how it changes the color.
It's a hard thing to convey in pictures, and almost like building a
cnc machine, you really don't know until you've had it on hand to
look at and see for ones-self.
It may also be different in different areas. The trees used vary
seasonally and cost of shipping the big heavy stuff keeps certain
variations in certain areas.
Usually, there's a pre-cut MDF place in many stores. For shelves, etc.
That can be a good in-store place to see differences sometimes.
Some times, it's even more cost effective to just get the pre-cut
ones if/when they look so much better. They DO travel a lot
easier...
To me, it's obvious when one is a bad grade, but then, I've been
using lots of it for a long time now.
John
BTW....my "grading" system is my own.
I'm not aware of many hobbyist's who even know there is such a
variance in quality...
John
A few more MDF points...
It can depend on how it's stored.
I like to buy from the "big-box" stores like Home Depot & Lowes
because the stuff has a relatively quick turn-over. It can be better
quality when stored in those temp-regulated places.
(that's also an observation which may be useless in your area....)
Sometimes, a big wood-supply warehouse leaves it either exposed
to humidity, or enclosed in extremely hot places. There's a such
place near me that sells tons of building supplies, but rarely sells
MDF. The stuff is/was nice, but it's all dried out now. They get upset
when you want a few pieces from the middle of a huge stack...
My Lowes in Statesboro, Ga. doesn't even sell MDF. Ask for MDF and
they show you the chipboard. Strange that such a big college town
with engineering students galore doesn't sell a material they'd use
for a million projects. I have to drive 80 miles to Savannah to get what
I like to use.
I guess it takes a few trials & errors. Like most everything else.....
John
One last attempt at a useful picture....
Higher resolution to show better detail....
http://www.microcarve.com/zone2/mdf99.jpg
John
